Does “Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight” have a ‘bat in its belfry.’ 🦇🤔
If “LOTDK” doesn’t use their reimagining of the 1989 “Batman” film’s joker parade scene to justify introducing aerial combat / traversal in the game, I am gonna be slightly disappointed after spending money on the most expensive Batman game to date ($90 for the Deluxe Edition).
Let’s take a look at how Batman games in the past have disappointed us die-hard Batman fans (yes, this list is subjective and limited in scope, but hear me out):
1). Batman: Arkham Asylum - Phenomenal and ground-breaking combat, inspiring tons of future super hero games; but it started the tradition of looking for riddler trophies (something that got less popular and enjoyable as the series went on), had no contact with Alfred or much (if any) mention of alter ego Bruce Wayne, and exploration was limited in scope to an island, but that beautiful Gotham panoramic in the distance kept us wanting more.
2). Batman: Arkham City - A huge step (or leap) forward for the franchise, and a great story, and more emotional risk for the characters; but they KILLED THE JOKER and we still didn’t get Gotham per say, but instead a crumbling part of the city fenced off to be a super prison. But again, that panoramic of larger Gotham is very tempting.
3). Batman: Arkham Origins - A great game for many reasons, and loved the winter environment; but Joker replaced Black Mask, they gave us a Gotham that still isn’t true Gotham (and part of it was the Gotham we had in Arkham City), everyone was on a mandated curfew so the city didn’t feel alive, and we couldn’t actually use the Batwing and still had no vehicles for traversal.
4). Batman: Arkham Knight - Finally, a real Gotham! Nope, that’s right, Arkham Knight’s Gotham looked nothing like the panoramic in ‘Asylum’ or ‘City’ which was hugely disappointing and kinda broke the continuity of the projects a little bit for me. And there were no civilians because the city was evacuated; basically, it wasn’t a functioning city. And despite having the Batmobile with various skins, we still had no vehicular aerial traversal and driving around the city actually gets pretty boring because the city is just not dense enough to make it a convincing metropolis. A step forward, yes, but not true Gotham!
So, will “Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight” finally give us a Gotham that is “true Gotham” (and yes, we can define that differently depending on what aesthetic or comic version of Gotham we prefer, but it at least needs to be a functional city); and will we get aerial traversal like some of the older LEGO Batman titles???? What about sea traversal????
I’m very hopeful that in the future we will get a Batman game that finally gives us a real, functional, sprawling Gotham, and access to all of Batman’s “wonderful toys” (including those that fly and float)!
I’m very hyped for this game, and will no doubt enjoy it (it is Batman, after all…..even if in Lego form); but I’m looking for this game to hopefully check some boxes that the previous releases have shunned.
What do you all think?
*Disclaimer: I am aware that game studios design aspects of their game to fit the overall requirements for gameplay, and I’m not criticizing that; I’m just saying we haven’t ever gotten a true, comic accurate Gotham City or Batman in terms of scope and depth. Also, I know that studios are limited in terms of what they can do by technology; but that is changing fast! How fast???…..maybe LOTDK will show us.