As a lifelong Lego Batman fan, Legacy of the Dark Knight is nothing short of a dream come true. While I will praise the revamped combat, detailed open world, and charming story, it’s the design philosophy they’re spawned from that makes the game so successful. Legacy of the Dark Knight leaves no meat on the bone, with no corner of Batman’s mythology left unturned as it depicts every version of the Caped Crusader fans have come to love. Even with my dissatisfaction with stealth and some minor glitches, the latest Lego Batman is a rain-slicked success. As I played, I heard developer TT Games’ thesis ringing through, loud and clear: People love Batman; here are all the reasons why.
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Review:
Story mode takes players across decades of Bruce Wayne’s life, from young child to rookie vigilante to greying patriarch of the Bat Family. To do so, TT Games pulls sequences from most of Batman’s live-action appearances, remixing them into a single narrative. Despite recognizing every reference, I never got tired of seeing Batman’s highlights in goofy, brick-based form, and I was always curious to learn how TT Games would transition from one movie villain to the next. Ultimately, however, Legacy of the Dark Knight combines these pieces into a new story, which I appreciated. The ending and final boss fight are particularly exciting, as they alter expected twists to tell an original conclusion.
Each chapter also introduces a new companion for Batman. You train alongside Talia al Ghul at the League of Shadows, take on Carmine Falcone with Jim Gordon, battle Mr. Freeze with Batgirl, and even get to see Dick Grayson’s journey from Robin to Nightwing. That said, I was left wishing Nightwing felt more distinct from his younger self, as both wield escrima sticks and their gadgets are nearly identical. Catwoman is also present, and while I enjoyed playing as her early on, she feels cast aside by the story’s conclusion compared to the rest of the cast.
Players inhabit these characters to use the game’s overhauled mechanics, which are the most complex a Lego game has ever had, while remaining comprehensible to younger audiences. Plenty of prior Lego games were specifically designed for children, but with skill trees, gadget upgrades, great level design, and a new combat system, Legacy of the Dark Knight is truly meant for all ages.
The aforementioned combat system is lifted almost verbatim from the Arkham games, with counter-based gameplay and familiar enemy variants. While there are also three included difficulty levels (a first for the Lego franchise), the highest level was only mildly challenging. It’s likely my prior Arkham playthroughs altered my experience, but I played the whole game without upgrading my health and never lost all three of my lives. However, it’s certainly engaging enough to hold my interest, and I still had lots of fun punching henchmen.
Meanwhile, stealth is Legacy of the Dark Knight’s least consistent element. It’s an option in many story encounters, but it’s either far too simple, with enemies lined up with their backs to you, or simply intended as an entrance move, with enemies so clustered up that you can only take out one or two before being seen. Luckily, it’s also not very punishing, as a failed stealth approach just turns into normal combat, but I wish more thought had been put into this side of the Dark Knight’s skillset.
You’ll spend time between story missions in open-world Gotham City, which is easily one of the game’s most successful features. Across its four islands, it’s dynamic and organic, full of diverse architecture, pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and just about every Batman-related landmark you could hope for. There’s plenty to discover just by driving the city’s roads, but it’s also built with Batman’s verticality in mind, with puzzles and collectibles scattered across the skyline. There’s no shortage of things to do here, with hundreds of puzzles and short sidequests appearing on the map as you progress through the campaign. It will take me hours and hours to scour the city in the quest to reach 100-percent completion, and I plan to enjoy every second of it.
I should also note that I encountered some scarce bugs across my roughly 15-hour playthrough, usually because of the game’s physics. I’d grapple to a ledge but fail to hold on, characters would oddly vibrate on uneven surfaces, and a few times my camera clipped out of bounds. No issues were game-breaking, but all were distracting, even though they only happened about a dozen times.
Still, I am utterly delighted by Legacy of the Dark Knight. Its story is charming and effective, its combat is engaging, and its open world is top-notch. It’s a no-holds-barred approach to the revered character, and though there are spots where the execution could have been better, TT Games included everything I could have asked for in one wholly entertaining package. The Dark Knight has a storied legacy, and this adventure does it justice.
