Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight – Review

Reliving the legendary tales of franchise icons, building wacky tools to help solve puzzles, and collecting tons of studs along the way – these have been the hallmarks of developer Traveller’s Tales’ Lego video games, and over the years, the studio has added well-known IPs like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and, of course, Marvel and DC heroes (and villains) to its line-up, providing wholesome family-friendly fun all with an addictive collection loop.

But none have had the cultural influence of the Caped Crusader, who has been gamified in Lego form, with Batman appearing in three franchise titles over the years – Lego Batman: The Videogame (2008), Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (2012), and Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (2014), as well as appear in Lego films and even lead his own 2017 Lego movie, which explains why the World’s Greatest Detective is a natural pick to embark on what’s possibly his biggest brickified adventure yet with Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.

Unlike his past two games, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, as its name suggests, follows the adventures of Bruce Wayne as seen throughout his multitude of movies over the years, from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy to 2022’s The Batman, and even his adventures from days long past, like 1997’s Batman & Robin.

This time, though, the classic Lego video game formula has been adjusted slightly to mark the icon’s return, combining its familiar elements with those of publisher Warner Bros. Games’ other massively popular franchise, the Batman: Arkham series, resulting in a title that combines the best of (almost) every Batman across the multiverse, albeit in a truncated form, and offers a lighthearted celebration of Batman’s lasting legacy.

Unsurprisingly, the entire historied storyline of the Caped Crusader simply won’t fit into the game’s decently lengthy campaign (which clocks in at around 10 hours for a full story playthrough), and that’s why the game selects only certain parts of each movie and combines them into one tangible narrative, with players witnessing the origins of the hero, and facing off against iconic villains such as the Joker, Poison Ivy, and Mr Freeze.

This means that certain iconic moments throughout Batman’s journey have been changed or cut out entirely, like his drama with Ra’s and Talia al Ghul over being the former’s successor, or the circumstances that led Harvey Dent to become Two-Face in 2008’s The Dark Knight. Despite the omissions, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight still manages to find the time to offer snippets of Batman lore not often seen outside the comics, such as the Joker’s origins as the original Red Hood, and the Flying Grayson incident, which resulted in a young Dick Grayson taking the mantle as the first member of the Bat-Family.

True to the Lego game formula, Legacy of the Dark Knight not only offers a truncated version of some of his most iconic encounters but also imbues them with its trademark humour, replacing some of the movies’ more non-PG moments with lighthearted jokes instead. Dick’s family, for example, doesn’t die here, but instead fires him from the circus troupe, and the Joker detonates paint bombs to vandalise Gotham General Hospital instead of blowing it up.

This humorous nature extends to almost every aspect of the game’s narrative, but like the Lego games that came before, the jokes and references are in full swing here. Fancy an inside joke about how people constantly confuse Deathstroke and Deadshot? You’ve got it. Want supervillains who constantly speak in puns related to the themes of their characters? Sure, why not. How about a legendary Tweet typo made by one Sir Michael Caine in August 2024? Yes, it’s in here too. Legacy of the Dark Knight simultaneously celebrates the adventures of its caped hero while keeping its themes lighthearted, and while most of its writing is obviously catered to the younger crowd, even we older folks might still chuckle at a one-liner or two, unless you have a Cold, Cold Heart.

While its narrative hasn’t deviated much from the usual Lego game affair, gameplay in Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is where the Lego game franchise has seen the biggest change, and it all begins at the start, where players are presented with a difficulty selection screen. Yes, for the first time in Lego game history, players can choose how tough they want the game to be, with three choices spanning Classic, which offers the traditional unlimited lives format with fewer enemies, Caped Crusader, which ups the enemy count, and Dark Knight, which further increases the enemies, alongside introducing limited lives for most campaign missions.

This new difficulty choice all ties with the game’s updated combat system, which borrows from other Batman games and, unlike past Lego games, is now front and centre to the gameplay experience. Taking its cues from Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham trilogy, players will now flow from foe to foe in combat, dealing hits while avoiding and countering enemies to build up a score multiplier. This system has been heavily simplified though, with score multipliers no longer linked to special finishers, with the latter having its own meter which charges up with every hit. Familiar enemy archetypes like shielded or giant goons also make their return, and each can be countered in a similar manner seen in the Arkham games.

Even with the game’s new difficulty settings, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight remains an accessible action title, and while the difference between the amount of enemies seen in the Classic and Dark Knight difficulties is truly knight and day, those familiar with the Arkham titles should have no trouble breezing through encounters.

That’s not the only thing that has been borrowed from the Arkham franchise, as Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight also features stealth, which operates like a heavily simplified version of its source material. Batman can sneak up on foes to take them out silently, or grapple up to perches for a knockout from above, although, since this is a Lego game, enemy sightlines are nowhere as strict as the Arkham games.

Perhaps the best way to describe the game’s combat and stealth would be “Arkham-Lite”. These systems will no doubt be pretty cool for the younger crowd not familiar with Rocksteady’s franchise, but for avid Arkham fans, it might be a little too simplified, resulting in combat feeling rather stale after the first couple of hours. Of course, one can’t fault the title too much, as at the end of the day, the game is primarily targeted at the younger crowd, but it would have been nice to see a more in-depth adaptation of the now-iconic combat system.

Be it in combat or stealth, Batman won’t be alone in the action, as players will also steadily unlock a handful of companion characters, from Jim Gordon to Catwoman and Robin. Apart from having unique moves in combat, each character also has access to two tools. Batman, for example, has his iconic Batarangs and Batclaw, while Jim has two types of firearms that can launch sticky glue or a shot that bounces. Players will use these tools as they complete levels, or while doing activities out in the open world (more on that later), solving simple environmental puzzles such as building outrageous tools to overcome the smallest of obstacles.

Like past Lego games, Legacy of the Dark Knight is split into chapters, and the six here are each focused on a specific time in Batman’s journey and a specific villain. Players will embark on bite-sized missions, each taking place in some of the most iconic locales seen across the franchise, like ACE Chemicals or the Iceberg Lounge, as they smash, build, and fight their way towards the end of the mission, which often leads to a boss fight. Since this is a Lego game, bosses often come in wacky forms, such as Poison Ivy summoning a giant two-headed plant dragon, or Mr Freeze piloting an ice hockey mech, but while grand in scale, these fights are once again more style than substance, and often don’t pose much of a threat.

Legacy of the Dark Knight’s Arkham-inspired side might have seen the bulk of its simplifications, but that doesn’t mean the core Lego experience hasn’t been altered. Unfortunately, the game has also seen a truncation in this regard, especially when it comes to character and stud collection, a core aspect of every Lego title. Beginning with the former, the game only has a lineup of seven characters, which, compared to Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga’s (2022) whopping 380, seems like a pretty big downgrade.

Granted, having only a handful of playable heroes means that each feels and plays differently, especially with regard to puzzle solving, but even then, there’s still a repeat here, as Robin and Nightwing are practically identical in terms of their base abilities, and although this does make sense as they are the same person, it feels like a waste opportunity to include other notable sidekicks, like Jason Todd’s Red Hood.

And then there’s the missions, which have also seen a simplification in terms of objectives for completionists. In the past, every mission had a stud milestone, which tasked players with attaining a certain number of studs to achieve the “true hero” status, rewarding them with collectables in the process. This entire system is now gone, replaced by a temporary stud multiplier that increases the more players collect. Red Bricks also make a return, but now, instead of granting interesting perks like permanent stud multipliers or cheats, collecting them simply rewards colourways for the character’s various costumes.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight’s core gameplay loop might be intentionally simplistic in nature, but its open world of Gotham is nothing but. This is perhaps the largest and densest Lego game open world to date, and players will have no shortage of sights to see and activities to discover during their downtime in between missions. From solving the Riddler’s puzzles to saving escaped zoo animals, there’s always something to do at every corner, with some activities even providing additional lore, such as the scaly transformation of one Waylon Jones.

Like any Lego game, probably the most fun lies in collecting the various outfits for Batman and his crew, alongside unlocking a number of unique vehicles for each character. Unsurprisingly, the Caped Crusader has seen the most love here, with over 40 costumes to collect, ranging from classics like the suits from earlier Batman films to unique looks like Absolute Batman from Scott Snyder’s 2024 comic.

Unlocking and purchasing vehicles is also immensely satisfying, and being able to rampage through the streets of Gotham in the video game renditions of real-life Lego sets like The Batman Batmobile (#76332) or Batmobile Tumbler (#76240) feels amazing thanks to the game’s tight, yet still arcadey driving controls.

At the end of the day, that’s the joy of Lego games, and Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is no different. Yes, the implementation of some of its new, Arkham-inspired systems might be a tad simple for anyone other than the younger gamer audience, but being a feature-rich action game isn’t what it’s trying to be. At its core, this is a celebration of some of Batman’s most iconic adventures, looks and vehicles across his many comics, films, and TV shows, and those jumping in with those expectations in mind are sure to find a delightful, brick-breaking adventure to remember.

Kevin Low

Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.