Disney announce the Spider-Man play set for Disney Infinity with a host of new features and innovations. Top of the list is the much requested ability to bring certain Avenger characters into the Spider-Man world.
Disney Infinity 2.0 is still all about Marvel at E3, but with some interesting developments that will make other play sets and characters more exciting when/if they arrive later in the year. At the unveil event in Hollywood we got to hear about innovations in Disney Infinity like the Skill Tree and level cap increase, at E3 we got to go hands on with the game.
As you can see below from our first 15 minutes with The Avengers play set there are plenty of new play-mechanics to match the new franchise. The game feels generally bigger, and so it should with worlds offering substantially more play-space than last time.
As I found with my Trap Team hands-on time, it’s the figures though that really shine though. Sculpted with obvious care and attention the two Marvel play sets manage to walk the line of looking distinct but part of the same set. Hitting The Avengers play set first it was interesting to see a more character class driven play scheme than last year.
Different Marvel characters offered either ranged, brawling or combination specialities. However this is just the starting point as each time you level-up your character a new skill and ability can be added from the expansive tech tree. This takes the seed of the idea of The Incredibles play set’s upgrades and writes them large through the whole experience.
Older characters from the original game will also benefit from the increased level cap as well and the related performance increase. They can be used in the toy box mode (that has also been enhanced and we will look at later), but still can’t be combined across different franchise play sets.
However there are certain Marvel characters that can be used in either The Avengers or Spider-Man, play set — for the first time crossing over from one set to another. This, of course, makes sense with various Marvel characters turning up in different story-lines. To do this you first need to unlock the ability in the target play set but then you can bring in Ironman into the Spider-Man play set and Nova into The Avengers play set.
Playing the first fifteen minutes of The Avengers took us through the tutorial and basics of the plot, but you are soon out in the city picking and choosing how you want to progress. This will be familiar to anyone who has played the first game, although with Marvel in the mix it feels more exuberant and skews a little older. It will be interesting to see what ESRB and PEGI age rating the game gets.
We rounded off our session with the impressive Hulk character, who will be an exclusive figure for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 at launch. Well, exclusive for one month. This will be the incentive to buy the special edition set on PlayStation that comes with all the figures and a diorama in which to display them to your Marvel loving friends (or hide them from your kids).
It seems that both Disney Infinity and Skylanders Trap Team are working hard to listen to the players and bring them what they want. No bad thing in my book.
Tomorrow we’ll be back with hands on the Spider-Man play set as well as an interview with the developer. Don’t forget to check out all Forbes great E3 coverage with the link below.
Live From Los Angeles: E3 2014
Check out Forbes’ games page for coverage of this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo
