Not the LEGO game we need, but the one we deserve.
By Ameer Ammar
Lego Batman ended up surprising me in a massive way. Going into it, I was expecting Arkham-style gameplay attached to a simple uninteresting narrative. What I never expected was that Legacy of the Dark Knight has genuinely fantastic writing, with one of my favorite interpretations of Batman and the Bat Family ever.
Lego Batman's story was nothing like what I expected. I expected just a simple adaptation of the movies' biggest moments with some gags added in to make them appeal to children. What I got instead was a carefully thought-out adaptation of some of the most iconic pieces of Batman media, brought all together under one story that spans many years of Bruce Wayne's life. Starting from Batman Begins and The Batman movies with a fairly simple Gotham ruled by the mob.
Between each story chapter, a significant amount of time passes as Batman becomes more and more established in this Gotham City, resulting in the criminals taking more and more drastic measures to combat him. The concept of escalation introduced at the end of the actual Batman Begins movie is used to full effect here. Batman's own villains evolve chapter by chapter due to the direct actions of Bruce. For example, The Joker starts off as the Jack Nicholson but as a direct result of an encounter with Batman, he gets the Heath Ledger scars and undergoes that transformation.
This concept of escalation also leads to Bruce Wayne recruiting allies to aid him in his journey, making this one of my favorite interpretations of the Bat Family as Catwoman, Robin/Nightwing, and Batgirl feel like a real family that support each other throughout the adventure. The entire way this comes together in the final two chapters was perfect and made me realize how it is an insane feat. I never expected that all the vastly different Batman movie versions and animated series could possibly work under a singular story, but T’s writers pulled it off perfectly. It also obviously is still a LEGO story and it doesn't take itself too seriously. All the jokes landed for me, much of it is very deep-cut references that had me laugh out loud as a massive fan of the character. The story here went above and beyond what I expected and I cannot praise it enough for being a funny, endearing, and overall fascinating take on Batman and the Bat Family.
Gameplay-wise, Lego Batman borrows heavily from the Arkham series. Free-flow combat is introduced to great success, it feels great to play and is nearly identical to how it is in the Arkham games. Each character also comes with two gadgets used in combat, and those are all fun across the board. It is hard to find faults in this combat system because it’s an established formula that’s always worked and continues to work here. Stealth, however, is underdeveloped. I really wish even more notes were taken from Arkham here as things like taking out enemies from vents or gadgets like smoke bombs are just not here. It’s overall a very simple go behind an enemy and take them out system without much outside of that.
The driving feels ridiculously good, arguably even better than it did in Arkham Knight. They really went above and beyond what was expected here. I enjoyed driving so much that I actively avoided fast travel or gliding just to drive around everywhere and do the races side activity. Each vehicle handles differently to some level, which adds to that experimental feeling of wanting to try all of them out. They did amazing work here.
In terms of the open world, this is a gorgeous Gotham City. It is ridiculously detailed down to the Lego rats in alleyways. It's definitely my favorite interpretation of Gotham in a video game right alongside Arkham Knight's. This Gotham is not under lockdown as we usually see in video games, and is fully alive. There are a ton of NPCs and traffic around the city, really giving the city a unique personality. Things like billboards and signage seem to all change as the story progresses, which is a very neat touch that makes it feel like you are transitoning between eras with the story. It also helps that Lego Batman is gorgeous and runs extremely well on my PS5 Pro. However, I do wish PSSR was utilized here to boost image clarity. It's a miracle that a UE5 open world runs perfectly well, but they pulled it off.
Now to get into my issues with Lego Batman that keep it from being perfect, I really did wish there were more proper side missions in the open world. Most of the side content is collectibles, which is fine and expected, but optional levels are always the most fun to do, and there just aren't many here, would've liked more focus on this rather than endless collectibles.
Another flaw for me is the game's length. Lego Batman is not very long. It took me 15 hours to beat it, and this is with significant breaks to explore the open world and find collectibles. I would have liked a few more major levels to really get that runtime a bit longer.
Another issue is unfortunately the bugs. I had one crash, which is fine, but I had multiple instances of Batman not being able to interact with things, forcing me to reload the game. Another major bug that annoyed me is dialogue suddenly cutting off. It is far too sensitive to player action, and I often missed story dialogue just because I did something minor. There is also some missing audio during finishers. Also, the game is too easy. I played it on the hardest difficulty and died less than 4 times the entire game. I get that it’s a Lego game, but it would've been really appreciated if the hard difficulty was treated more like a challenge. For the most part, it just introduces way too many enemies that result in some story moments feeling too drawn out.
FINAL VERDICT
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight goes above and beyond all expectations. It is a fantastic Batman adventure that genuinely surprised me with its thoughtful and full-of-heart storytelling. The Arkham gameplay does not disappoint, and while polish issues plus a short length keep this from perfection.