Lego Dimensions Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Story Pack

This adventure brings a whole new bag of tricks to the fantasy toy/game franchise that capitalizes on popular film franchises, and it works. The main story takes place over six levels, from Newt's arrival in New York to the epic battle against the Obscurus, as well as many other (spoiler-laden) highlights from the film. After finishing the story, players can still explore the open world of 1926 New York City, duke it out in the Battle Arena, and take Newt and his Niffler accessory into other Lego Dimensions worlds. While Newt has a lot of the abilities of the other Harry Potter characters, he brings to the table his unique ability to dive into his briefcase as well as a new "Creation" keystone, which can summon one of Newt's fantastic beasts to help out in certain puzzle situations.

While the Story Pack is a lot of fun to play whether or not you're a Harry Potter fan, it's hard to deny that Hogwarts alumni won't get an extra kick out of the expansion. Aside from the oddball bits of trivia that pop up, the interaction among these Newt, Harry, and He Who Must Not Be Named incarnations is fan service at its best. One minor downside to the Story Pack is the pressure to buy more Lego Dimensions accessories to get the most out of it. This is nothing new to the series, as Lego Dimensions and other games in the "Toys-to-Life" category regularly encourage fans to buy more stuff to unlock a broader experience. But this just seems to stand out a little more in this particular expansion. On the first level alone, you'll find a number of places requiring the use of specific abilities from characters in other franchises. While the "Hire a Hero" feature, where players can "rent" a character for a few seconds at the cost of some Lego studs, helps keep this from being much more than an minor inconvenience, it's still that little bit of extra pressure to rush out and buy more for the game. Still, even if you only have the Lego Dimensions starter (required for this, and all, expansions and accessories) and the Fantastic Beasts Story Pack, there's more than enough content to keep players busy. Whether you're a Muggle (or a No-Maj), a wizard, or a world-renowned magizoologist, the Lego Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Story Pack is sure to entertain.