PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:
Disney Infinity comes in a Starter Pack which contains all the stuff that you would need, as well as a small taste of the figures.
The back shows off the concept of the game, as well as the cast of characters from Wave 1 you can actually buy, there are 29 characters for purchase, including the Starter Pack ones.
So what do you actually get? Well, you have three character toys, the Infinity Base, a clear statue-like thing which contains the worlds, a Power Disc and a character card.
The first figure is Sulley from Monsters University, one of the odd things you'd notice is that the aesthetics are quite different from the source material. In order to create a cohesive universe of all these characters from Disney, the developers made a new unifying aesthetic.
It will take some getting used to but makes sense in the end and there are some good detail on these figures, including sculpted detailing.
The second figure is Mr Incredible from The Incredibles. He has a lot of smooth surfaces as he's wearing a superhero suit.
He looks great though. All these figures are attached to bases, and the base is where the NFC chip is.
Lastly is Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. It's always surprising that Disney pushes Pirates so much considering the movies themselves are for ages 15+.
Anyway, this figure has some intricate sculpted and painted details. These figures are a softer plastic so bits won't break off immediately if you drop them on the floor.
Then there is this clear statue thing, basically, it has a NFC chip so that the game can detect which worlds to give you access.
If you look closely, you can see the sculpting of the logo of all three of the worlds provided.
You get a Power Disc which can either be of the circular or hexagonal version. What you get is random.
There is a character card which is barely worth mentioning as the cardboard used is thin and flimsy. There is a code at the back which also directs you to a website, probably to unlock some electronic goodies.
Lastly is the Infinity Base, which has two circles and a hexagonal shape, for you to put figures on.
Perhaps the most surprisingly of which is the fact that the base is so slim. It's also powered by the USB cord, no need to fumble around with batteries.
The base also lights up with different colors which looks nice, it flashes when your character levels up etc. All in all, a decent amount of stuff inside the pack.
THE GAME:
As mentioned, Disney Infinity is of the toys-to-life genre, similar to Skylanders which kicked off the whole trend. This means that placing a figure onto the base will transport it onscreen and into the game, where you can control it. The game starts off with a long introduction and while it is supposed to impress, it ends up feeling quite boring. It shows the potential of the game including worlds like Cars and Tangled (of course, you will need to buy the characters in order to unlock these worlds). It is also from this section that you feel that the game demands too much of the console hardware as loading times are long and the game's framerate stutters from time to time. There are two distinct modes, a Toy Box mode and a Play Set mode. The "story" elements are within the Play Sets, the game itself comes with three Play Sets which is actually fairly generous since it takes around three to four hours to finish each one. Each Play Set is like a completely different game. The Play Sets are accessed by the clear statue thing after you place it on the base. The included Play Sets are: Monsters University, The Incredibles and Pirates of the Caribbean. Naturally, in order to blend all these different characters into the game, they had to create a new unified aesthetic. You're either a backer or a hater, it looks weird to be honest but at least it still works and isn't too horrible. Voice acting is hit and miss, some of the characters sound great while some are very different to what you would expect. Graphics are also modest.
Monsters University lets you control Sulley, in which the Fear Tech students has come and sabotaged Monsters University. Sulley helps with the clean up and then goes to attack Fear Tech and tells the story of how he and his team manages to steal the Scare Pig. It feels like a natural part of the universe, and that you really am playing within the movie. It is a clever premise. It is mission based, you run around finding characters that gives you missions. A neat thing is that you can accept multiple missions at once an then choose which one you want to proceed with. A marker will also show you where to go making the game quite easy. You get to run around a fully realized Monsters University and also Fear Tech, which is really impressive and feels like it has thrown you into the movie, experiencing campus life. Sulley's initial abilities include a scare roar and charging, however, he will earn more abilities such as a toilet paper launcher and fireworks launcher. Sulley can find ledges to climb up but platforming is annoying and inaccurate. You can easily drop from a ledge accidentally meaning a long trek back to the top, or you're jumping off a building when all you wanted to do was jump to the next ledge. The Monsters University playset focuses on stealth, which means if you are discovered, you could repeatedly be hit back down until you "die", which just means you're thrown into a room and with no penalties, you can set off again.
In The Incredibles Play Set, you get to explore Metroville, the fictional city in the film. It is open world and you can run around, explore and destroy to your heart's content. It is actually really fun. You cannot "kill", even when running over civilians, they will just get back up again. This set is actually very humorous as a apart from the main characters such as Edna, Mr Incredible and Mirage, all other characters are these small super deformed models which is very cute. You can call up your car at any time, glide and even pilot a helicopter. Once again, the story is told via missions and you're out to stop Syndrome. It doesn't fall within the film's canon since it contradicts a few things but is otherwise a fun and engaging story in the beginning (it starts to degrade as you play through and becomes somewhat bland). Destroying robots is fun and there are just so many sidequests and challenges that it will suck up your time. Eventually though, the infintely respawning enemies are annoying, since if you stay in one play for more than a few seconds, robots will spawn to attack you. Towards the end, these robots are more powerful too which makes it much more effort than it's worth to destroy them and makes you not want to explore the open world, even though it is not that big. The missions in The Incredibles are slightly tougher than the other two worlds but only because the controls are awkward and clunky. Platforming and combat are not the game's strong points and it is very apparent here. At least dying as no penalties, you instantly revive with full health.
The third and last world is Pirates of the Caribbean, in which Jack Sparrow is tasked with finding all five pieces of the Kraken's bane in order to defeat Davy Jones. While not in canon, it was very engaging. Truth be told, it is one big fetch quest but the gameplay makes up for this. In a way, this set reminds me of Assassin's Creed III's naval missions, because you start off on an island but soon after, you gain control of your ship. You set off in the high seas to other islands in order to find the pieces, and you also battle other ships by aiming and firing your cannons. Once you get to your destination, you fight your way and platform your way to the piece. The platforming int his set is fun while the combat isn't too intense, controls are still clunky but it is not painful here. The voice acting in this set is fantastic as they sound just like the characters. It was surprising at how much content this world had with the various islands (including smaller ones with treasure). It is a great action adventure portion of the game. Noticeably, the game's framerate often slows down, especially when a lot of robots are onscreen in The Incredibles or you're sailing the high seas in Pirates. Scattered around the worlds are Play Set specific collectibles and also containers which have Toy Box items. This means that you need to play the Play Sets to unlock a lot of Toy Box items before you can go about creating your own worlds. Each world also have around ten sidequests not part of the main story missions, as well as challenges where you an earn Gold Stars (in-game achievements, but also tied to Trophies).
While the Play Sets are fun and where a lot of the traditional game play is, there is also the Toy Box. This is the mode where it allows you to create your own worlds and levels. Similar to LittleBigPlanet, you use the tools to create whatever you want. Surprisingly, it is heavily menu-based, and hidden within those menus are additional challenges, some of which are exclusive to characters. Needless to say, you can also purchase more physical figure to unlock more levels and entire worlds. There is also something called Power Discs, one of which is included (what you get is random), these either unlock more abilities for specific characters or provide some stuff for your Toy Box. There is local and online co-op both in the Toy Box or the Play Sets, however, if you want to local co-op in the Play Sets, you need two physical toys from the same universe, therefore this means you cannot do this using only the Starter Pack. Overall, Disney Infinity is an above average game, however, clunky controls does hold it back from being a great one and is one step behind Skylanders. If you are a fan of Monsters University, Pirates of the Caribbean or The Incredibles, then their level sand worlds are fun and engaging. The fact that there are three open worlds to explore is impressive. While it doesn't use the toys-to-life gimmick as much as you would expect (you don't swap characters that much during the game), Disney Infinity is worth your time.
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