LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes is the sequel to the highly praised LEGO Batman: The Videogame. The 1st promotional image was leaked on November 28, 2011, and was later confirmed. The game features other characters from the DC Universe, such as Superman, Wonder Woman, and Lex Luthor. The Mac version of the game was released by Feral Interactive on September 6, 2012. A sequel called LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham was released in November 2014. In LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, the Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin join other famous super heroes from the DC Universe including Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern to save Gotham City from destruction at the hands of the notorious villains Lex Luthor and the Joker. The game features dialogue, and is the first in the Traveller's Tales LEGO series to do so.When Lex Luthor was a teenager, his family moved to Smallville. He became a fan of Superboy, who built him a laboratory in gratitude. There, Luthor studied on how to make artificial life and make a cure for kryptonite poisoning.
Unfortunately, the lab caught on fire and during a rescue attempt by Superboy, chemicals spilled on Luthor, making him bald and destroying his kryptonite cure. He later became Superman's arch-enemy. In LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Luthor comes to the fifth Man of the Year ceremony held in Gotham City, where he loses to Bruce Wayne,, much to his disappointment. However, the ceremony is cut short by the arrival of The Joker, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, and The Riddler. During the robbery, the Joker steals Luthor's watch. After an extended chase, Batman and Robin manage to apprehend the Joker and his comrades, and they are returned to Arkham Asylum. Unfortunately, Lex Luthor gains an interest in using the Joker's laughing gas for his own needs, and breaks him out of prison with his new weapon, the Deconstructor, which breaks apart metal objects. The Joker agrees to help Luthor and the two escape in a helicopter, but not before the Joker frees the other inmates of Gotham City. While the Dynamic Duo deal with the other escaped criminals, the Joker and Luthor invade the Ace Chemicals Plant and cause a fire, which Batman and Robin investigate.
The two are nearly killed until Superman rescues them. After Superman leaves, Batman and Robin chase Luthor and Joker through Gotham City. While Luthor's LexBots fight the duo, the Joker make fake kryptonite. Batman and Robin confront the two criminals but the Joker subdues them and throws them out of Luthor's Juggernaut, and uses the Deconstructor to destroy the Batmobile. Batman takes the fake kryptonite to the Batcave, where he finds out it is a tracking device. Immediately, Lex Luthor and the Joker attack the Batcave, using the Deconstructor to destroy their vehicles and sending the LexBots and the Joker's goons to attack the duo physically. Luthor manages to steal the kryptonite hidden by Batman and retreats, leaving the Batcave on fire. Fortunately, Superman saves the duo again. Luthor and Joker fly to Metropolis in an aircraft, but are followed by Superman and Batman. The two destroy the aircraft's defends and manage to find Joker. However, he uses a trap door that causes Batman to fall out of the aircraft, forcing Superman to rescue him and allowing Luthor and Joker to escape.
Finally reaching Metropolis, Luthor constructs a giant robot. When Superman and Batman find him, he reveals that he plans to use the Joker's gas to mind-control the citizens of Gotham to follow his command. He then apparently kills the two and flies off to Gotham City. However, Batman and Superman had switched suits and are on the robot's trail. After finding out that the two are alive, Luthor deals with Superman himself and weakens him with the kryptonite, knocking him out. He then tries to shoot Batman but misses and he jumps off the robot and saves Superman. The robot, damaged by Superman, falls out of the sky and crashes. Superman, who has been weakened by the kryptonite, can't fly and the robot attacks them, knocking them into the sewers. After sending Joker Goons and LexBots to attack them, the robot uses the gas to mind-control the people. However, Superman and Batman interrupt the robot and damage it further, enraging the Joker to the point that he uses the Deconstructor on Batman.
However, Robin saves him and the robot chases them through Gotham City. However, Batman has tricked the villains and they are seen on a giant tv, which alerts the Justice League of the robot. In response, the robot climbs to the top of Wayne Tower, where Batman, Robin, Green Lantern, and Cyborg knock it off the tower. The robot is destroyed upon impact, and the Joker is knocked out while fighting the League. However, Lex Luthor comes out in a smaller robot, and fights the League. However, he is ultimately defeated when a laser from the Justice League's tower zaps him and destroys the robot. He is then sent to jail with the Joker. He can later be found and fought at the Yatch Club, where he can be bought if defeated. Lex Luthor's main weapon is the Deconstructor, which can destroy Batman, who wears a black suit. While in the Power Armour robot, he can fire the Deconstructor, can fire bullets, and shoot missiles. Luthor is bald, and usually wears a black business suit with a tie.
Lex Luthor (billionaire industrialist and Superman’s archnemesis) really hates Bruce Wayne, better known to comic-book fans as Batman. He dislikes him so much that he’s ready to team up with the Joker in an attempt to not only take down Batman but also brainwash all of Gotham City. When two criminal masterminds join together, it’ll take more than the Dark Knight to defeat them. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes calls on members of the Justice League to help stop Luthor and the Joker from taking over the United States…and probably the world soon after, if they’re successful. It’s the first Lego game to implement voice acting and introduce a giant, open world for players to explore. It definitely feels like a test case for developer Traveler’s Tales upcoming sandbox title, Lego City: Undercover, but not always in a good way. Lego games are all about including multiple characters and abilities from familiar franchises like Star Wars and Harry Potter. The original Lego Batman had a limited roster, but the sequel embraces a sizable portion of DC Comics’ Justice League and adds tons of new items for them to interact with.
The Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Superman join Batman in his fight against Lex Luthor and the Joker, and each comes with unique gameplay mechanics suited to their superpowers. Several new villains from various DC books also show up in Gotham though they are not playable in the main story mode. Even though they feature well-known plots and characters, most Lego games really aren’t that deep. Previous titles tell their stories through cutscenes full of clearly labeled objectives and outrageous animations. Games like Lego Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean basically incorporate scenes and elements from their respective movies and rework them so players can take part in the action. Voice acting completely revolutionizes how Traveler’s Tales tells a story. We know Lex Luthor really hates Bruce Wayne not because he glared at a picture of him but because he repeatedly tells us this right as Batman foils another of his carefully laid plans. Being able to hear and watch characters interact is half of the fun in Lego Batman 2.
The writers strike a near-perfect balance between Batman and Superman. While both heroes are traditionally polite to each other, they don’t really get along. Superman is perpetually chipper while Batman quietly keeps a stash of Kyroptonite in the Batcave just in case the Man of Steel decides to go all evil someday. This dynamic is well defined in DC comics, and it’s great to see it brought out in a more general-audience game. It feels like you’ll almost never run out of things to do in Lego Batman 2. It’s possible to finish the story mode without even approaching 30 percent completion. That’s because the real fun in a Lego game is searching for new characters, finding hidden items, and gathering all the studs (money) you can. Collecting everything means scouring every major landmark in Gotham for villains, gold block kiosks, and purchasable vehicles. Once you finish the story mode, this task gets a lot easier. Just like the missions, several locations in Gotham require you to use certain characters or Batsuits to explore.
This is difficult until you unlock the Gotham freeplay mode, which lets you cycle through characters with ease. Before this, you’re stuck with whatever group you need to finish your next objective, rather than the characters you want to use. While constrained exploration at the game’s start might seem frustrating, it actually adds a new dimension to the game once you’ve finished the story. Almost every game these days suffers from the occasional bug , but Lego Batman 2 is consistent with its errors. Narrow ledges, sloped surfaces, and long drops pose perpetual problems for the Caped Crusader and often cause him to hang in midair until you select the other character in play. Gotham City has very jagged geometry, and the poor little Lego heroes are desperately trying to cling to it. It’s easy to get hung up on debris and craggy ledges no matter how careful you are, and sometimes the computer-controlled characters get caught in perpetual death loops until you hop in and save them.
These problems are present in the original Lego Batman, and it’s sad to see them return. Unfortunately, Lego Batman’s woes don’t end here. Occasionally, the entire game seizes directly before or after a cutscene, often in the same place regardless of what you did before the event activated. In one particularly frustrating moment while playing the Xbox 360 version, the game froze a total of 11 times at the end of a cutscene that was also the end of a level. A random autosave kicked in just before this happened, meaning I could keep retrying the event or start over. Just as desperation kicked in, the game pushed past the glitch and carried on. Previous Lego titles introduced a co-op setting in which the screen changes perspective depending on where players are in the environment. If you move too far apart from the other character, a dividing line appears, giving you a separate view from your partner. This makes sense if you’re looking for loot or activating switches, but sometimes the function is a little overzealous.
Unlike other games, you have absolutely no control over how the dynamic splitscreen behaves in Lego Batman 2, which means it will often send the dividing line spinning out of control when players step away from each other. This would be fine if the screen just cut down the middle, but the line often stretches diagonally and rotates as characters move around. Move fast enough and it’s easy to give yourself a headache. People suffering from occasional motion sickness might want to avoid co-op entirely. It seems absurd that Traveler’s Tales would completely ax what little control players had over this function, but they did. Lego Batman 2 is a departure from the original and a hopeful glimpse at what Traveler’s Tales wants to do with the franchise. If you can stick with it through the rough patches, a funny and engaging adventure awaits. Being able to play so many iconic DC heroes and villains is a refreshing change of pace and offers fans of more obscure characters a chance to see them in action.