LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Review
Batman’s influence on the (pop) culture cannot be understated. Like how The Batman (2022) opens with the signal in the sky to make people think he’s everywhere, he is everywhere around you. More than any other superhero out there, he’s the one to have really made it outside the medium he originated in – multiple iconic cartoons, films, a critically acclaimed game trilogy (well, the first two) (and a prequel to those games that’s fairly underrated), as well as the first superhero to get a LEGO game (also by the same guys that developed the new one, TT Games!) and to get LEGO sets based on the character.
Because of this wide array of media that exists, there also exists a metacanon for this character. Comics influence the other media and that comes back to influence comics. Frank Miller has talked about how Batman in The Dark Knight Returns could come from Adam West’s Batman in Batman (the 1966 movie and TV serial). The Batsuit from the Tim Burton movies made its way to the comics in the 90s. Batman: The Animated Series used the theme Danny Elfman composed for the Burton movies, and its origin for characters like Mr. Freeze as well as original characters like Harley Quinn made their way to the comics. Grant Morrison’s Batman run is all about trying to say ‘everything happened’ and trying to make sense of that through this character. The Arkham Knight made its way into comics (granted under a different person behind the mask).
In fact, to go even past that, this isn’t even the first time a LEGO Batman has tried to bring it all into one canon – The LEGO Batman Movie (2017) tried this too (albeit in a more comedic tone).
When they announced this game late last year, I was intrigued already. Batman in the batsuit from The Batman in a sequence clearly taken from Batman Begins, the Penguin chase from The Batman but with a Penguin design clearly taken from Danny Devito’s look in Batman Returns, predator encounters (a nod to the Arkham Games), wild stuff! It was marketed as ‘the definitive Batman tale’ where they would take all of these different influences and merge them into one narrative.
But of course, if you’re going to look back on Batman, you have to look back on his games too, especially when the two series people playing this will be familiar with are the LEGO Batman trilogy and the Arkham trilogy (plus Origins).
That’s where this mix of LEGO game mechanics and Arkham game mechanics comes in. We’ve had the evolution of LEGO games for a while now, from just hub worlds to get to levels and grunts instead of voices, to actual voice acting and open worlds, but nothing quite like what’s going on in Legacy of the Dark Knight. This game really wears its Arkham influences on its sleeves, with a Gotham that feels extremely reminiscent of the Gotham you can explore in Arkham Knight. Gone are a large assortment of characters who all fit specific archetypes, in is a selection of 7, each with two unique abilities. There are now general upgrades and character specific upgrades. Levels don’t have areas locked behind certain abilities requiring you to play them via free play anymore, free play in general is gone, instead every level is designed around the specific duo you have to play as, allowing the player to collect everything in one go (and they’re also fairly easy to find). Red Bricks as cheats are now gone, now they’re different colour schemes your characters can equip to change up their suits and vehicles.
Combat is a mix of LEGO and Arkham too. In hand to hand, you can counter, roll to dodge, do special finishers and mix in your gadgets. There are also stealth sections where you can sneak up behind enemies to take them out, and eventually unlock an upgrade to do a perch takedown. To differentiate, the original LEGO games were mostly just beat em ups. There’s difficulty options now too – I played on the hardest one (Dark Knight) and it still never felt like a challenge.
This new system feels underbaked. I understand what they’re going for, giving the player multiple options and changing it up so it doesn’t feel quite as monotonous as just mashing the attack button, but the game is never difficult enough to have you engage with all of the mechanics it offers. Similarly, stealth has no fail state, if you get caught you immediately transition into combat. The only reason you would ever have to do a stealth encounter in full would be to either get studs (which the game rewards you with handsomely anyway) or to complete a challenge. It feels like it’s on the precipice of wanting to do more but never quite gets there.
Level design is also fine. I appreciate the context of the levels, my favourites overall being The Red Hood Gang, Tumblr Chase and Arkham Asylum. But I wish it was less handhold-y. Maybe it is just rose tinted lenses looking back, but I don’t remember the original LEGO Batman being this easy on the player and just showing the player the solutions. Sure, it’s a kids game, but those previous LEGO games expected more from the player, whereas a lot of this game’s puzzles (in the main story) feel like they’re developed with the cocomelon audience in mind.
At least from that perspective, the open world exists. It’s littered with various collectibles and little missions you can complete – like putting trackers on animals, breaking into places as Catwoman, finding suspects by piecing together a wanted poster, etc etc. Also inspired by Arkham, AR missions – broken down into combat, traversal and driving. Driving feels great, the cars and motorcycles all handle well. Traversal on the other hand can be a little rough. Sometimes you can press the bumper to zip to a point because the game gives you the indicator, but geometry in the way can leave you stuck and prevent you from getting there, which can be frustrating. Everything else is fine though.
The open world collectathon is at least fun to do. Compared to the puzzles in the missions, some of them are on par with the puzzles in the original trilogy, and some are even harder, which is fun. I wish the Catwoman heists had fail states for the ones that are stealth missions, otherwise you kind of have to force yourself to really immerse into the idea of breaking in and stealing something. I also appreciated locking the towers that show you where everything is to Chapter 4, it allowed me to organically explore the world for a long time until I got those. I do wish the side quests had more satisfying conclusions though – the only ones for me that really felt like it had a satisfying end were the Riddler and Cluemaster ones.
Narratively, I like what it sets out to do. Yes, it’s just reference after reference and an attempt to make something work, and I think it meets that. I appreciated that it’s not just the movies (like I assumed it would be based on the trailers), there’s nods to everything in there, even if it is primarily the movies. Dare I say it, its approach to all of these – looking at them through a comedic lens – was more fun than how they did it in The LEGO Batman Movie, which sometimes felt a little insincere. That being said, I’m not too big on the ending villain. I liked the boss fight a lot and the lead up to the fight itself, but I think they could’ve pivoted to something else.
Oh, and the Batcave is really cool. Being able to decorate it with collectibles you find in the open world, levels, and the Bat-Mite shop is awesome, you can even build the giant Dinosaur! The costume selection is also awesome, I played the story with the story ones, but outside that I mostly got around with the ‘66, Absolute (designed by Nick Dragotta) and All-In (designed by Jorge Jimenez) costumes.
Overall, I had a grand time. If you’re into Batman, you’ll probably love it, if you’re into LEGO Games, your mileage may vary depending on how much you enjoy TT Games regular format. Outside that, definitely a game to pick up if you want to have fun with some couch co-op.
