View All 5 Photos in Gallery Tremendous amount of collectable content and many characters to unlock. Plenty of great humor. Classic smash-happy gameplay is as fun as ever. Enjoyable mini-games add variety.Predictable, monotonous boss fights. Combat is a chore. Solutions to problems can be unclear and confusing at times. Voice acting is repetitious. Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham delivers exactly what you would expect from a Lego game: simple combat, light-hearted storytelling, and lots of smashing and collecting. Some rough edges sully the overall enjoyment, however. Traveller's Tales's Lego video games have captured the creativity and whimsy of Lego building blocks for nearly a decade. The latest game in the series, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham ($29.99), marries the simple fun of past Lego games with playful storytelling that draws from decades of Batman and DC Comics history. The result is a pleasantly rich experience, despite some repetitive gameplay. I reviewed the PC game, but Beyond Gotham is also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, last-generation consoles, and heldhelds.
Far Cry 4 (for PC) Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (for PC) Alien: Isolation (for PC) Lego Does DCLego Batman 3 is like the other Lego titles that have come before it. You take control of the Dark Knight and Boy Wonder and use their puzzle-solving special abilities to explore the game world. Along the way, you tear apart Lego structures and debris, build quirky Lego constructions, and find as many collectibles and currency studs as possible. The story follows a grumpy Batman and overly cheery greenhorn Robin as they team up with the Justice League and various Lantern Corps members to take down the maniacal, planet-collecting Brainiac. The plot unfolds across 16 mission-based chapters, each of which takes place in a unique stage or environment. Missions generally cycle among characters as the story progresses, which keeps the experience fresh and interesting. As in previous games, Lego Batman 3 lets you switch among your party of superheroes at the touch of a button.
The many heroes and villains in the game each have unique powers that are crucial to solving puzzles or defeating certain bosses. Solving one problem may require the use of Superman or Martian Manhunter's laser vision, while another may demand Cyborg's technical know-how. Some characters can swap their suits, giving them new abilities and puzzle-solving techniques. For example, Batman's power suit lets him destroy otherwise unbreakable silver Lego objects. Suit switching was an important mechanic in previous games and is made more streamlined in Lego Batman 3 because you can switch suits on the fly rather than having to backtrack to a changing station. Story missions are somewhat inflexible in that you cannot choose which characters to take with you on a mission. The narrative cycles through heroes as the story demands, limiting how effectively you can explore. However, once a mission is complete, it's available in free-play mode, which lets you return to the stage with your preferred characters.
Any secrets and goodies you've passed up during the story mission are up for grabs in free play mode, and there are a lot of secrets strewn about the game. In addition to free-play mode, you can also unlock several Lantern worlds later in the game, which let you to fool around, explore, and enjoy mini-games at your leisure. Story missions are also peppered with alternate gameplay sections to keep the experience interesting despite the linearity. The space shooter sections and Tron-like VR missions are good fun, and smashing up miniature versions of Paris and London makes for a refreshing twist on the classic Lego gameplay. Add to this an utterly ridiculous roster of playable characters, and you have enough variety and replay value to tide you over for hours at a time. I took a liking to Batman's butler Alfred very early on, especially the way he channels his inner Captain America and beats bricks and lackeys alike with his serving tray. Players can unlock well over a hundred DC Comics characters to experiment and explore with by journey's end, including Ace the Bat-Hound, classic Justice League members such as Hawkgirl and Shazam, and oddballs like Polka-Dot Man.
The PC version of Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham supports all your standard resolution settings, which range from 800 by 600 to 1920 by 1,080 pixels. But the beauty of the game comes from its simplicity and style: Lego games almost always look great because, quite simply, they're based on Legos. blog comments powered byHere’s your first look at Traveller’s Tales’ third brick-based Batman. The latest in the series builds on the suits of the last installment but takes the action into space, including some very Resogun-like shooting sections - ironically with a less blocky appearance than the original source. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK.The sections I saw took place right at the start of the game as Joker and Lex coordinate an attack on the Justice League’s Watch Tower. That’s the initial cause of the threequel’s spacey setting and introduces a whole new cast including Martian Manhunter, Cyborg, the Flash among others from the ranks of the JLA.However, while Joker and Lex kick events off with their assault they aren’t the main enemy of the game.
That job ultimately falls to Brainiac, but Traveller’s Tales’ executive producer Phillip Ring isn’t saying much more than that on the villain’s role. What he will talk about though is that, “the majority of the story takes place in space”, adding, “we get to go to a whole host of cool DC locations outside of Earth.”To get there Batman obviously needs a rocket and my demo starts in the Bat Cave with some very familiar co-op exploration as Bats and the Boy Wonder assemble the parts they need to build their space ship. The suits are back and this time you can switch between them at will, the only limit now being that there’s a fuel mechanic to certain outfits. So Robin’s Illumination Suit (letting you explore dark places) needs batteries, while Batman’s Jet Suit needs fuel to get around. These suits aren’t just limited to the Dynamic Duo either. One other character I saw getting dressed up was Cyborg who has a mecha-style Giant Suit, a Demolition Suit and a ‘Stealth’ Suit.
I’ve put that in quotes because it hides him by turning him into a washing machine. Perhaps one of the more interesting change ups this time are the shooter sections where you take on flying Joker teeth and other attackers. The battle I saw took place around the Watch Tower, a structure that even looks like a Resogun level, not to mention the action rotates around it. “We wanted to do things like this,” explains Phillip, “because that kind of 2D arcade shooter feels like it’s perfect for space combat and we get to have loads of Lego bricks flying around and blowing up.” You can also collect green power ups for extras like smart bombs, lasers or shields and the whole seems to strongly channel the feel of Housemarque’s blaster. The immediate changes are obvious - the new cast, the always accessible suits, the shooter sections and the space setting but it sounds like there’s more to come. “Wanted to push the story and show new locations, show new worlds that people haven’t been to before and refine what we can do in the game,” says Phil.