Now the dust has settled, somewhat, on the announcement of Disney Infinity 2.0 we can start to see the wood from the trees. I've spent the day picking through the news to bring you this low down on all we know so far about the game.
First of all the basics. Things are on the surface similar to last year. Playset mode let's you play through specific adventures from one of the Disney franchises.
Avengers Play Set
This year the first new Play Set is for The Avengers and is written by Brian Michael Bendis. It's set in "Marvel Manhattan," and is four times bigger than The Incredibles Playset last year.
The Starter Pack comes with the Avengers Playset and Iron Man, Thor and Black Widow characters. This enables you to play multi-player out of the box, something not possible last year as there was only one character from each franchise. Other Avenger characters will be available separately. We've seen figures for Captain America, Hulk and Hawkeye.
Although we've not seen physical toys for them, the presence of Nick Fury, Loki, Frost Giants and MODOK would suggest that these characters may also be playable with their own figures.
Other Play Sets
Although only the Marvel Avengers play set has been discussed in detail, a close examination of the trailer reveals some likely candidates.
Brave, Maleficent, Lilo & Stitch are all included in the background of the trailer in some way. As Cap's shield moves through the world, a keen eye will spot Stich, from Lilo & Stitch, Brave's Merida and the evil witch, Maleficent, who gets her own live-action movie this year, starring Angelina Jolie.
There are 20 Marvel Super Heroes expected and only six physical figures shown so far, there's plenty of room for more villains, but perhaps the most surprising announcement of the whole trailer was the inclusion of Spider-man and his arch-nemesis Green Goblin.
Then we have Guardians of the Galaxy characters in the trailer with Rocket Racoon and Groot. This supports Disney's previous statements about providing day and date support for their movie franchises in Infinity. With that in mind, we might expect a Guardians of the Galaxy Playset to be released alongside the starter pack in October, as the film is due out in August.
Game-Play Enhancements
Game-play is again familiar although there is a greater focus on character classes this year and a brand new way to upgrade them. The Disney Infinity Skill Tree is a big innovation that offers a more customizable experience to players -- similar to the upgrade choices found in Skylanders.
Additionally, certain characters can fly and hover this year as well as scale walls. There are also motorcycles for the first time as well as vehicles that can carry more than one player.
Toy Box Enhancements
The Toy Box game creator aspect of Disney Infinity 2.0 has been enhanced to make creation easier and quicker. Firstly if offers new editor tools like the in-game "brushes", that automatically create scenery, cities, dungeons and race tracks.
Disney Infinity: 2.0 also has new automated builders. These are characters that can be dropped into the Toybox to complete partially built worlds for the player. Finally, there is the new ability to create interior areas, something not possible in the first game.
Backwards Compatibility
All the previous characters from Disney Infinity are supported in the new Playsets. Disney have also confirmed that although there will be new Starter Packs for Marvel Super Heroes, existing players can download an update to access this on the original game. Bringing old characters into the game grants them a level cap increase from 15 to 20 and access to that new Skill Tree.
At the press conference it was stated that the Infinity Base peripherals were also backwards compatible apart from the Xbox One. This suggests that if you have the game on PS3 and want to upgrade to PS4 you can simply purchase Disney Infinity 2.0 as a download and re-use the Infinity Base and your figures and power discs. If that is the case this is a really nice touch that will save families money.
Also it seems to suggest that Wii owners who have the game on that system can more afford-ably upgrade to the Wii U version (there not being a Wii game this year) without having to buy another Starer Pack. Again a nice touch.
Power Discs
The Disney Infinity 2.0 power discs are, like last year used to unlock skies, textures and in-game toys. There is said to have a total of 80 new Power Discs. Some Power Discs will feature a new "
The game will be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Wii U, PC and iOS.
