LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Review

A love letter to Batman’s Legacy wrapped in an ambitious LEGO adventure.

Since TT Games released the original LEGO Batman: The Videogame in 1995, the LEGO Batman series has been one of the most popular superhero video game franchises. Those older games were largely humorous, had easy puzzles, and were pleasant for the whole family to play together. Still, they managed to recreate the mood of Gotham City and its famous characters.

But the Batman games have changed a lot over the years, partly because of the success of Rocksteady Studios' Batman: Arkham Asylum series. The Arkham games delivered fluid, free-flowing combat, darker tales, a theatrical feel to exploration, and a Gotham City that felt much more real. This meant that expectations for any new Batman game were extremely high.

What is wonderful about LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is that it is simply that. TT Games didn’t want to make another conventional LEGO game with hundreds of characters to switch out and humorous movie parodies, but rather to blend the framework of a current Batman action game with LEGO’s originality and appeal.

What we wind up with is a game that feels a lot bigger than anything else the firm has done. It draws heavily on Arkham, but still maintains the joy and user-friendliness you would expect from a LEGO game.

The game is unique in that it tells Batman’s story as a long-form, unfolding narrative.

The plot doesn't focus on a single night or a single evil guy. It covers years of Bruce Wayne's career. The ideas are borrowed from pretty much every major Batman you can think of – Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Batman, Batman: The Animated Series. Somehow, the game manages to blend these very distinct tones into a coherent universe. It doesn't seem like satire so much as a celebration of Batman's past.

The plot is one of the game's best aspects. The story of the game is not a straight line with a single major villain. Instead, it is divided into six major portions. Every chapter introduces a fresh aspect of Batman’s existence, including new foes, friends, and changes to Gotham City. Players will be able to see Bruce Wayne's evolution over time, rather than starting the game as the present-day Batman.

It's incredible how much time the first few hours spend on Bruce Wayne himself. Players see him go through the horrible events he went through as a child, see his years of training, and his personality gradually develop. Many Batman games skip these parts because the story is already known, but in Legacy of the Dark Knight, they are vital to the character. It’s more emotional to watch Bruce build the Batcave slowly, train with the League of Shadows, and start his first few years as Gotham’s defender.

The time-skip design also works well for the Bat family. Dick Grayson starts as Robin and eventually becomes Nightwing. Other characters like Batgirl and Gordon also become more involved as time goes on. The story goes quicker than most superhero games, as you can watch how those ties evolve over the course of multiple chapters.

And the tone is quite good as well. The game is darker and more adult than previous LEGO games, but still contains the customary LEGO humor and visual comedy. Even though the movie is designed to be family-friendly, some of the moments really do make you feel tense, and some of the bad guys really do seem deadly.

The writers achieve a delicate balance between humor and seriousness, so sad and humorous things can happen at the same time. The game tries to cover a lot of Batman history, so several villains and stories feel rushed. The chapters fly by, and the significant threats are usually dealt with immediately.

Some of the bad villains are well-developed, but some don't receive enough screen time to make an impact. The pace goes up especially in the last few chapters; it seems as if complete jobs or transitional parts were left out.

Even though the plot moves slowly at times, it remains engaging throughout, lovingly referencing Batman's past.

Long-time fans will always be able to see visual references, famous lines, outfit ideas, and unforgettable events from decades of comics, movies, and animated productions. The Legacy of the Dark Knight dramatically shakes up the gameplay from previous LEGO titles. There is more than simply hitting buttons and doing simple puzzles. It borrows heavily from the Arkham series but remains true to its own flair.

The basic gameplay loop includes combat, stealth, detective work, exploration, side jobs, puzzle-solving, and open-world movement. Those who play Batman: Arkham Knight say, “Gotham City is even bigger than the city in the game.” Even better, it feels alive. Inside buildings such as eateries, convenience stores, subway stations, and other places where bad men hide.

There are trinkets, Easter eggs, puzzles, and other interesting things to do in almost every region of Gotham that make touring the city fun. I appreciate that you can travel rapidly and in style. Batman and the other playable heroes can soar around Gotham, climb on top of buildings, and drive cars like the Batmobile. Movement feels much better with a glide boost feature, letting players traverse large distances swiftly.

Later enhancements in the game will make it much easier to get around by improving grapple launches and flying. Also, diverse characters make the game a lot more fun. There aren't quite as many potential heroes as in some other LEGO games, but each one operates in a more distinct way.

Batman is all gadgets and remaining out of sight, Nightwing is all speed and electric assaults, Catwoman is all inventive ways to utilize her whip and cats she has called in, and Gordon's surprise is one of the finest ranged fighters because of his adhesive and ricochet weaponry.

 This attention to individuality means that changing characters feels like more than a simple cosmetic switch. One of the great improvements over older LEGO games is the ability to level up. You get studs via fighting, exploring, and doing quests. These can then be used to buy costumes, vehicles, upgrades, and modifications to the Batcave.

There’s also a basic skill tree that improves abilities in general, with distinct gadget improvements for each character. These changes directly influence the game by introducing new ways to combat, traverse the environment, improve stealth, and find new things.

Combat and side quests are still relevant at the conclusion of the game since many upgrades are expensive.

There’s never enough grinding, but players are told over and over again to keep doing things in Gotham to earn additional personalization options and game features. The fighting mechanism is clearly from the Arkham games, which is mostly a good thing. The fighting is built on fluid movements such as counters, fast-paced gadgets, dodges, combinations, and interactions with the environment.

Enemies fight in bunches, so players need to be able to chain strikes smoothly while rotating between characters and gadgets. The pleasure of fighting lies in the rapid, tense feeling it takes on in greater difficulties. On lower difficulties, battles can get dull since the foes are not hard enough. However, with greater difficulties, combat becomes considerably more interesting as larger waves of monsters strike simultaneously, forcing the player to react on the fly.

But the combat isn't as good as it is in Arkham. Batman does not soar over rooms as he did in Arkham Knight, and the LEGO figures are smaller, so attack moves are frequently more difficult to read. This makes the mechanism less fluid and less precise than in Rocksteady's games. This is, for the most part, a LEGO game, but the battle system is really deep.

Stealth games are less fun to play. Players can sneak up on predators, take them down, and use equipment like sonar batarangs or perch knockouts when they encounter them. But I don't think stealth is needed very often, because if you are caught, it's just regular fighting, not a heavy punishment. There is real worry in Arkham games when you have enemies with guns around. In Legacy of the Dark Knight, however, stealth becomes more of an option.

Puzzles are another big feature of the game. The puzzles throughout the game are usually quite straightforward, but the side quests involving characters like the Riddler and Cluemaster are substantially harder. Some puzzle rooms require close observation and experimentation, such as moving around LEGO pieces or solving outdoor puzzles.

 Some collectibles are poorly designed because the game does not teach you how to find them.

Traversal problems can be frustrating, however, as Batman sometimes chooses the wrong location when grappling. Bugs are bothersome, too, but they're usually not that awful and don't completely spoil the game.

Possibly the best-looking LEGO game ever made. Gotham City is gorgeous at night, when the rain falls on the roofs, the lights sparkle in the puddles, and the fog covers the alleys. The lighting system is so atmospheric that it can compete with the best AAA Batman games out there right now.

The character models are insanely detailed, the movements are incredibly expressive, and the city feels very deep and layered. Small details, such as the interiors of establishments and the Batcave's décor, help bring the environment to life. The Batcave is especially cool because players can decorate it with trophies, collectibles, clothes, and other items they uncover throughout the game. After a while, it actually does start to feel like the player’s personal Batcave.

The music is another fantastic thing. The music does not blatantly plagiarize popular Batman themes, but it often borrows from them in a subtle way. There will be themes from Batman '89, themes from the animated series, and symphonic cues that sound like the contemporary Batman movies.

The voice acting is really outstanding, considering the game was hit with strikes from voice actors. Batman’s performance is inconsistent, but the rest of the ensemble does a good job. The most prominent characters are Joker, Penguin, Ivy, Freeze, and Robin. Some characters, like Two-Face, are a little too familiar, but overall, the voice cast does a decent job of mixing serious and amusing parts.

The sound design for fighting and movement should also be complemented. Pummeling feels like it packs a punch, gadgets are fun to employ, and sliding through Gotham gives a great sensation of movement.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is one of the most complicated LEGO games ever. Instead of just replicating what had already been done, TT Games wanted to mix the accessibility and personality of LEGO with the dramatic narrative, exploration, and combat depth of current Batman games.

Whether you’re building your own Batcave, soaring through Gotham during a storm, solving Riddler puzzles, or switching between Batman and Nightwing mid-fight, the game always makes you feel like you’re in Batman’s universe. It may not be better than the Arkham games in terms of play, but it does build a reputation for itself in an important sense.