‘Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight’ Review
Developer: TT Games | Platform: PS5 | Playtime: 19:40 | Platinum: 39:45
After the swing and considerable miss of The Skywalker Saga, I was initially concerned about Legacy of the Dark Knight. The news that came out about the game both intrigued and confused me but I chose to dive straight in. Legacy of the Dark Knight is a good Arkham Game, a really good Lego game and a great Batman experience.
Lego games traditionally either adapt movies from the property the game is adapting (The Star Wars series for example) or create a new story based on the IP (Lego Batman 3 for aother example). Legacy of the Dark Knight tries a third more unique way – it takes the Batman movies (Burton, Schumacher, Nolan and Reeves) and mixes them all up into one, mostly, cohesive storyline. Not every movie is treated equally, and some don’t really work with the new changes - for example, since Riddler occupies the role he had in the Arkham games, he’s not around for the Batman Forever segment. Differently, Talia is around for the training segments inspired by Batman Begins as you always need to have two characters. For the most part, I think the game handles things pretty well – change them anymore and you may as well have a unique story.
Like it or not, the Lego games have been fully voice acted for a while now. Legacy does not buck the trend and to that effect it’s just alright. The voices aren’t bad persay just not entirely fitting in some places – Batman, Talia and Joker come to mind but Bane, Catwoman and Jim Gordon all sound great so it’s a mixed bag schewed towards alright. The script fairs better - some of the dialogue was a little basic but then again, some jokes had me genuinely laughing out loud. I loved all the visual gags and references in each scene; they were all top notch.
There’s been mention of this being more of a Lego Arkham game than a lego game. One major aspect of that is the game only having 7 characters. This is a definite change of pace from the other titles having upwards of 400 odd characters but I think it works well since the 7 here feel a lot more deliberate in it’s design which lets the levels be more specialised and tailored puzzle and challenge wise. Seven characters feels like only six though since Robin and Nightwing occupy the same role, not sure what the thought process was there. Always having to play as Batman alongside one of the other six does make solving some puzzles that require two different non batman characters a little annoying. Characters a little quick to give puzzle solutions (not quite as egregious as GoW Ragnarok though).
Gotham is as fun to explore as it is in Arkham Knight. Some of the more interesting side quests were the Falcone Heists and Waylon Jones case. Doubling up on Riddler/Cluemaster stuff was fine I guess. There wasn’t really a bad side activity. with better Batmobile stuff. I never had a want to use other vehicles except the Batmobile and on that topic my favourite was The Batman 2022
The suits on the other hand I was constantly changing, lots of really great outfits - fan favourites, deep cuts and some silly ones. The ones made exclusively for the game are really good and it’s a shame they never see any use during the course of the story (Obviously you can equip whichever skin whenever you want).
Those wanting a traditional ;ego game may be left wanting but for those who wanted a new Batman game with the charm and heart of the Lego series will find a ton to love about Legacy of the Dark Knight, a must play for any Batman fan.
