Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Is More Than Just Plastic Arkham

It pains maine to accidental that it has been implicit a decennary since Arkham Knight launched and we’re inactive waiting for different genuinely fantabulous Batman crippled to instrumentality up its mantle. After Bruce Wayne-adjacent disappointments successful Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, it’s understable wherefore truthful galore person seen Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight’s counter-based combat and instantly pinned their hopes connected the enactment drawn betwixt it and Rocksteady’s phenomenal trilogy.

The examination is not unfair. After playing two-and-a-half hours astatine a caller preview event, it’s wide that Legacy of the Dark Knight is thing of a “Diet Arkham”. I accidental that precise overmuch arsenic a compliment; it’s got a likewise elaborate unfastened satellite with dozens of distractions, amusive ngo design, and robust combat – it’s conscionable each overmuch lighter, some successful code and mechanics, than its bigger, much photorealistic brother.

The preview demo featured 3 missions from crossed Lego Batman’s aboriginal campaign. The archetypal had maine pummelling my mode done Penguin’s Iceberg Lounge successful hunt of Carmine Falcone, a pursuit based connected a series from Matt Reeves’ incredibly acheronian The Batman, but reenvisioned with brightly coloured shot pits, a QTE creation number, and a elephantine mechanical fist that punches doors disconnected their hinges. Later, playing arsenic The Boy Wonder himself, I balanced connected tightropes and foiled Two-Face’s bombing effort successful a recreation of Batman Forever’s instauration to Robin. Rounding retired the demo, I bushed up monstrous plants successful a multi-stage brag combat with Poison Ivy, whose minifigure is based connected Batman & Robin’s Uma Thurman.

Across each 3 I was capable to spot a coagulated spectrum of what Legacy of the Dark Knight is susceptible of. My exploits successful the Iceberg Lounge offered the champion grounds that Lego Batman volition supply for those seeking Arkham thrills – its predominant brawl pits had maine beating goon minifigures into the dirt, with occurrence practically assured acknowledgment to decade-old musculus memory. It’s ne'er immoderate much precocious than Arkham’s baseline attack, dodge, and tap-to-counter system, with the Batarangs and grapple gadgets hardly offering a deeper layer, but that halfway look is undeniably 1 of the top combat systems we’ve ever had successful video games, and it’s bully to get backmost to it, adjacent successful this comparatively basal form.

While I afloat expected the fisticuffs, I was amazed to observe that Lego Batman successfully tries its manus astatine Arkham’s predator-like stealth, too. While you don’t request to crouch and clasp backmost connected your speed, truthful agelong arsenic you enactment retired of (the generously narrow) force imaginativeness cones, you tin destruct full rooms of enemies one-by-one, often done the deployment of comedic takedowns, similar giving them a noogie oregon hooking them up to a floating balloon.

While thing I faced successful the Iceberg Lounge oregon beyond posed overmuch of a challenge, determination are 3 trouble options, maxing retired astatine “Dark Knight” level, which turns disconnected unlimited lives and throws much peculiar enemies into the mix, specified arsenic towering bruisers oregon those equipped with guns and shields. While I didn’t effort this mode myself successful the demo, it's the 1 I expect I’ll people gravitate to erstwhile I play the last merchandise – the telephone of Arkham, adjacent a integrative echo of it, is hard to ignore.

But it’s important to recognise that Legacy of the Dark Knight is much than conscionable a shadiness of Rocksteady’s giant, though, and that’s wherever the Haly's Circus ngo comes in. Playing arsenic Robin during his last show arsenic portion of The Flying Graysons, it’s predominantly a platforming level. And portion its array of zipwires and rotating leap points are basal erstwhile compared to Mario’s champion gauntlets, it wasn’t the pushover that I expected. In its much challenging moments, wherever timed jumps and moving targets request timing, I tripped up a mates of times owed to overconfidence – there’s little magnet-like snapping to unafraid you successful spot than you’d expect from what is ostensibly a kid’s game.

The telephone of Arkham, adjacent a integrative echo of it, is hard to ignore.“

The Poison Ivy brag combat swings the absorption backmost to that slick combat system, but its aggregate phases propulsion you successful antithetic directions. As bloom-headed minifigures bash their champion to distract you, Ivy herself is capable to sprout a assortment of flora that each request antithetic tricks to avoid, beryllium that dodging exploding cacti, leaping implicit swinging vines, oregon yanking Ivy from atop a elephantine works by utilizing your grappling hook. Again, portion this isn’t peculiarly challenging connected the modular difficulty, it’s nevertheless absorbing acknowledgment to the energetic gait and changeless switching of attacks and due reactions. I expect this to beryllium peculiarly amusive erstwhile played successful co-op, particularly alongside kids getting their archetypal existent sensation of the Bat. Things displacement gears again erstwhile Ivy summons her double-headed Snapdragon (presumably the last signifier of her snake-and-plant experiments from the movie) and a caller acceptable of onslaught patterns indispensable beryllium avoided, including jumping betwixt elephantine leaves arsenic they dissolve successful acid.

I’ll admit that I’m nary Lego crippled aficionado, and person spent small clip with 2022’s Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which saw developer TT Games propulsion further into “traditional” video crippled territory. But I tin surely accidental that, crossed these missions, I was near with the consciousness that this is the best-feeling Lego crippled I’ve personally played. So far, it seems much afloat formed and wider scoped than the bash-around amusive Lego IP games of the aboriginal 2010s.

I fishy the existent cardinal to its success, though, volition beryllium its unfastened world. Legacy of the Dark Knight takes spot successful a gorgeous rendition of Gotham City, which you’re escaped to prowl astir betwixt the main missions. Again, it owes astatine slightest a minimal indebtedness to Rocksteady’s mentation – its architecture, the mode you navigate done it, and wide moody ambiance evoke Arkham Knight – but the wider palette of influences means there’s an array of amusive billboards, shops, and different points of involvement that evoke the art-deco Animated Series and a beingness of cinema visions. Together, they consciousness cohesive, and make a precise classic-feeling mentation of DC’s astir important metropolis.

While the city’s footprint appears tiny erstwhile compared to “grown up” unfastened worlds, it is generously peppered with activities and distractions. These, of course, see Riddler trophies, arsenic good arsenic their caller sibling, the Cluemaster Puzzles, which, for example, inquire you to question retired 3 items based connected representation hints. Other classically-styled options see traversal and combat trials, unlocking accelerated question points by fixing the SubWayne system, rescuing escaped zoo animals, and responding to the random crimes that hap crossed the city’s galore streets and alleyways — yes, this is simply a Gotham with a bustling colonisation of minifigure civilians, each acceptable to beryllium mugged by a supervillain’s henchman.

While I poked astir those acquainted options, during my demo clip I recovered myself much funny successful The Falcone Fortune, a concatenation of broadside quests that sees you assistance Catwoman interruption into a bid of apartments and rinse them of their valuables. Each spot has a harmless hidden down a unsocial puzzle – you mightiness request to portion unneurotic a key, rotation statues into the close alignment, oregon nonstop an existent feline into tiny spaces to retrieve objects. Again, this is each comparatively casual stuff, but I emotion the usage of Catwoman’s unsocial abilities, from her glass-cutting claws to a wonderfully tactile safecracking minigame, which makes the full lawsuit consciousness gleefully similar feline burglary.

The existent item of the unfastened world, though, is bombing astir Gotham successful 1 of the galore Batmobiles. The driving successful Lego Batman is amazingly good. The handling is arcadey without sacrificing weight. There’s a bully consciousness of heft arsenic you plaything these goth motors astir corners, and thundering done postulation feels fantastic – particularly erstwhile you hammer the throttle and prosecute that iconic afterburner. Racing clip trials supply a much structured extremity for Wayne’s wheels, but for maine the joyousness was successful reliving the Batman phantasy of responding to crimes astatine 100mph. That’s lone enhanced by the enactment of bricky replicas, which successful my demo included Tim Burton’s iconic 1989 onshore rocket, Nolan’s two-wheeled Batpod, the roaring musculus car of The Batman, and adjacent the integrative monstrosity that Val Kilmer was saddled with successful Batman Forever.

Yes, Legacy of the Dark Knight is precise overmuch adjacent opportunities erstwhile it comes to each flavours of the Caped Crusader (although I volition enactment that the Batman & Robin suit arrives without nipples). It's this approach, alternatively than its co-opting of Arkham ideas, that I deliberation not lone defines it, but makes it worthy paying attraction to. By glueing unneurotic integrative recreations of the Dark Knight’s big-screen outings and re-telling them successful a gorgeous unfastened world, TT Games has created what appears to beryllium a wonderful, joyful, and important improvement of what Lego IP games person ever been – movie tie-ins that fto our interior seven-year-olds (or, indeed, our existent seven-year-olds) re-live the cinematic magic. By gathering atop the achievements of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, The Legacy of the Dark Knight appears to beryllium a caller remix of the integrative brick’s ambitions, and it’s that which yet proves much absorbing than its Arkham overlap.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.