How Does This Game Work Exactly?

The Game works as following:
You will be able to play the game from start to finish with the starter pack (Batman, Wyldstyle, Gandalf and the Batmobile). However, you may need to purchase separate characters to find all collectables hidden throughout the game. You will be able to explore the Lego Movie, DC Comics and The Lord of the Rings Adventure Worlds as you have a corresponding minifigure to access them.

Adventure worlds are free-roam areas where you can compete in races, do special quests and find collectables. To access an adventure world, you will need at least one character from the corresponding intellectual property. For example: to access Springfield you will need either Homer, Bart or Krusty yet once the world is unlocked, you can bring in any character from any licence. The different adventure worlds are:

-DC Comics (Gotham, Metropolis and Atlantis)
-The Simpsons (Springfield)
-Back to the Future (Hill Valley 1885, 1985, and 2015)
-The Wizard of Oz (Kansas and Oz)
-The Lord of the Rings
-The Lego Movie
-Jurassic World (Isla Nublar)
-Portal 2 (Aperture Science Enrichment Center)
-Doctor Who (London and Trenzalore)
-Ghostbusters (NYC)
-Midway Arcade
-Ninjago
-Scooby Doo
-Legends of Chima

In addition to the levels included in the game, you can also obtain different themed levels based on an individual property through purchasing the Back to the Future, Portal 2, Doctor Who, Midway Arcade, The Simpsons or Ghostbusters level pack. These packs are distinguishable from the Team Packs and Fun Packs as they all contain one character, one vehicle and one accessory. Team Packs come with two minifigures and two vehicles. Fun Packs come with just one minifigure and one vehicle. Any of these characters can access their own adventure worlds so that if you would rather pay a cheaper price for the adventure world, then you can just buy a Fun Pack. For example: if you want access to Hill Valley but you do not want to purchase the £30.00 Level Pack with Marty Mcfly, the DeLorean and a Hoverboard, then you can purchase the Doc Brown Fun Pack for half the price and he still comes with a vehicle with the same abilities as the DeLorean. The extra levels, on the other hand, can only be accessed with the character that comes with the level pack. So if you want access to the Back to the Future level, you need to purchase the pack that contains Marty Mcfly.

Hopefully that clears up any questions you may have. The game has been designed so you can access most of the game from the start and the best part is that you don't need every single character to access everything as well as allowing you to ignore areas you may not be interested in (for me Chima and Ninjago).

With just the Starter Pack, you'll have access to three characters and one vehicle. Each of those characters will provide access to one of the fourteen available Adventure Worlds, each of which has one unlockable Red Brick (and LotR World has arguably the most valuable Red Brick out there, as about half of them are wasted on flavor tweaks like goofy disguises and different music options). You'll be able to play through the entire "story", which consists of 14 levels (unlike other LEGO games, where they can't control which characters you have access to, they don't differentiate between Story Mode and Free-Play, so in theory you could just buy everything up and collect everything in a single run...except Chell's Portal 2 level). You should have access to the Mystery Dimension, but will only be able to play through content for the three Adventure Worlds that you'll unlock from the Starter Pack. All told, there is reported to be a grand total of 30 Gold Bricks that can be collected by use of the Starter Pack alone (located in the 14 base levels, first three Adventure Worlds, and the Mystery Dimension, and accessible with only the abilities offered by the three characters and one vehicle in the Starter Pack (though you might have to upgrade the Batmobile to get to that limit...or upgrading might allow you to exceed that number in ways they didn't anticipate). I don't know what you're in for in terms of minikits, but I doubt you'll be able to clear all ten from any single level, let alone do it for any of the three levels that unlock Minikit Events in one of the three Adventure Worlds you get access to by default.

But strictly in terms of what it's like to play with the Starter Kit alone, it's kinda like sticking to the Story Mode in a regular LEGO game. You have exactly the abilities needed to complete the level, but almost never enough to get 100% when doing so. The biggest differences are that in a regular game, you'll cycle through your Story Mode characters from one level to the next, you'll unlock a pile of characters as you play through the game, and you can dive right into unlocking all the rest along the way (if you haven't already during the initial run). Here you get the _same_ characters through 14 levels, you'll only unlock new characters by buying new packs, and you can either jump the gun and use them during your first playthrough or limit the damage and stick to just the Starter Pack.

You know what noone tells you about cooking with the Dark Side? The food is really good!