The old-fashioned Lego smash-em-up model still works The excellent rendering of Lego structures Too easy to get stuck on one level for 15 minutes In thousands of years' time, after some Great Event that probably happens and buries us all under metres of dust, future archaeologists will dig us up, and what will they find? Amongst the rubble, bones, and Nokia 3310s, our legacy will be billions upon billions of Lego bricks, a remnant of the world's most beloved and ubiquitous toy. Lego games, on the other hand, sit alongside their video game brethren in the ephemeral category - existing only from console generation to console generation, pleasing owners only as long as their runtime.There's nothing wrong with that, as long as the 20+ hours you spend in-game manage to entertain and enthral as much as the bricks themselves. The problem here is that Lego Batman never captures my creativity, my imagination and my block-loving heart as much as Lego games have in the past. In fact, at several points in the game, I feel downright bored.
Playing the game itself is fiddly, time-consuming and confusing. The suits, which give different abilities to a handful of characters, are equipped via a wheel, but you have to remember what each one does; you'll find yourself hesitating, trying to recall whether the Demolition Suit or the Space Suit was the one that destroyed silver objects, while hordes of endlessly spawning goons run at you and your AI companions (actual, powerful superhumans) fail to do much in the way of helping.And all that is when you know what you're supposed to be doing. Though small tutorials help you through the first stages, the game is annoyingly silent when it comes to certain areas or abilities, and you'll have to figure out for yourself that Object A needs to be destroyed or that Character X can walk through fire.Sharp Dressed (Bat)ManThough the outfits are fiddly, there's some interesting stuff to be found in the characters’ wardrobes. Batman has a sensor suit that allows him to see invisible objects, and several characters have a suit that turns them into a human lightbulb.
Sadly, there are also a couple of duff ones - like a hazard suit that lets you hoover up ‘radioactive’ objects that turn out to just be green and yellow Lego - and a special suit that Robin has to wear to make him smart. Poor Robin.With an overly sullen interpretation of Bruce Wayne's grumpy alter ego, Lego Batman 3 has clearly attempted to replicate the brooding, damaged figure of Christian Bale's Caped Crusader, but what we get is much closer to the sociopathy of Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman; nowhere near Will Arnett’s charmingly unfriendly Batman in the Lego Movie, either.Meanwhile, The Joker has a voice like the Mad Hatter, with all the sinister villainy of a slightly perturbed bunny, and Solomon Grundy - the swamp-zombie with a penchant for crime and murdering - is recast as a big, stupid, lumbering Hulk-like figure. bat is a big part of superhero games, but the Lego series has never quite managed to get it right - punching, shooting and smashing up the scenery is infinitely more enjoyable than having to deal with waves of weak henchmen that too often feel like filler.
Boss battles are treated more like puzzles, with quite a few requiring you to wait for the enemy to throw a vital object at you before you can continue. This isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, and it’s usually a great opportunity to use a variety of powers, but when every boss battle is the same rinse-and-repeat waiting game, it starts to get a bit grating.Colour-matching mini-games and surprising levels - like a romp through a miniaturised Paris - mix things up between regular, linear stages, but these are quite few and far between, and the mini-games do get tedious after a while. Many of the powers are repeated from Lego Batmans of the past, as well as Lego Marvel Superheroes, though the constant costume changes may leave you longing for a return to Marvel Superheroes' relative simplicity.Glimpses of humour stand out brilliantly, from the bizarre (an enemy's tentacles being cut up into sushi) to the silly (the superheroes becoming possessed by the emotions of the Lantern Corps, leading The Joker to become all soppy and Flash incredibly possessive).
The gags are slightly let down by the insistence of the writers to point out how dumb they are all the time, with Wonder Woman constantly rolling her eyes at bad puns, and a badly misjudged inclusion of Conan O'Brien as the Batcave's tour guide. His constant, irritating and unfunny jokes will tempt you into throwing him off the Batwaterfall, and it comes across as a strange and unnecessary attempt at pop culture appeal.The game is at its best when it's being self-referential and giving a sly nudge-nudge-wink-wink to DC's fans. Tucked away in the Batcave is a set from Adam West's Batman, which plays the original theme; Wonder Woman's flight is accompanied by the '70s TV theme; unlockable characters include Ace the Bat-Hound and Bat-Cow. In fact, the roster - standing at over 150 characters - ticks even the most obscure boxes (ketchup-wielding villain Condiment King, anyone?).Lego Batman seems to be going the same way as regular, fleshy Batman was a few years ago, pre-Dark Knight trilogy.
Problematic characterisation, strange, unengaging storylines and a glut of superheroes/villains vastly more interesting than Batman come together in a finished product that never quite does the series justice. It really isn't a terrible game, all things considered, but it's not a good Lego game either. What Lego Batman needs - other than a personality adjustment - is a good old-fashioned reboot. We've had enough Lego Batman & Robin; it's time to see Lego Batman Begins.Lego Batman 3 has all the ingredients of the other, enjoyable, Lego superhero games, but is let down by clunky controls, poor signposting and questionable translations of well-known comic book personalities.This game was reviewed on Xbox One.Guillermo del Toro, a preview of “Lego Batman 3,” and Kevin Bacon and costars from “The Following” are highlights from the schedule for Comic-Con’s closing day, Sunday, July 27. Starting at the not-unreasonable time of 11:15 a.m. in Hall H, Bacon is to make his return to the San Diego pop-culture exposition to tout the third season of Fox’s “The Following,” which is scheduled to air in early 2015.
He’ll be joined by cast mates Shawn Ashmore (“X-Men: The Last Stand”), Sam Underwood (“Dexter”), and Jessica Stroup (“90210”), with creator/executive producer Kevin Williamson (“Scream”) and executive producer Marcos Siega (“The Vampire Diaries”), for an on-stage Q&A and video presentation. In anticipation of the fall release of the latest in the massively popular “Lego Batman” video game series, the “Lego Batman 3” panel will feature an exclusive game-play demonstration and boasts character reveals, exciting prizes and giveaways, and the all-too titillating promise of “a true blockbuster announcement.” Plus, in addition to members of the voice cast and TT Games game director Arthur Parsons and executive producer Phil Ring, none other than the Caped Crusader himself, Adam West, the star of the ’60s “Batman” television series, will be making an appearance. The panel runs from 1 to 2 p.m. in Room 6BCE. Sunday will also feature a sneak-peek screening of Episode 3 of FX’s new horror drama “The Strain,” which will run from 1:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. in Hall H. Series creator and Oscar-nominated director Guillermo del Toro will be on hand, alongside co-creator Chuck Hogan, show runner Carlton Cuse (“Lost”) and cast members Corey Stoll, David Bradley, Mia Maestro, Sean Astin
, Kevin Durand, Jonathan Hyde, Richard Sammel, Miguel Gomez, Ben Hyland and Jack Kesy. The apocalyptically creepy series recently came under fire for its billboards in the Los Angeles area which depict a worm crawling out of an eyeball. Del Toro addressed the controversy at the series premiere last week. Comic book fans will be covered on Sunday with panels offering intimate conversations with some of the top artists in the business today, including Jim Lee (“Superman Unchained,” “Batman: Hush,” “X-Men”), who designed the cover of the Comic-Con International 2014 Souvenir Book, in Room 6DE from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., Greg Capullo (“Batman,” “X-Force,” “Spawn”) in Room 7AB from 1 to 2 p.m., and many more. Plus, you can catch the cast of FX’s popular “Sons of Anarchy,” including Charlie Hunnam, Katey Sagal, Kim Coates, Mark Boone Junior, Tommy Flanagan, Theo Rossi, Dayton Callie, Jimmy Smits, David Labrava, Niko Nicotera and Drea de Matteo as well as series creator Kurt Sutter (“The Shield“).