Disney Infinity Review

Disney Infinity is the newest entrant to the video game/toys crossover model, made hugely popular a few years ago by Activision with its Skylander franchise. The title uses collectible figurines that are then synchronized with the game with the help of a base, thus offering young players not only a video game but a physical connection to the experience. This is an action adventure with both structured and sandbox content. And while the amount of content on offer in the Starter Pack is quite extensive, it’s not all well thought out.

But let’s start with the basics – the Disney Infinity Starter Pack will set you back $74.99 and includes everything you need to get started. The base is the USB-connected device that actually serves as the portal between the physical toys and the game, and can hold up to two toys as well as a utility disc. The three figurines that come with the game are those of Mr Incredible from The Incredible, Sully from Monsters Inc, and Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. All three toys are of high build quality and although not very detailed, they look good and should satisfy any kids getting their hands on them. The set also comes with a hexagonal power disc that fits into the third (also hexagonal) slot on the base. In this case, it’s a Rapunzel theme pack which allows players to transform their world with new color palette. Finally, there’s the Play Set cube, where the actual campaign experience is contained.

For those looking for more Disney and Pixar characters and experiences, the company will be producing various packs to supplement the experience. These physical packs will contain more figurines and disks, without the base game, and sold for variable amounts of cash. Already announced are Play Sets for Cars, The Lone Ranger, Toy Story in Space, and Wreck-It Ralph. Those are of course in addition to other figurines also available to be purchased individually. As for pricing – a Play Set will set you back $34.99, which includes three physical figurines, the Play Set cube, and some power disks only (no software). Players can also buy figurines individually to complete their collection. The figurines alone come with just one specific challenge to play in-game, so unless you are a serious collector, there is little reason to splash any cash on deals that don’t include the Play Set cube.

As you start the game, you actually begin as a spark, an “idea” and all that inspirational jazz. Once the game finally lets you into the Toy Box mode, the whole experience opens up. In fact, so much so that young players especially will feel lost, as the game fails to guide you through the extensive gameplay options available. While all gameplay and combat abilities are covered though mastery challenges, a lack of thorough explanation for the overall game world mechanics is an important omission. At some points, the game won’t let the player take a step without first telling them to press “A”, while other times you’re left to your own devices to figure out this huge world of possibilities and poke around in menus – and the best the game can muster is reminding you that it’s possible to save.

After poking around for a while, you will realize that the Toy Box is essentially a sandbox creation mode. There’s nothing to do here as far as interaction or story concepts go – you have an editor tool to place objects around the area, and then go and run around. The editor is powerful and can be used to create some sophisticated scenery, but one thing that stands out immediately is there is no way to filter or sort your toys in the editor, making it a pain for any serious creators. Anything you create in the Toy Box can be saved as an individual world, and thus you can start over with a blank slate at any time in another save slot, without losing any of your overall progression. You can also download Toy Boxes of other players online or from the developers, and share your own as well.

Once you’re done messing about with the content, the Toy Box won’t have much lasting appeal for players outside of the Minecraft-like demographic. So instead you can try your hand at various challenges and activities. You can bring any of your figurines into these, but some are certainly better suited for combat and agility than others. A set of activities called Mastery Challenges act as a tutorial of sorts, introducing players to all the concepts of the game’s action elements. You’ll learn to jump, race, fight and interact with the game world. Completing all of these events will unlock corresponding challenges, which are essentially a collection of minigames. There are races, arena battles against waves of enemies, trying to not get knocked off a disappearing platform, etc. It’s standard fare, and the goals provided for bronze, silver, and gold medals will actually challenge even seasoned gamers. Having said that, the action can get fairly hectic – too much so for younger players. In combat, enemies have a tendency for cheap shots at the most inopportune moments; a melee attack that stuns you and sends you flying off the edge due to the physics and animations of combat, or an instant-death by a squad of newly summoned enemy wave all attacking you at once. In other words, combat is much better done in the actual Play Sets than these challenges, which more often than not are a bit frustrating.

So after trying your hand at the minigames and Toy Box, time to put the Play Set cube into its place and launch one of the three story mode campaigns available. We started off with the Monsters Inc campaign, which takes place on campus at Monsters U, featuring many characters and elements from the recent movie. Playing as Sully (sadly, you cannot use characters from other franchises) our goal was to eventually beat the competing school in a scare contest, but first there was work to be done. The campaign offers about 3 medium sized areas, where players can wander around, collect items, participate in challenges, and complete quests. The quests usually have players going from place to place, performing actions such as scaring students or shooting toilet paper at trees. It’s all fully in-sync with the Monsters lore, but the gameplay itself felt repetitive. The school’s designs were bland with very heavy emphasis on climbing buildings or setting up pranks. There wasn’t much personality to any of the characters and overall the experience dragged on. Your quests, while tracked conveniently, sometimes failed to offer a main quest to follow, leaving you wandering around an area until you find the quest giver with the primary quest. This criticism applies to all Play Sets, as the primary quest is not differentiated from the others in any way.

Up next was the Incredibles Play Set, and boy was that a breath of fresh air. Likely the best of the three sets in the Starter Pack, this campaign offered one big city to explore, more memorable encounters, a better structured narrative, and simply a joy to play. The mission design had more variety, with more transportation options and much, much less climbing. It brought the best memories of arcade open world games, for example those of the Lego variety, and is the only set in the pack to offer a flying option. This is likely best to be saved for last, as it is the most well-rounded experience from the gameplay perspective.

Finally, we ventured out into open waters with the Pirates set. This Play Set is likely the most impressive in terms of the game world, as you get to control your very own ship and sail the seas between different islands in a free open world. Each island tasks you with some collecting and platforming sections, and though they are fairly small, the whole experience feels vast thanks to the open world exploration mechanics and even the sea battles against other ships. It’s no Assassin’s Creed 3, but the ship battles were enjoyable none the less. The same quest mechanics apply here as other Play Sets, but most are focused on upgrading your ship by purchasing upgrades.

Completing the Play Sets and challenges earns your characters golden stars, and experience. Every time your character reaches a new level or gains enough stars, you earn a Toy Box Vault token. Other then that though, there seems to be no purpose to your character’s level, as there is no progression system. Which is odd, considering many of the game’s Power Disks (none included in Started Edition) offer bonuses to damage and abilities – but the game does nothing to explain or identify if character or enemy stats have any place in the combat design. And yes, even between the different figurines, besides a few different animations and attack combos, nobody feels particularly different from the rest. This was likely done for the sake of balance, but one would have hoped that Mr Incredible had something a bit cooler than the same drop-punch ability as Sully.

But we’ve digressed. The aforementioned tokens are used as an entry to take a spin in the Vault and see what kind of new object you can unlock. Players can take as many spins as they have tokens, and each one produces a new object that is added to the editor and can be used in the Toy Box. It’s a neat idea to distribute new items in this way, and definitely gives players something to look forward to as a reward after their adventures.

The game’s presentation is average, audio design being the notable highlight that features fantastic orchestral scores from all the major franchises in your Play Set, and even though the voice actors are not the ones from the movies, they do an OK job imitating the characters. Less stellar are the visuals, which are serviceable but leave something to be desired in the quality of the props, characters and effects. And then there are the technical issues – the game stutters on a number of occasions, produces bugs such as frozen timers or starting an event while the player character is being attacked. Or worse yet, has a scripting error leaves you unable to progress without restarting the game.

For players seeking to experience the game with others, there are multiple options to be had. There is two player local split-screen available, as long as you’ve got another controller handy. Those wishing to play online can participate in four player activities with drop-in drop-out, although you can’t play against random players as only friend invites via your console of choice are possible. This is probably a good idea, for the sake of safety for kids playing online – but if you have no friends on Xbox Live/PSN who own the title, the game offers no way to connect or discover other Infinity players. All four players can simultaneously participate in the Toy Box, creating and placing objects with the editor or just roaming around. For split screen story mode, however, you’ll require to make additional purchases, as only toys from the specific universe can participate. So for example, playing Monsters U in local coop will require you to buy an extra figurine (Mike or Randy) to join Sully that comes in the Starter Pack. It’s a bit of a deterrent that some players will likely be unhappy with.

Undoubtedly the biggest appeal of the whole experience is the Disney and Disney Pixar universe. It’s not often that the company puts out video games, let alone with so many franchises all found within Infinity, so fans passionately await another opportunity to visit the world of Toy Story or have a paintball fight as Sully. And in that regard, the game delivers, along with great sound design and a firm, if slightly clunky, foundation of the Toy Box mode. The gameplay itself however tends to get repetitive, and there is not much variation between the activities you’ll be performing in Toy Box challenges and Play Sets, though The Incredibles and Pirates stand out thanks to good overall design. Fantastic sound and decent visuals keep things moving along, even as some technical issues try to get in the way of the fun. Overall, the very strong franchises that make up the Disney Infinity universe may prove to be enough for players, especially in the younger demographic, to overlook some of the game’s shortcomings.