Review: Lego Batman – Legacy of the Dark Knight

The young Bruce Wayne sees his parents murdered and decides to seek revenge. He uses his own fear of bats to create an alter ego to instill the same terror in criminals. He becomes Batman and fights crime in the lawless Gotham City with the help of his butler Alfred and the policeman Gordon.

The story of Batman, or Läderlappen as he was called when I was growing up, is the youngest of the first three original superheroes. Superman debuted in 1938 and The Phantom in 1936. Since 1938, countless films, TV series, and games have appeared about the bat-costumed crime fighter.

Lego and Batman – a personal connection

Lego has always been a great passion of mine, as have Lego games. I own a number of them, and when it was announced that Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight was in development, I was immediately curious. The first Lego Batman game was released in 2008, followed by two more, with the latest in 2014. They didn’t really have anything to do with the version of Batman that later appeared in The Lego Batman Movie from 2017, where Will Arnett delivers a fantastic interpretation of the character.

In Lego DC Super-Villains Batman appears voiced by the legendary Kevin Conroy, while the Joker is played by Mark Hamill. I gave that game a perfect score specifically for the perfect gallery of voice actors combined with fun gameplay.

Now I’m sitting here with Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. How does it compare?

A more story-driven experience

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is significantly more story-driven than previous Lego games. Here, we truly get to follow Bruce Wayne on his journey toward becoming Batman. In the first level, you play as Bruce as a child and his father on their way to the cinema. After that, we see how he trains and slowly but surely becomes the terrifying icon he is.

It’s wonderful how the creators have borrowed from all possible versions of Batman and blended them into their own story. For example, we get the car chase with the Penguin from The Batman, but he looks and sounds like the Penguin from Batman Returns. Ra’s al Ghul appears and sounds like Liam Neeson and takes the opportunity to make a Taken reference. In one sequence, there is even an American Psycho nod when Bruce hands over his business card and a character admires its watermark. There are references to the 1966 Batman TV series and the legendary Shark Repellent spray from Batman: The Movie.

At the same time, there’s an original story here that I haven’t seen before in any medium. It’s a strange but wonderful experience to play the origin stories of two iconic characters in the same week: Batman and James Bond in 007 First Light.

Gameplay mechanics and structure

The gameplay mechanics are familiar from other Lego games: you smash things to get Lego studs to trade with, build objects to progress, and the game relies on cooperation between two characters. If you play alone, you can easily switch between them to solve puzzles. You can also upgrade weapons and equipment, and the structure feels more mature than previous Lego titles.

For me, it’s no problem that the game has a higher difficulty level than usual. I love it. But as a reviewer, I must consider that the game is also aimed at children. For younger players, both the themes and the difficulty might be a bit too much.

Voice actors and presentation

One thing I find unfortunate is that none of the famous voices are provided by the actual actors. I understand that Jack Nicholson isn’t appearing as the Joker, but the fact that Will Arnett isn’t voicing Batman and is instead replaced by a sound-alike feels disappointing. The same applies to Liam Neeson, Danny DeVito and other iconic voices. On the other hand, the developers have created the best-looking and largest Lego game ever, so saving on the voice acting is still understandable.

An open world in Lego format

The game is an open-world adventure with a massive map. You can drive through the city — choosing between all the iconic vehicles Batman has piloted over nearly 90 years — or glide across the rooftops. Alongside the main missions, there are plenty of side quests and crimes to solve. The structure is very reminiscent of the Spider-Man games.

The graphics are incredibly beautiful. Neither in Lego movies nor games has the Batman world looked this good before. The lighting effects are impressive and the environments are incredibly detailed. The only thing that bothers me slightly is that not everything is made of Lego: mountains, walls, and floors are sometimes made of stone. At the same time, the animations are extremely creative, where, for example, liquids are Lego bricks. So it’s not consistent, but it doesn’t significantly detract from the experience.

Technical performance

I played on Playstation 5 Pro and chose Performance mode, which provides 1800p and a stable 60 FPS. There is also a 120 FPS mode, but then the resolution drops to 1080p. In Fidelity mode, you get native 4K and up to 40 FPS.

On the standard Playstation 5, you get 30 FPS in Fidelity and 60 FPS in Performance, but no 120 FPS mode.

I have also read that Xbox Series X and Series S offer roughly the same performance, except that the 120 FPS mode appears to be missing.

I truly love Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. In my personal book, it gets full marks. It’s an immensely fun gaming experience in terms of feel, story, and execution. The only reason I’m not giving it a perfect score in the review is that the game is quite difficult for younger players and is therefore not a game for everyone.

Warner Bros Games sent a review code for this test. Providers of material have no editorial influence on our tests.