Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham hews close to the series’ formula, pairing uncomplicated gameplay with a deep, charming dive into decades’ worth of DC Comics stories and history. But after the impressive freedom of Lego Batman 2 and Lego Marvel, Lego Batman 3 feels far more restrictive in scope, and its inconsistent tone sometimes seems to mock the great DC Comics source material it should be celebrating. Picking up from the end of Lego Batman 2, the villain Braniac drives most of the fun but scattered plot in Lego Batman 3. Without giving too much away, Batman and the rest of the Justice League have to team up with the likes of Lex Luthor, the Joker, and the rest of the Legion of Doom to bring him down, and sort out some trouble with the various Lantern Corps. It’s not as strong or as focused a story as in either Lego Marvel or Lego Batman 2, but it manages to keep the interest high through most of the 10 hours or so it took to finish it. To ensure constant variety, Lego Batman 3 uses the same format as Lego Marvel, where different playable characters drop in and out of the missions at each checkpoint.
You may be playing as Batman and Robin one moment, and then Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter the next. It definitely helps break up the action, which otherwise might get old quickly due to the simplistic attacks, and celebrates a larger roster of DC favorites. The best new addition to the system is that you can now load specific checkpoints of missions for Free Play; it makes finding all those little secrets so much more convenient. When the story missions are finished, there’s loads more to do here, including plenty of other mission-style content. We’re sort of left to figure that stuff out for ourselves, which is actually not such a bad thing; accidentally stumbling on a mission that recreates an old Adam West Batman TV show episode was fantastic. There are also options to explore the Hall of Justice and Hall of Doom, which are super fun for a DC fan like myself. I also enjoyed unlocking some of the more obscure characters from the DC canon – I’m sure not many people are exactly champing at the bit to play as Etrigan or The Question, but it’s great that those more obscure characters get to share the stage with the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman.
It’s clear the game makers love the source material. From Wonder Woman’s idle animation where she does the Linda Carter-style twirl to Flash’s frequent stints on the Cosmic Treadmill and the payoff of that final revelation between Batman and Robin, Lego Batman 3 does a great job of showcasing moments that’ll resonate with fans of the comics. While it’s not quite as developed here as it was in Lego Marvel, I still appreciate that each character has a unique combination of abilities. Martian Manhunter and Superman both have heat vision, but the green guy can also control minds, while Supes has frost breath. This approach to character powers gives us lots of options, which are furthered by the excellent new suit system. No longer do you have to wait to find a station to swap out for the Magnet suit or the Sonar suit, because now characters like Batman, Robin, and Cyborg can change their power setups on the fly. Being able to change at will to any suit you’ve unlocked eliminates a lot of tedium.
Even better, a quick button press instantly swaps you to the suit that’s appropriate to the obstacle you’ve encountered. While not every game has to be open-world to be good, playing Lego Batman 3 made me long for the freedom of Lego Batman 2. Instead of roaming through the streets of Gotham at your discretion, you’re mostly just running back and forth between the Batcave and the Watchtower. There are limited open-world options for the various Lantern planets, but those aren’t part of the main story and are generally small and pretty light on things to do. So why even have these unlockable vehicles if there’s nowhere fun to drive them? My biggest disappointment with Lego Batman 3 is its inconsistent tone. The developers definitely love the source material, but there are moments where they take a substantial step away from familiar franchise turf to introduce elements that immediately start to erode the fun of being in the world of the comics. When Braniac comes to Earth, we don’t get to battle him in iconic DC locations like Smallville, Gorilla City, or Paradise Island;
No, Braniac just terrorizes Paris or Pisa. Shortly after that, you spend the final third of the story missions on a sort of sci-fi tour through unfamiliar Lantern worlds, which is kind of a letdown. I also have to question the decision to include these annoying cameos. Instead of DC’s quintessential everyman Jimmy Olsen, this game’s ubiquitous hanger-on is Conan O’Brien. He’s all over the place, repeating the same gags every time you see him. After a while, making jokes about how there are no Labradors in the Batcave laboratory gets kind of old. You even end up spending quite a bit of time with Daffy Duck as Green Loontern, which, again, kills the mood for me. Yes, I get it; it’s a game where Cyborg can fool a security camera by turning into a washing machine, but there’s a difference between making a joke about the characters and just surrounding them with other stuff that also happens to be part of the Warner Bros. empire. (I didn’t have as much of a problem with the inclusion of references to the Batman TV show because that, at least, seems to make some sense within Lego Batman 3’s world – and unlike Daffy Duck, Adam West isn’t hanging around the Watchtower talking about space the whole time.)
I like Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, but I don’t love it as much as I’ve loved previous games in the series. It definitely delivers on the promise of letting me play with charmingly realized versions of many of my favorite DC heroes and villains, and it even presents a setting with lots of great surprises, challenges, and systems that promote variety. As a longtime DC fan, I do wish it had given me the chance to dig into more locations and plot elements from the comics, but the biggest hurdle for me to clear is the bizarre cameos.He can't carry a movie, he can't be trusted with his own LEGO playset, and when Traveller's Tales creates a LEGO video game that is very much an epic Green Lantern yarn, he has to take a back seat to Bruce Wayne, the tedious title character of LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. It's plain to me that the third installment of the LEGO Batman series did not want to be a LEGO Batman game. The opening chapter, in which Batman and Robin chase Killer Croc through the sewers of Gotham City, is a disheartening slog through familiar ground.
The Dynamic Duo beat bricks, collecting the specially-powered costumes needed to overcome various obstacles in their way. I'd done this all in the first two games, and I was bored. Bored and concerned that this game would turn out to be another LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, a game that promised a large cast of non-bat characters but didn't really deliver until just before the credits rolled — a Batman story with DC Comics cameos.But stay strong, DC Comics fans — all will be well. This is LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, and beyond Gotham lies a story that's not very Batman at all. The moment Bruce and Dick blast off into space in the Bat Rocket to help deal with an invasion of the Watchtower by the Joker, Lex Luthor and a team of unjust super-villains, the game becomes LEGO Justice League. And when that invasion is interrupted by interstellar Superman villain Braniac, who's harnessed the power of the emotional spectrum to power his shrink ray to planet-reducing levels, we're suddenly in a galaxy-spanning Green Lantern crossover.
The sort of event that sells millions of comic books yet can't seem to find enough of a mainstream foothold to have a video game called LEGO: Green Lantern. That early boredom is completely obliterated the moment the game opens itself up to the DC universe at large. It starts with a wonderful side-scrolling space shooter outside the Justice League's orbital headquarters. Then we're treated to a walk along the Watchtower, joined by Hal Jordan and Cyborg, the latter possessing the inexplicable ability to transform into a washing machine.Wonder Woman arrives on the scene, taking flight to the opening theme of her 1970s live-action television show. The Flash possesses the power of the LEGO Movie Video Game's master builders, assembling useful equipment in a blur of red and gold. Soon the DC villains join the battle against Brainiac. Solomon Grundy (born on a Monday), Lex Luthor with his transforming power armor, the Joker with his wonderful toys — each new character brings a completely new gameplay mechanic or an alternative to one of the Dark Knight's many outfits.
Batman and Robin are relegated to co-star status and the result is the best LEGO Batman game yet. He seems so out-of-place as we journey from Earth's shrinking cities to a grand tour of the various Lantern worlds. He doesn't appear at all in several of the game's chapters. It's probably for the best.When the story's grand conclusion arrives and the Batman and Robin framing device comes back into play, it's almost a surprise. Oh yeah, you guys are here. Did you see all the Lanterns do that thing? It was pretty cool. You should have been here. To make up for Batman's lessened role, Traveller's Tales and DC packed the game with extra bat-bits. There are Batman capsules to collect. Batman super-fan and sometimes comic book writer Kevin Smith makes an appearance in LEGO form. We've got the Batcave to explore between levels along with the much more interesting Hall of Justice and Watchtower. And to top it all off, each chapter features a minifigure of TV's Adam West to rescue, mirroring LEGO Marvel Super Heroes' Stan Lee in Peril feature.
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham did not borrow from LEGO Marvel Super Heroes' free-roam New York City. Instead we get the aforementioned Batcave, Hall of Justice and Watchtower to wander through, as well as pleasing spherical representations of the seven Lantern planets and the moon. Nice enough, but nothing that comes close to dropping from the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier down through the clouds and landing on the streets of New York City. I've always felt Marvel Comics were open and ambitious, while DC's library is more controlled and comprehensive. That in mind, Traveller's Tales probably made the right call in not going the full, open-world route with LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. We had a city to traverse in LEGO Batman 2, but it didn't feel quite right. DC cities always struck me as more ideas than maps, better alluded to than fully realized. That's not to say there isn't plenty to discover here. Each of the three hub locations is packed with hidden characters, mini-missions, and references to great moments and figures in comics history.
It's a DC Comics fan's wonderland. Between the hubs and eight spherical planets to explore, there's almost too much to see and do. Actually there is too much to see and do, and that too much is named Conan O'Brien. Why the talk show host was tapped to serve as a tour guide to the game's iconic locales is beyond me, but one thing is for certain — he is the absolute worst. Every time the player approaches the mission computer, he says this:The same lame joke. To be fair it's not just Conan. Other characters posted throughout the non-story areas repeat the same lines every time you get within their general vicinity. His delivery is just so sarcastic. It feels like he's making fun of us for playing the game.Playing a LEGO game isn't a huge challenge. Here we have DC Comics heroes and villains battling hordes of henchmen, strange alien beasts and each other, but the combat is so silly and LEGO-fied it's more slapstick comedy than violence. With no real penalty for death other than losing a few bits during respawn and puzzles that tell you exactly which character you need to solve them with flashing prompts, LEGO Batman 3 is the video game equivalent of Tee Ball.
That's exactly why fans of LEGO video games enjoy them so much. We can wander around looking for pretty rocks, maybe nip off to the concession stand for a popsicle. The ball's not going anywhere. We'll take a swing when we feel like it. If we get lucky maybe we'll take off LEGO Conan O'Brien's stupid plastic head. While I've enjoyed my time with LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham immensely and plan on continuing to enjoy it throughout the downloadable content season (Arrow! Batman '66!), there was a brief moment I considered giving the game a "No" instead of a yes. I searched high and low during the game's mission on Ysmault, home of the rage-wielding Red Lanterns, but I could not find him. What self-respecting LEGO Green Lantern game could feature the Red Lanterns without including the greatest of their number? Later, at the Hall of Justice, I heard it. You win this time. It was a close call, but LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is the best DC Comics LEGO video game yet. One tip, though — that's not how you spell LEGO: Green Lantern.