Look: Like a lot of you, I’ve suffered from Lego fatigue. Regardless of how a lot I’d care about Avengers or Lord of the Rings or Indiana Jones or any of the opposite properties Lego has tailored through the years, there have been so many Lego video games, every of them with a lot to do. It was unimaginable to maintain up or maintain my curiosity.
However Lego franchise video games appear to have turned a nook now, as Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was a properly refreshed tackle the whole sequence, even because it retained the core Lego recreation collectathon loop. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight seems to be a fair larger departure, standing firmly on a love of Batman throughout all his media incarnations.
At first, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight seems to be an anthology of varied Lego-ized Batman motion pictures just like Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, however even that is not fairly proper. It could be extra correct to name it a fusion of Batman motion pictures, alongside different influences and tales, to construct one thing new and authentic from all of its numerous components. In that manner, it is completely Lego.
For instance, the story mission I performed at Gamescom passed off in Axis Chemical compounds, which followers of the 1989 Michael Keaton film will instantly acknowledge because the birthplace of the Joker. However as a substitute of gangster sociopath Jack Napier being dispatched to destroy incriminating proof within the chemical plant (however with the scenario changing into a setup to kill him for sleeping with the boss’ moll), it is Pink Hood #1, chief of the Pink Hood Gang, as we have seen function the Joker origin story in some comedian iterations. Pink Hood is utilizing the manufacturing unit to fabricate a wierd new compound that makes its victims snigger uncontrollably till they die. Beneath the hood is an unmistakable (and really satisfactory) Jack Nicholson impression, so the character isn’t not the Batman ’89 Joker, however he is been blended with different tales.
Likewise, the Batman who confronts him, at the least on this demo, was the Robert Pattinson iteration of the character, accompanied by a Jim Gordon who seems very very like a Lego Jeffrey Wright, every of them from the 2022 movie The Batman.
This mixing and matching of varied nice moments from Batman cinematic historical past is core to the spirit of Legacy of the Dark Knight, which units the formidable goal of weaving components of the entire Batman motion pictures with different media right into a single coherent story. When requested what which means for recurring characters performed by completely different actors just like the Joker, TT Video games’ Jonathan Smith instructed GameSpot that maybe some horrible issues will occur to the Joker that may make him much more sinister and–presumably, however left unsaid–more like Heath Ledger’s incarnation in The Dark Knight.
That very same sense of playfulness extends to the Easter eggs, which have all the time been a Lego staple however really feel extra targeted right here. Quite than accumulating 100 doodads to unlock 200 completely different however mechanically an identical characters, you are unlocking deep-cut types for Batman and Commissioner Gordon. These embody some you’d anticipate, like iconic film appearances, alongside some you may not. Batman appeared particularly nice in his Courageous and the Daring costume modeled after the 2008 cartoon present.
Each Batman and Gordon have seems primarily based on their very first comedian appearances, together with Bats’ dopey huge cowl ears and Gordon’s white go well with and wispy mustache. The most stunning was Batman’s Rainbow Suit, a totally rendered Lego model of a traditional and intensely goofy Silver Age comedian e-book that has obtained iconic camp standing.
However not content material to borrow solely from nice Batman motion pictures, Legacy of the Dark Knight additionally borrows from nice Batman video games. The fight is clearly impressed by the Arkham sequence, as Batman can carry out stealth takedowns of unsuspecting Lego enemies or soar into the center of a brawl with timing-based fight. That is simplified in some ways–the timing home windows are wider and the visible indicators are greater than within the Arkham video games, and also you solely have two devices to make use of in fights. But it surely seems like an affectionate homage to mechanics which have grow to be as central to the character as any film, within the minds of Arkham followers. Legacy of the Dark Knight additionally introduces issue ranges, letting youthful or less-experienced gamers THWACK and POW like Batman, whereas giving extra skilled Arkham followers extra and harder enemies to struggle and, for the primary time I bear in mind, a restricted pool of lives to spend on encounters.
And just like the later Arkham video games, the hub world is a wide-open Gotham Metropolis that may be explored freely. You possibly can cease crimes, discover Bat caches, smash collectibles like Penguin rubber duckies, and skulk alongside the rooftops or gracefully glide between them. You possibly can zip-line your manner as much as achieve velocity after which float, and for those who’ve constructed up sufficient vitality from beating down thugs, you possibly can launch even greater into the air to get a birds-eye view of the town. If going ground-level is extra your type, you possibly can summon a Batmobile wherever within the open world. I solely noticed the Robert Pattinson muscle automotive iteration from The Batman in my demo, however TT Video games has already teased many extra Batmobiles to return, and they are often freely geared up like Batman and Gordon’s costumes.
I did not actually know what to anticipate subsequent out of TT Video games after The Skywalker Saga, however Legacy of the Dark Knight is such a pleasing shock. Once you’re completed constructing a Lego set, you would possibly take it aside and see what else you may make from all of the items. TT Video games seems to be doing that with the Batman mythos, and I can not wait to see what they construct out of it.