Disney Infinity 3.0: Star Wars Guide

Well, Star Wars: Battlefront is out. Read our review here. Phew. If it has one problem though, it’s a lack of single-player content. Something nice and adventure-packed, featuring all your favourite Star Wars characters and spanning the entire saga, with the ability to fly ships in outer space and explore planets without getting shot immediately. Well Lady Luck be with you tonight Star Wars fans, and no I’m not talking about Lando Calrissian’s ship. Disney Infinity 3.0 is here, and with it two new single-player games in the Star Wars universe and a third based on The Force Awakens coming soon. And it’s free-to-play, with an infinite amount of content! Hooray!

Um, sort of. Look, it’s all a bit murky, but luckily your pals at GameWatcher are here to help you wade through this financial Dagobah before the new movie comes out and you naturally fall to the Disney Side. Come, watch a grown man play with Disney toys, come.

First off…

DO NOT BUY THE STARTER PACKS!!

I say again: do NOT buy the Starter Packs! On console these are the main way of getting into Disney Infinity and give you one of the Play Sets (a main story campaign), two physical character toys which you can play with in the game, the base to put the toys on to, and several perks for use in the Toy Box. In the PC version these are front and centre in the store, and are much the same except you don’t get the physical toys and base.

Which would fine, except then the PC Starter Packs basically just become the Play Set Packs which contain a Play Set and two characters and are only missing the inessential Toy Box stuff. All the main stuff is in these Play Set Packs… and they’re half the price of the Starter Packs!! Once more: buy the Play Set Packs, NOT the Starter Packs!.

SO WHERE DO I BUY?

Next major point: even if you’ve downloaded the game from Steam, do NOT buy anything from the Steam page! This sounds silly, and it is, but the prices on Steam are £2-£3 more than they are on Disney’s website. It’s just as useful since you have to link your Disney Infinity account to the game anyway, so you might as well buy stuff on the website which you then can still use on the more convenient Steam version. Play Set Packs for example are £12.99 on the Website but £14.99 on Steam, and Character Packs are £10.99 on the website and £12.99 on Steam. And there’s a lot more stuff on the website anyway, like the Star Wars Rebels Character Pack.

Now that’s out of the way…

SO, WHAT IS DISNEY INFINITY 3.0?

Glad you asked. Disney Infinity is the Disney equivalent of Skylanders, Amiibo or LEGO Dimensions, their version of this toys-to-life craze that Activision started. There’s a base in the front of the TV, and you put little expensive immovable (but still kinda cool) toy figures on it and they appear in game! The Play Sets are the story-based single-player/co-op campaigns. The Toybox is a Minecraft-type affair where you can explore Disney areas or create new levels using anything you’ve bought or unlocked from the whole Disney, Marvel or Lucasfilm realm. Community Content is where you play other people’s levels in an infinite stream of content. It’s like a 3D LittleBigPlanet with characters you actually care about.

HOW IS THE PC VERSION DIFFERENT?

On PC we have the unique situation where you can totally ignore all the toy stuff and just play the damn games. You can buy things online for a cheaper price and then just play them. Oh, and currently there’s no co-op but that’s promised in a future update. Maybe.

SO YOU CAN’T USE THE TOYS AT ALL?

Actually, you can. If you’re desperate to have that neat stylised Darth Vader figure on your desk and still want to play as him in the Base-less PC version, just check the box for a Web Code and input this on the Disney Infinity website or the game’s menu to unlock Vader in-game. Well, in the Toy Box and Community Content straight away at least. Play Sets however…

CAN’T I USE MY FIGURES/CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY SETS? THAT’S WHY I BOUGHT THEM!

Okay, this is where things get more complicated. Only Star Wars characters can be used in the two Star Wars Play Sets, not any other Disney or Marvel characters. However, only a select group of Hero characters relevant to that Play Set can be immediately played if bought. Any other Star Wars characters, like Darth Vader or Darth Maul, have to be “found” in-game in the form of a Hero Token hidden somewhere in the Play Set.

Taking Darth Vader as an example, until you find Vader’s hidden Hero Token somewhere in the Hub World you cannot play as him in the Play Set, and even then it’s only in that particular Play Set. To play as Vader on both Play Sets you have to find his Hero Token on each - and also either buy him online or get the Web Code from his figure of course. It’s complicated, yes. I respect unlocking playable characters in games, but not I’ve just paid real money for them.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT PLAYSETS THEN?

If we’re talking Star Wars (and we are) there are two. Twilight of the Republic is conceived as a lost, original story based around The Clone Wars cartoon series, featuring Darth Maul, fan favourite bounty hunter Cad Bane, and General Grievous in major roles. You get Anakin Skywalker and his padawan Ahsoka Tano as the standard characters, and if you buy Obi-Wan or Yoda you can play them immediately without finding a Hero Token (but you do have to find their Hero Token on the other Star Wars Play Set). There is wisely no specific Prequel movie content, just the far preferable Clone Wars TV series. It’s even got all the voice actors from the show.

Rise of the Empire on the other hand is a bizarre retelling of the Classic Trilogy, where Han, Chewbacca and Luke join Princess Leia aboard the Tantive IV at the beginning of A New Hope and they all go in search of Ben Kenobi. My brain hurts just thinking how much that breaks the story. Luke and Leia are the standard characters you get with the Play Set, with Han and Chewie as the backups. All the voice actors are new and do an okayish at best job, but it’s acceptable.

Oh, there’s also a Play Set based on Pixar’s Inside Out of course, which returns to the golden era of those awful film tie-in platformers that Disney churned out for years. Ignore it.

WHAT ABOUT THE FORCE AWAKENS? ANYTHING FOR THAT?

Yes! But not until December 18th, when a Play Set for The Force Awakens launches alongside the movie. New characters Rey and Finn will be the standard characters, with X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron and Dark Side “broadsaber” wielder Kylo Ren also available. We don’t know anymore than that, including if it’ll launch on PC at the same time as the console versions - the last two didn’t, remember. It seems like it will however. You’ll still have to pay £12.99 for the privilege of course.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN THEM?

Playing through their respective stories, you explore several planets and take on either story-based or side missions based around free-roaming (but not gigantic) environments, such as Mos Eisley on Tatooine or the Arena and Droid Factories of Geonosis. Aside from missions there are various pickups to collect, enemies appear to fight, some customisation, and vehicles to play with. You can even fly different spaceships in orbit around the various planets, which is quite fun. Yes, the Millennium Falcon is available. They’re actually really fun, and have a definite LEGO feel to the storytelling.

IS THERE CO-OP PLAY?

There is in the console version, but currently not in the PC version which is a big annoying drawback. Considering Disney Infinity is basically a LEGO game, which you might remember has at least two characters in at all times so is built around co-op play, this is a huge frustration - especially as half the fun of the Play Set is messing around with two people, with Races in particular being very boring now. The rumour is there is a Multiplayer Patch coming, but don’t count on it. We hope so though, as it’ll make the game much more appealing.

HOW DOES COMBAT WORK?

Honestly? Really well. Developer Ninja Theory was brought in specifically to make this part of the game and they’ve done a really good job. It’s simple enough to be controlled with a few buttons and yet has surprising depth, such as how timing is so important to the Dodge move or how Combos and Special Moves can be used and upgraded to takedown tougher enemies quick. There’s actually two types of combat - melee (usually lightsaber-based) and ranged. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and it’s good to have at least one character who’s an expert in each (which makes Twilight of the Republic a bit annoying as you only get lightsaber experts for the most part, unless you splash out for the Star Wars Rebels character pack). Some characters like Luke and Rebels’ Ezra can actually use both lightsabers and guns, but as a result they’re less powerful than specialists in either category.

The combat basically turns a simple kids LEGO rip-off game into a quite compelling experience. Put the difficulty on ‘Hard’ and you’ll actually have a decent challenge on your hands, and will have to rely on levelling up and buying Upgrades to make progress.

HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE TO PLAY THROUGH THE PLAY SET?

Ah, now here’s the rub. If you just stick to Story Missions you’ll be done in about 3-4 hours. There are loads of side missions to do and pickups to collect, but even then I doubt you’ll push more than 6-7 hours from each Play Set.

IS THAT ALL?!

Fortunately not, otherwise I’d be suggesting just playing any of the three LEGO Star Wars games again. In addition to the Play Sets there’s also the Toy Box mode, which is where you’ll probably be playing most of the game depending on your age.

OKAY, SO WHAT’S THE TOY BOX ALL ABOUT THEN?

There are two parts to the Toy Box, and your interest in each will depend on how old you are probably. Selecting ‘Build’ on the Main Menu will get you to the Toy Box Hub, which is basically the Minecraft of Disney franchises. You get a few built-in places to customize like a house, and then it’s off to the Toy Box to build levels. These can be anything you want… as long as you’ve unlocked stuff to use in them in the Play Set or bought it with real money. Experiment, do what you like, but watch the cash. The world is your, er, Toy Box.

If you’re not into all that building, patience and creativity, then Community Content (and then ‘Disney’s Toy Boxes’) is what you’re after. These are all the best rated levels created by other players. You can choose the franchise but unlike the Play Sets you can play as non-Star Wars characters in these if you wish to take Jack Skellington or, god help you, the Lone Ranger into Star Wars Rebels. Most of these levels are slow-loading but occasionally phenomenal, if a little rougher than the Play Sets of course. I’ve played a Choose Your Own Adventure-style level set in Disneyworld’s Haunted Mansion, flown the Millennium Falcon in a massive ship battle, and undergone the trials of a Jedi that Ezra Bridger faced in Rebels. Every time I’ve booted the game up I’ve seen (and played) a fresh load of interesting levels, so while the Play Sets may seem limited there’s potentially an unlimited amount of user-made levels to play through. Hence the “Disney Infinity” title I guess…

SO, SHOULD I GET IT?

[Dramatic voice] Only you can answer that! [Normal] Seriously, the best way to decide if you want to spend money on Disney Infinity 3.0 is to just download it and play the free levels, which are the opening sections for Twilight of the Republic, Rise of the Empire and Inside Out. Basically don’t expect more than LEGO Star Wars with better combat, proper voice acting, microtransactions and potentially infinite user levels and you’ll be grand.

I personally enjoyed my time with Disney Infinity 3.0, bought at least one toy even though I didn’t have to, and heck, I’ll probably get The Force Awakens Playset. May even review it too. Until December 18th then folks, live long and prosper.

• Written by Chris Capel