The Dark Knight we can safely say – regardless of what medium he is in – is always awesome, and that includes when he is made of LEGO bricks. Given that there has already been two LEGO Batman games, the third ones has to add something special to the DC universe and you’ll be happy to hear it does. Given that this is a LEGO game you should keep in mind the gameplay has not changed much at all over years and universes. You still run around breaking everything apart and building new items to help you progress through the levels. So if you want something new and different then move on, but if you love LEGO games then you’ll be very comfortable indeed. There are the usual pickups and golden bricks to make you want to get 100%. There are also 150 characters to unlock and most of them have a variety of suit changes to give them a new ability to help you through the levels again, so you are spoiled for choice on who to play on both sides of the spectrum of the DC Universe. There are only 15 story missions but due to the amount of characters to unlock, bonus items to pick up and puzzles to solve to progress, there is plenty of things to do and places to explore.
You get to explore the Bat-cave, the Justice League Watchtower, the Hall of Justice, Oa the home of the Green Lantern Corp, the Legion of Doom headquarters and more in huge, bricky detail to kill hours of your time. That doesn’t even include the ever present 250 gold brick side missions. There are even 30 LEGO Adam Wests to rescue from ridiculous perils made even funnier by his smooth, suave voice pleading for help as if it wasn’t an issue for him. Even some of the rescues take cues from his 60’s Batman series that work even if you haven’t seen his excellent overacting. So stock on the shark repellent to unlock a cool pre-credit bonus level that I won’t spoil for you. The one thing I can say that is new about this game that made me happy is the sheer intricacy of the levels and their size. Through the years these games have been getting bigger and bigger and packing in even more complex and intricate worlds. So for a curious sort like me having all this space to run around is great fun, and that’s even better when you’re The Flash and can zip around faster than the speed of light.
To top it off the voice cast frankly is just as huge as your character roster. Troy Baker (Batman), Travis Willingham (Superman) and Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor) reprise their roles and are joined by a list far too long for me to write out. My favourite has to be Stephen Amell as Green Arrow from the CW series Arrow. Unfortunately Grant Gustin doesn’t voice The Flash. Now this is where we get to the review and I say the bad bits of the game. Well frankly it’s a repeat of usual LEGO games. The split screen is annoying, even when fixed, the frame rate can drop at annoying times, enemies can kill you from off screen occasionally and at times you can scratch your head for something not working as you’re an inch too close. These have been my pet peeves since the early LEGO games. Yet while these pests are still there, in the overall scheme of things they are overshadowed by how good the rest is. There are jokes, puns, quips, slapstick, a cool Resogun section, puzzles, laughs, cheesy character flight tunes (Superman flying to his theme tune is amusing) and a ton of Adam West to keep a smile on your face for hours.
Though they should have called it LEGO Justice League due to the volume of characters and the little you play the titular Batman at the start. So add it to your Christmas list if you haven’t got it yet. Dick Grayson may have only debuted as a Spyral Agent last month in the comics, but he'll already be making his multimedia debut this fall in LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. He's joined in today's reveal out of Gamescom in Köln, Germany by Beast Boy, the New 52 Catwoman, New 52 Supergirl, some of the bigfigs like Doomsday, Frankenstein, and Grodd, and other fan-favorites like Harley Quinn and Martian Manhunter. Check out all the new character reveals, plus some new location reveals and screenshots of places like Odym, a Reach battleship, and more. LEGO Batman 3 GamescomEven though there have already been two "LEGO Batman" video games, last year's LEGO Marvel Super Heroes raised the bar. Now, TT Games and Warner Bros. Interactive are bringing us LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
So how do you top a fully realized New York City in the "LEGO Marvel" game? How about going to outer space and different planets? Besides both being "LEGO" and based on their own universes, and with a multitude of playable characters, there's very little room for comparison between "LEGO Marvel" and "LEGO Batman." While "LEGO Marvel" takes its cues from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "LEGO Batman" is fully content with using silver age comics and cartoons as its basis. Featuring the trademark puzzles of the LEGO series, LEGO Batman 3 gets a number of upgrades from its predecessor.The first change to the game is in the costumes. Fans will remember in LEGO Batman 2 that some puzzles required the characters to change into a specific costume (Scuba Batman, Missile Launching Batman, Sonar Batman, etc.) This is still present in LEGO Batman 3, except now players take the costumes with them everywhere they go and can change into them at the flick of the left or right trigger. Batman is capable of carrying nine total costumes, though this number may fluctuate with other characters (Cyborg, for example, has fewer slots).
Another distinction from the previous games into the third one is in the visuals. Beautifully rendered in HD, the game is a huge showoff for the next gen consoles. The look of the game also hammers home the differences from "LEGO Marvel" as well. The visual tone of LEGO Batman 3 is more brooding and less colorful though just as playful. Batman's cape in particular looks amazing in the new game, as it appears as a glossy piece of thread and not a hunk of plastic. A lot of care and time has been put into making this game look amazing, and it shows.Maybe it was that LEGO Batman 3 was the last game I played at E3, but it did seem uncharacteristically difficult for a game mostly aimed at kids. Some of the puzzles took a number of attempts and there were even some I figured out on accident due to the fact that I'd already tried everything else. The level I played is likely the opener to the game, as it introduced players to the mechanics of the game (in particular the costume changes) and set up the story with very basic narrative, at least for the time being.