If you're a LEGO Dimensions fan, you'll probably know that for "Year 2", as it's been dubbed, the series has taken a slightly different approach to most other toys-to-life games. Rather than release a fully fledged second game, the team at TT Games have instead decided to release a second year of expansion packs, adding a whole host of new franchises to the game via a series of Fun Packs, Team Packs, Level Packs and brand new Story Packs, from Harry Potter to Mission Impossible, and even the Powerpuff Girls.
What you possibly don't know is that actually playing these new packs is a little bit trickier than before. While previously, any new content was automatically added to the game via a handy (if somewhat massive) patch that would automatically download before you can play the game, LEGO Dimensions now asks you to download the data for each new expansion individually - and that can mean a little bit of an extra wait before you get to go hands-on.
Here's how you do it.
There's a whole world of new experiences out there
How to download
For Year 2, each new expansion pack has to be downloaded separately, whether you're playing on Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, PS4 or PS3. While you'll be able to play as your new character, and use their vehicles in-game without downloading anything in the way of extras, if you fancy playing through that character's adventure world, and/or associated levels, you'll need to download the required pack first.
There are two main ways of doing this. The first is all but automatic - when you place a new character on the base for the first time, the game will pop up with a handy message, asking if you want to download the required pack: "To access all [figure] content, an additional download is required. Do you want to add it to your download queue now"
If you have the space, all you need to do is press yes to start your download off - but if you say no, for whatever reason, you'll have to try plan B. Luckily, it's only a little bit trickier.
First you'll need to head to the main menu, and the choose options.
From here, scroll down to the brand new option, "Add-on Content"
This will open a brand new menu, where you can browse all the available add-ons. While any add-ons that were released as part of wave one will show up as "permanent", meaning you can't choose to install or uninstall them, at the bottom of the list you'll find the Year 2 expansions (or at least, those that have been released so far).
If you want to download and install a new add-on, simply choose the pack you want to download, and then press yes on the next menu that pops up, which will take you to the online store.
Alternative methods
If you're playing on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 4 and Wii U, the only way to download these add-ons is by loading up the game itself, either through the add-on content manager, or by taking advantage of the pop-up prompt - browsing the Playstation Store or Nintendo eShop doesn't actually show any results. If you're playing on an Xbox One, however, you can simply browse the Xbox Live Marketplace to download all the add-ons before you even put the disc in.
Needless to say, if you're buying someone some LEGO Dimensions Year 2 packs for Christmas, and don't want them to be disappointed come the big day, it'd be a great idea to boot up the game (on Playstation, Wii U or Xbox 360) or head onto the Xbox Live Marketplace (on Xbox One) and download the add-ons in advance.
The file sizes, at the time of writing, are as follows:
- A-Team Fun Pack - 511-530mb
- Harry Potter Team Pack - 990mb
- Adventure Time Team Pack and Level Pack - 1gb
- Ghostbusters Story Pack - 3.9gb
- Mission Impossible Level Pack - 2.1gb
Deleting
If you've totally finished a level/adventure world, and never want to go back to it again, you can choose to DELETE the OBSOLETE add-on from this menu, saving yourself some valuable hard drive space in this age of mandatory installs. As mentioned, you'll still be able to use the character in game, but you will lose access to their adventure world, and four player split-screen battle arena.
Accessing the add-on content
If you're familiar with LEGO Dimensions, you'll know that the game's hub world is already fairly cramped. Littered with portals to take you to all manner of worlds, there wasn't really all that much room to squeeze in all the Year 2 content - and so, TT Games have build a whole new hub world. Known as "The Shard", this brand new hub stores all the portals you'll need to access the adventure worlds for each of the 16 new franchises that'll be making their way to the game over the coming months.
There's a lot of new stuff to get your hands on
To access the shard, you have two main options. The first is that you can use the handy new terminal that's popped up next to the main portal - it's from here you'll be able to access the game's brand new levels, whether they're from level packs, or story packs, like the Ghostbusters Story Pack, along with all of the adventure worlds. It's also where you can get your hands on the brand new four player split-screen mode.
Alternatively, if you're already out and about, you can jump straight to the Shard at any time by keeping an eye out for the jump pad, located in-between the Ghostbusters and Lord of the Rings adventure world portals. Jumping on this will send you flying to the Shard, ready for a whole host of new adventures.
And that's how you access all the newest stuff in LEGO Dimensions Year 2! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below - if not, be sure to check back soon for our full reviews of the rest of Year 2!
