There’s really only one superhero I enjoy almost all media of, Batman. I’ve got tons of comics, movies, a poster, have played the Arkham games multiple times, and have way too much space on my media server all dedicated to that one character. So when a new game comes out that is all about him I just have to play it. Just last month, LEGO Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight came out and I was instantly having a great time with it.
Yet something stuck out as a big problem with it that frustrated me. Something that I also enjoyed parts of. The game is a complicated experience and not just because there’s a lot of side content collectibles, but because I have mixed feelings about it. So let’s get into it.
Welp, if you’ve ever wanted almost all of the live action Batman movies adapted into Lego format all in one seemingly interconnected story instead of choosing between films like the Lego Star Wars games did then that’s what this is. You play as Batman and others in the Bat-fam and play through all of the live action Batman movies. All with some minor divergence here and there for smaller references to other Batman stories. And you do this all in a beautifully realized Gotham that is bustling with traffic and people all for you to run down and into with your batmobile. Plus you get to customize how your characters look with different suits, shaders, and different Batmobiles. It’s basically the ultimate Lego Batman game.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room, the game is basically Lego Arkham lite. It’s fucking awesome. Not only is the combat a more simplistic version as that series, but the sounds of the menus are almost the same, the gadgets are almost all there, the Riddler puzzles are there, you use grates in the floor and perches to sneakily take out enemies, the brilliant characterization of the villains is there. It’s honestly kinda nuts how much this game is just an Arkham game with a Lego skin and I am so damn glad that it is. If you love those games as much as I do then you will adore this one.
The game is filled with references, because of course. The thing that surprised me is that it’s not just references to Batman and DC stuff. There’s just plain old film references as well. Sure some of it is because of the actors who played those parts in the movie, but it’s still other film references. For instance, early in the game we have the scene where Bruce has arrived back from his time training with the League of Shadows and has, after some small adventures with Gordon, gone to Wayne tower for the first time since returning. Here he has to produce his card to the receptionist at the door to be able to go and see Lucius Fox. Well, there’s a character next to him when he produces his card who, after Bruce leaves to go see Lucius says “Look at that card, that color, is that eggshell?” and continues on doing a reference to American Psycho which Christian Bale also starred in. This was a hilarious reference that sets the tone for a ton of different referential humor later on in the game. There’s stuff for the villains going on who played them in the movie like with Danny Devito who played Penguin. There’s stuff just throughout the world with small references to other Batman or DC stuff, like the whole intro to Batman The Animated Series. There’s graffiti all around with small referential stuff there for if you’ve read some of the comics, there’s billboards all around with in-universe references for both the movies and the comics. The game is absolutely filled with references to so many things and I adore it for that (even the damn Akira slide, video below). I laughed a ton and was that damn Leonard DiCaprio meme with him pointing at the screen a ton while playing. It was a great time.
The gameplay overall is a lot of fun. I enjoyed flying around the city, or driving around with the batmobile and running into objects and cars and people because it was fun and sometimes gave me studs, the in-game currency. The combat is just a simplified version of the Arkham games but does have it’s own spin on it given that there’s a second character who has their own unique abilities. That second character adds a lot of depth to the game. While in the last Lego Star Wars game that second character wasn’t that important, here they’re fundamental to almost all of the puzzles and are also useful in combat. For instance, one of my favorite character abilities in combat was how Catwoman is able to spin enemies with her whip like a damn top. There’s so many cool aspects to these characters that get extra depth as you unlock different aspects of their abilities. All of this makes for some great core gameplay that keeps the game fun and engaging even when the story takes a nose dive.
Then, there are the puzzles. Oh my, the puzzles. Something so awesome about the game is how we got Riddler stuff just like in the Arkham games and oh my does it deliver. Sure they’re not as complex as some puzzles from Arkham Knight, but the fact is that they are still there. They still make you think, they still make you wonder how you’re supposed to do something and then when you realize it you still get a “I got it” moment. It’s a great little thing to do while you’re going around the city. Personally, I never specifically went around just doing Riddler and other puzzles, instead I just grabbed them whenever I was in the area because of my driving or flying around. It was a way of not making them feel like a chore because there are definitely a ton of puzzles across the map of the game and it can feel overwhelming.
Finally, the mission structure is fantastic. I loved going through each different area, from the Iceberg Lounge in Chapter 1 (where there were a ton of references) to the Grayson Circus in Chapter 3, to the Dark Knight chase scene in Chapter 5, the game has some damn good missions that, even if the story behind them isn’t amazing, is still a lot of fun to play. There’s also collectibles throughout the missions that if you destroy 5 of you can then use them to decorate parts of the Bat Cave! Either you can find out what they are by trying to destroy everything, or you can just pause the game and it’ll show what the collectible is so you know right away what to look for. The missions are also super good at utilizing that Chapters new character and their abilities. Just, all in all, great mission structure and I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing through them.
Also, sidenote: there are quicktime events in the game, but there’s a setting to disable them. While it might lead to some awkward pauses in moments when you would normally be mashing a button, it makes for a much better experience. So I’d recommend turning on that setting.
The core problem with the game is that it is, at its heart, an adaptation. This comes with all the positives and negatives that adaptations suffer from. For instance, the first few chapters make a decent amount of sense. Sure they will often do concurrent stories of different movies at the same time but it still has an easy to follow thread. But then when we get to the Christopher Nolan films it all falls apart. The Dark Knight, for instance, is done primarily with one mission without some of the best scenes, it’s mainly just the chase scene for it. Then Arkham Asylum has its first mission adapted all so we can have the joker interrogation scene from Dark Knight. We have characters that don’t really make sense to be in certain scenes like Talia Al Ghoul who is evil in The Dark Knight Rises but somehow a friend in The Dark Knight mission and the Arkham Asylum mission.
Essentially, none of it makes sense. It feels like the team at TT ran out of time to put more work into the recent movies and that just fucking sucks. I adored the Dark Knight Trilogy, I have a big poster from Mondo Posters on my wall, it’s one of my favorite movie trilogies. While there is tremendously accurate replication of the directing style of the trilogy, it’s done dirty with how little adaptation it actually gets as they were obviously running out of road for the game and, for some reason, decided not to fully adapt The Batman. The Dark Knight Rises does get more attention, which is something, but that’s mainly because it is the climax of the game. Basically, adaptation wise, the game is really fun early on, but just absolutely falls apart in the last two chapters and that holds the game back from having a truly fun last third of the story. I think they should have just adapted animated stuff instead, doing the live action films when they are so disconnected style wise just puts them in a bind of how they are supposed to deal with that stuff. It’s a tight rope that they walked well for a while but then plummeted off.
Finally, something small that really bugged me was how you are constantly coming across puzzles in early game that you literally cannot complete because you haven’t unlocked the character necessary to be able to do it. This sucks. It’s an annoying experience to be going around the city, have the Riddler pop in over your radio and insult you with a challenge and then to find out that actually you can’t beat that challenge because you haven’t unlocked a character yet. The cool thing about the city is that Gotham does change somewhat over the course of the game so I would have loved if the puzzles that you can’t complete without certain characters only showed up once you had unlocked those characters. Thankfully, the map does show a lock on the ones you can’t complete yet so you don’t have to just spend a bunch of time trying to figure out how to complete something only to be disappointed, but I still think there was a better way than still showing you the challenges you couldn’t complete. Plus, it would have been cool to see Gotham populate more and more with different side challenges over the course of the game and this would mean that you would continue to have the lovely experience of going around the city and coming across a challenge without worry of inability to complete it. Just disappointing.
One thing that particularly made the Arkham games was side content. Not just collectibles and Riddler trophies. Yet here, the only side content is the stereotypical Lego stuff, running around collecting stuff. They’re all batman themed of course but it’s still rather bare-bones. There’s no story there, at least not really. There’s just...puzzles. And if that is your thing then awesome, you’ll love collecting everything. But, as I’ve stated many times, I am not a completionist person so to me it was more of a mere distraction when I wanted to grab some things that allowed me to upgrade more or tried to get new suits. It was overall, rather boring. Of course, being a simple Lego game, I didn’t really expect more, just kinda hoped for more. Hence why this is in the Meh section.
The ending was an ending. To be honest I was really curious how they were going to bring together the ending of The Dark Knight Rises when, spoilers of course, Batman fakes his death at the end. They did a good job, although the ending of this was obviously not the ending of the movie. That’s kind of a big theme of the game. Sure it’s an adaptation, but it’s more of a retelling with completely different aspects that don’t have to do with it being a Lego game and entirely to do with the fact that it’s really hard to tell the story of a bunch of non-interconnected films without a mess of a story. The ending was exactly the same in that way, a mess of a retelling, but at least an enjoyable one.
Overall, LEGO Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight left me both happy and frustrated. Don’t get me wrong, I adored the vast majority of the game. It’s a ton of fun going around and playing as the characters, customizing them, playing through the movies as them, it’s all enjoyable. But those last two chapters just...ugh. They really hold the game back from being an excellent experience. They’re my biggest problem with it. It’s a frustration that has lead to me struggling to really nail down a rating for the game. But after much deliberation both with myself as I walked around debating it outloud to my house and as my cats watched me, and also with my partner, I finally came to a conclusion.
This is definitely an amazing LEGO Batman game. I think, if you like those games, LEGO games in general, the Arkham games, and particularly the live action Batman movies, then you will have a mostly great time with it. You might even love it. But if you’re expecting something just as good as the Arkham games, something that ties together all the films in a somehow amazingly well done fashion, or something with any amount of side missions, then you will be disappointed. Either way, I’d say if you can manage to get it at not the 70 dollar asking price then I’d do that. 60 bucks is a good price for it. Have that as your maximum. Sure it’s great, but 70 bucks is too much for any game.
With that, do you have a favorite superhero? Have you enjoyed Batman movies and shows in the past? Do you have a favorite Lego game? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Meow,
Cat
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