Home » Reviews » Review: Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes
Reviews

Review: Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes

Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes suffers from an Identity crisis in the best way. It tries to be everything at once and doesn’t do a bad job, either. Not happy with just being an excellent sandbox platformer, its schizophrenia is so impressive the merc with a mouth should take note. While Disney Infinity 2.0′s intentions and aspirations are near laughable, incredibly, it somehow makes good on all its promises.

There’s so much to do in Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes,but the usual accompanying feeling of hopelessness that goes with numerous options isn’t present. There’s always some kind of direction: a marker on the map, a new quest giver, a handy hint or hell, even a whole other set of toys to switch out for completely new game options. For the uninitiated, this is how Disney Infinity is played. Placing physical toys and disks on the USB portal in various combinations, much like Activision’s Skylanders.

Each character is completely different and brings with it a new set of skills and attributes you can level up using skill trees. You can upgrade characters to make them super powerful with points gained at each level up allowing you to customize you precious collection of toys. Let’s use my co-op adventure as an example: I started a multiplayer game with a friend using the “Spider-man” Play Set, my friend chose to control Spidey (so predictable) while I couldn’t go past my favorite Marvel villain of all time, Venom. Spidey starts with a web slinging ability while Venom can unlock it after a few levels making him like a mobile Hulk.

2

By collecting crossover coins in each of the Play Sets, you can bring in new characters from other parts of the Marvel universe. The best thing about this is that it’s only certain characters. Why is that good? Because they only let you use the characters that make sense for them to be in each part of the Marvel canon. This just goes to show the though and care that has gone into making Disney Infinity 2.0.

“The Avengers” Play Set is set almost entirely in the streets of Manhattan. It’s open world so you can explore and find bonus boxes to further your already impressive amount of things to do in game, collect crossover coins, attempt challenges or take a mission from one of the quest givers to progress in the story. Manhattan gets a little samey during the story as most missions involve you beating the absolute frost out of ice giants causing trouble around the city. If it feels like it’s getting a little repetitive you can mix it up with some challenges, switch to another Play Set or even jump into the Toy Box. Given the nature of the Avengers movie it’s hardly a surprise that it focuses on constant battle and action. Speaking of action, you’ll get to enjoy the angry vocal stylings of Samuel L. Action himself. He’s actually in the game, but as far as I can tell, I think he’s the only voice actor played by the actual person from the films. It’s awesome because he’s not only a playable character, he’s also a quest giver so he talks a lot. You certainly get your money’s worth out of him.

The “Spider-man” Play Set is almost a polar opposite of “The Avengers” Play Set. There’s a bit going on in Manhattan again but a lot more taking place in buildings or sewers. It’s good for a change of pace but both the wall-crawling and the fantastic web-slinging mechanics don’t really work in confined spaces. At first I found this incredibly frustrating. All I wanted to do is swing around like some kind of radioactive spider-style man. Once I realized that in these areas I should just forget about my spider powers I found it infinitely (2.0) more enjoyable.

disney202

I’m sure that sounds outrageous right? Don’t use your powers! If I have the great responsibility to go with them I want to use them, damnit. Here’s the thing though: there is nothing to stop you from using your web-slinging, but it just doesn’t work as well as you’ve become used to in open areas. If it did work, all the puzzles and the entire platforming element that sets Spidey’s adventure apart from the Avengers‘ smash festival would be lost.

I’ve saved the best for last. While I enjoyed the first two, the final Play Set completely knocked it out of the park. I’m very new to Guardians of the Galaxy. I didn’t grow up reading the comics and watching the cartoons before school, but it’s by far the best playset in Disney Infinity 2.0:. It’s the perfect balance of the constant battles and open world puzzle-solving of the other two playsets AND it’s in space!

Star-Lord is a great character, somehow managing to be that awful Sonic the Hedgehog/Poochie the Dog type without being an asshole you wouldn’t have a beer with. I can’t even explain how he does it; it’s miraculous. Throw in some turret shooting (very Star Wars) and a telepathic cosmonaut dog and you have yourself something that’s impossible to stop playing.

disney203

As I mentioned earlier, you can play through just about anything in multiplyer mode. The split-screen isn’t the best, but we’re all used to that by now. I want to try not to talk about it in every multiplayer review — and this isn’t a comparison, game-wise because they have the same characters — but LEGO Marvel has the best split-screen mechanic of all time. All time!

The multiplayer, in general, is fun but the split-screen makes it a little clunky. Playing with someone makes it a little more fun though so it’s definitely worth a go. The camera can also be a little bossy at times; it has a hard time letting go and allowing you to control things. If you have a stationary object you have to protect, it automatically goes all Zelda on it, z-targeting it so you can’t look anywhere else.

When you’re inside smaller buildings, sometimes you can’t go into third-person to aim unless you go back into the hallway before and hold the left trigger to keep the point of view, not letting go. It’s a little overbearing, but other than when you play split-screen, Disney Infinity 2.0 has an attitude of knowing what’s best for you. Thing is, it’s usually right, which makes the game perfect for youngsters.

spiderman-infinity

As if that’s not enough, the game’s Toy Box is offers the titular infinite possibilities. Seriously. You can do just about anything given enough time and patience. You can make a sidescrolling platformer or an open word exploration game, but the best thing about Disney Infinity 2.0: is if you’re a lazy person like myself you don’t even have to do anything to enjoy its benefits. First off, you can set certain pieces to just randomly expand and do all the work for you. Want a racetrack? Let it build itself. A castle? Same thing.

If that’s not doing it for you, just check out what other people have made and prepare to be blown away. The Toy Box is a game in itself and could easily be shipped as the full product. In fact, you can download it as such.

I could go on and on, but one of the best things about Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes is discovering all the nuances for yourself. There are plenty of moments were you’ll say to yourself, “oh, that’s clever”. It’s pure Disney in that way, and something you should experience for yourself.

Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes

The good

  • Endless possibilities.
  • Star-studded line up.
  • Huge replay value.

The bad

  • Bossy camera.
  • Annoying split screen.

Want to know more about our scoring scale?


This article may contain affiliate links, meaning we could earn a small commission if you click-through and make a purchase. Stevivor is an independent outlet and our journalism is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.

About the author

Shane Wall

I'm just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe. A game geek turned audio engineer/musician. Shane's life is a delicate balance of video games, music and science fiction.