Let’s get this out of the way: Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight isn’t actually a new Arkham game. However, it gets a lot closer to recreating that experience than I expected from a Lego game. And while I was disappointed by the game’s smaller roster of playable characters compared to past TT Games–developed Lego titles and by its rushed second half, the feeling of gliding around the streets of Gotham, completing Riddler puzzles, and beating up hundreds of goons is just as fun as it was in Arkham City. Plus, none of the Arkham games included Prince’s fantastic song “Partyman.”
Out now on PS5, Xbox, and PC for people who paid extra (boo!), Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is the next big Lego game from TT Games, the studio behind Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and so, so many other Lego games.
This time around, however, TT Games is doing something it’s never really done before. Legacy of the Dark Knight isn’t a direct adaptation of any specific past Batman media. Instead, it remixes the movies and cartoons into one unified but original Batman story. This fan-service-filled Batman story provides the narrative backbone for a Lego recreation of the mechanics and gameplay elements found in the Rocksteady-developed Arkham games, including a large, explorable open world.
Batman: Arkham Lego Edition
This is the first time TT Games has tried to completely recreate a different video game franchise within one of its Lego games. Sure, Lego Dimensions featured levels based on Valve’s Portal and some Sonic content, but those still felt like Lego games that just bolted on some ideas from other franchises. That’s not the case with Legacy of the Dark Knight.
Nearly every part of Dark Knight plays and feels like an Arkham game. Combat involves Batman and allies bouncing around thugs, building up combos, jumping over baddies carrying shields, and using finishers. There aren’t as many gadgets or enemy types as found in the Arkham games, but there’s enough here that I never got bored getting into big fights.
Gliding around the city using Batman’s grapple hook and cape, like in Arkham City and Arkham Knight, also feels wonderful. Before long, I was zooming around Gotham using a combo of grapple pulls and gliding dives. It reminded me of how nice it felt to swing around New York in Insomniac’s Spider-Man games. It’s the kind of movement that makes you never want to fast travel, though Legacy of the Dark Knight also lets you do that.
Another element ripped from the Arkham games, specifically Arkham Knight, is the addition of a drivable Batmobile. (Batman’s playable allies have their own vehicles, too.) Unlike in Knight, where the Batmobile felt like an out-of-place tank, here in Lego Batman, it serves as another fun way to get around the multiple islands that make up Gotham. I was surprised by how aggressive and loud the Batmobile is and how much I enjoy whipping around corners at high speed or crashing through all the various Lego-built props littering the street. The Batmobile, which can be customized to look like various incarnations of the iconic vehicle, is even used in some puzzle-solving, too.
And yes, for all you folks out there who love hunting down Riddler Trophies in the Arkham games, Legacy of the Dark Knight is chockablock with Riddler puzzles to solve. And there’s even Cluemaster puzzles as well. None of these puzzles are terribly complicated or hard to solve; most are just challenging enough that solving them doesn’t feel like busywork. Still, a few stumped me for longer than I expected, considering this is a game designed primarily for kids. I can’t wait to load up the game again so I can solve the rest of these puzzles, as well as collect everything else: wanted posters, hidden Bat Coins, and destructible props related to other supervillains hidden around the city.
The other major component of the Arkham games that so heavily influenced this one is stealth, and sadly, that’s the one part of Legacy of the Dark Knight that doesn’t quite work as well here as it did there. You can sneak around, but enemies are very stupid and easy to avoid, and often areas don’t feel like they were built to give Batman and his various playable allies interesting opportunities to stick to the shadows. I was never annoyed by stealth sections in the game, but I do wish TT Games had designed areas in a way that better facilitated being sneaky.
Batman begins, continues, then ends
Playing through Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight’s main story, which I completed in about 12 hours, is a strange experience. TT Games tries to combine a lot of Batman movies and TV shows into one big story, and the end result is a bit of a mess.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved all the references to past Batman media, like the Joker destroying a museum while “Partyman” by Prince plays in the background. Or the incredible recreation of the opening to Batman: The Animated Series, complete with 4:3 ratio and the classic theme music. But hopping from Batman Begins, to Batman (1989), to Batman the Animated Series, to Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises leads to a story that never quite comes together.
It’s a shame, because in the first half of the game, as it builds up who the Joker is and plays around with him evolving into different eras of the character, it’s really good. But that storyline stalls and fades away as Dark Knight juggles a lot of characters from the many eras of Batman.
Another problem the game’s narrative has to contend with is that, from the start to the end, you can play the entire game in co-op. This is great, but it also means that Dark Knight has to keep coming up with reasons that Batman isn’t working alone or why a character like Jim Gordon or Catwoman is still hanging around the Caped Crusader.
Your choice of Bat-Buddy in Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is also limited as a result of TT Games including a much smaller roster of playable characters than in past games. Before, you’d often have dozens or even hundreds of options. But in Dark Knight, you can only play as Batman, Jim Gordon, Robin, Catwoman, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Talia. And…that’s it.
To TT Games’ credit, each of these characters does play very differently, unlike the huge rosters in their past games which were populated with a lot of reskinned characters that felt identical to play. Batman is aggressive with a lot of useful combat moves and gadgets. Meanwhile, Gordon is good at crowd control with his blaster that fires bouncy balls. Robin and Nightwing offer up new mobility options. And Catwoman can crack safes and sic cats on her enemies. But all characters have gliders and grapple guns, like Batman, which makes them all feel very similar when exploring the city. And when playing solo, swapping between them to solve puzzles can be a bit finicky.
Thankfully, each character has plenty of costumes to choose from, so while the roster is small, you can deck them out in all sorts of looks. I dressed Batman up in his Arkham Asylum outfit as it felt fitting for this adventure.
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight
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Back-of-the-box quote:
“Close enough. Welcome back, Batman Arkham franchise.”
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Developer
TT Games
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Type of Game
Open-world Lego co-op action-adventure
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Liked
Looks amazing, combat and traversal feel great, very Arkham-like, map filled with collectibles and puzzles
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Disliked
Small character roster, story feels rushed in the second half, and annoying radio chatter
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Platforms
PS5 (Played on PS5 Pro), Xbox Series X/S, PC
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Release Date
Paid early access – May 19 Full release – May 22
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Played
17 hours. Completed main story. Finished about 60% of the side content in the open world.
Gotham’s endless crime, night, and yelling
While I enjoyed all the Arkham gameplay, Batman references, puzzles, and humor throughout the game, including a cutscene where construction workers are seen using an orange Lego brick remover to clean up the aftermath of a big fight, the thing that makes all this work is Gotham.
The city of Gotham in Dark Knight is one of the coolest-looking open-world playgrounds I’ve visited in a long time. It’s like a mix of the bustling but grimy Gotham seen in Rocksteady’s games, but with splashes of the ‘80s and ‘90s Batman movies, which featured an oddly shaped and colorful Gotham. Cramming these two styles together could have been a disaster, but here it works perfectly.
I loved gliding around this city that feels so alive. Cars and buses drive around every street. Citizens walk about corners and alleys. Subway trains shoot by, fast and loud. Just standing on a building in Gotham as Batman and listening to the noises around me, like far-off trains, honking cars, people talking, and more, really made me feel like I was in a city. And if you go poke around the dark corners and rooftops of Gotham, you’ll spot all sorts of tiny details, like signs for plays, characters cleaning up messes, and abandoned shops.
It’s always night in Gotham, too, and it rains quite a bit, but that just makes the city look even better as bits and bricks of the city and its people look great when drenched in raindrops. Reflections also look stunning, and the lights in the city pop in a way that made me pull out the photo mode far too often. On PS5 Pro, this all ran mostly at 60FPS and looked incredibly sharp on my big TV. It’s one of the best-looking open-world cities I’ve explored this generation, and I hope people really look around it because it’s clear a lot of work and love went into Gotham and the Lego characters (and animals) that inhabit its streets.
Annoyingly, exploring this city leads to one other big problem in Dark Knight: Characters won’t shut up.
If you get near a collectible or puzzle, nine times out of 10, the character associated with it will suddenly start talking to you about it. Co-op characters also point out stuff all the time or comment on your driving. And the police will frequently request help for ongoing crimes near you. Sometimes, I’d have like three different characters competing to yell at me, and it made me want to mute the game. I hope TT Games adds an option to limit the radio chatter in a future update, because right now it’s extremely grating.
Some annoying radio chatter, a small character roster, and a narrative that feels rushed in its final hours hold Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight back a bit, but it doesn’t ruin the overall package. This is still a damn fine video game that looks incredible and offers up the closest thing to a new Batman Arkham game that we’re likely to get for the foreseeable future.
Speaking of the future, between 2022’s Skywalker Saga, Fortnite’s Lego Odyssey mode, Lego’s Builder Journey puzzle game, and now this Arkham-inspired Lego open-world adventure, it feels like we are truly in a new era of Lego games that aren’t just the same thing reskinned over and over. That’s exciting, and I can’t wait to see what comes next from TT Games and other Lego-approved game studios.
As for this latest installment, if you love Batman, Lego, or just enjoy a good open-world video game, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is worth checking out. And if you have a kid who loves games, they’ll be able to play with you from start to finish. Just be prepared not to play as Batman in the scenario.
