Success has made the Lego games quietly lavish. Take the Batcave as an example. In the Dark Knight's latest adventure, it's a complex network of gantries and glittering rock, built around a column of falling water. Secrets beckon from every alcove, while studs jitter and jump from even the darkest corners of the screen. It's a reminder that, despite the headline IP, the Lego games have never really been about creativity. What they're about is busyness - and as the hardware improves and the production budgets increase, they've never looked busier than this.Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham promises a suitably busy agenda, too. As the name suggests, Traveller's Tales is leaving the second game's glorious open-world city behind for the most part. Instead, it's sending Batman and the Justice League up against Brainiac, who has a diabolical plan that will take our heroes out into space to visit the Lantern planets alongside other locations. An open-world approach simply wouldn't work here. The new threat's suitably dangerous that classic DC heroes will eventually have to unite with classic DC villains if they want to take him down.
Fancy switching from Batman to the Joker, or the Flash to Lex Luthor? It's the kind of set-up that only the canon-scrambling playfulness of a Lego game can really deliver on.Judging by a recent developer playthrough, the delivery's looking colourful and chaotic. The current demo is drawn from the early part of the game and sees Batman and Robin summoned to the JLA's orbiting Watchtower, where the Joker and Lex Luthor are causing trouble. Scattershot jokes come thick and fast as Superman's date with Wonder Woman is cut short and the launch of the Batrocket leaves Lego ducks bobbing around in pieces on the surface of the Wayne Manor pond.Beneath the jokes is a game that's building on previous instalments in a typically conservative manner. Batman and Robin's special suits will return, and you're able to select them via a radial menu whenever you want. Many of the suits now feature fuel mechanics. Robin's illumination suit requires batteries for its torch to work, for example, while Batman's space suit has a jetpack that will allow him to fly - as long as you've collected enough propulsion canisters.
This time, plenty of other characters can get in on the costume-switching tricks too, mind. Cyborg has suits that allow him to transform into a giant robot to fight big enemies, for example, or a stealth suit that, brilliantly, turns him into a little Lego washing machine. The Joker and Lex will have their own suits as well. If Batman's been upgrading his arsenal since the last adventure, then so has everyone else. Beyond that, new headline features include hacking games - these now span a wide range of mechanics, apparently, although the ones we're shown offer simple mazes and platforming - and an emphasis on levels set in space. The team at Traveller's Tales has clearly been spending a lot of time working out how best to map the series' knockabout action to the interplanetary void, and while a handful of different approaches are promised throughout the course of the campaign, the one being demonstrated today suggests Resogun's been a major influence. As Batman takes on the Joker's defences around the perimeter of the Watchtower, a hectic 2D shooter is grafted to a screen that behaves like a drum as you zip backwards and forwards.
There are waves, power-ups and even smartbombs, and if you return in freeplay mode, you'll be able to ditch Batman and drop in other heroes, such as Superman. If, for some reason, you like Superman better than Batman. (Perhaps you're Lois Lane?)As Batman and pals work their way up the Watchtower, switching between Cyborg with his magnetic suit to the Flash (who can spin like a dynamo and complete multiple brick builds at once), while laser grids spark and rockets rain down, it all looks as entertaining as ever. If you're expecting a revolution in basic mechanics, you've come to the wrong series - Traveller's Tales hasn't even switched out Courier, or a close relative, as the end-of-level breakdown font despite the fact that it still looks weird. What you're getting here is more of the same, with a few new ideas and, yes, a certain quiet lavishness. All things considered, that's probably what most of the fans are after. (click linked text below to jump to related section of the review)
The Video: Sizing Up the Picture The Audio: Rating the Sound Disc copy of the Xbox One version reviewed. Traveler’s Tales is a British studio that created its first Lego-branded game in 2005, 'Lego Star Wars: The Video Game'. Their first Batman title was in 2008, and they have not created anything without "Lego" in the title since 2009. Now owned by Time Warner, they will Lego-fy just about any big franchise they can get their hands on, from 'Pirates of the Caribbean' to 'Indiana Jones' to 'Lord of the Rings'. The second 'Lego Batman' invited in the Justice League, but now, with 'Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham,' DC Universe characters are pouring out of the woodwork to join the Batman minifig. The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take 'Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham' closely follows the formula established in Traveler’s Tales’ previous games. Almost everything in the game, except for some environmental surfaces, is made of Lego bricks and studs. This includes characters, vehicles, and buildings.
And just like the real life toys, all of the Lego pieces can be pulled apart, discombobulated, and destroyed. The player frequently has to build structures and tools out of piles of Lego bricks, although this is a scripted construction and not freeform. Each character has special abilities that are used to solve puzzles, find collectibles, and fight. In a game like 'Lego Batman', many of the characters have superpowers, like flight, laser vision, super speed, and more. Batman can use a variety of specialized suits to turn invisible, explode things, use a freeze ray, etc. Robin can walk up magnetized walls, illuminate dark corridors, and safely navigate through toxic waste. Although it is called 'Lego Batman', this game would more accurately be titled as 'Lego DC' because it has dozens of playable heroes and villains from the comic company’s nearly 80-year history. It is to DC what last year’s 'Lego Marvel Super Heroes' was for Marvel. There are the obvious choices of Batman and Robin, but also Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and the rest of the Justice League.
There’s Green Lantern and the rest of the Lantern Corps. Many famous supervillains are also available, many from Batman’s huge rogues gallery but also from other DC lines. This includes the Joker, Killer Croc, Solomon Grundy, Cheetah, and Lex Luthor. All told there are over 150 separate characters, although some of these are simple reskins without notable powers. Even some celebrities like Conan O’Brien and Kevin Smith are represented. 'Lego Batman 3' has 15 levels in story mode, and approximately halfway through the campaign, I had access to most of them on an overmap. There are several hubs in between levels, such as the Batcave and the Justice League’s Watchtower. During each level, I had access to a steadily increasing number of characters and abilities. Some of the characters can swap suits and employ a large amount of powers, making them very useful. Others are kind of a one-trick pony, like Cheetah, who can dig up piles of junk and that’s about it. There are puzzles in each level that range from simple to mildly difficult to solve, although the game has several methods of showing the player how to proceed.
While the combination of Legos and comic books absolutely make this a game that can be played by children, it would be a shame to label it as a "kids’ game". The gameplay, while very familiar to anyone who has played any Lego game, is not yet stale. The puzzles and environmental platforming are fun, as is the casual destruction of thousands of blocks of Legos. I often found myself completely ignoring objectives and enemies so that I could wantonly explode Legos and collect studs. The story is typical Lego and that is a good thing. It’s cheesy and full of slapstick humor, with all of the characters being caricatures of their comic counterparts. Wonder Woman has serious anger management issues, the Flash is a kleptomaniac, Batman is brooding and glum, and Superman is as cheerful and boring as ever. The scheming android Brainiac serves as the chief antagonist, although many other villains are encountered along the way, some even recruited in the fight against Brainiac. Lego is a plastic, brightly colored toy world above all else, and the game portrays that aesthetic accurately.
The visuals are decent, with few problems, although there is nothing particularly advanced here. Lighting and other effects are simple. Lego faces change in only rudimentary ways, and textures and fabrics are basic. The design of the alien worlds later in the story is quite good. The voice acting is hammy and overstated, which adds to the camp effect and makes for a more funny game. The Joker and Solomon Grundy are great examples of this, with the former sounding like a less evil version of Mark Hamill and the latter being portrayed as a lovable, dimwitted ape. Music and sound effects are well done and occasionally lifted straight out of other DC properties. Whenever Superman takes to the air, the theme of the Christopher Reeves film franchise can be heard, and the same for Wonder Woman and the 70s TV show. The free play mode in 'Lego Batman 3' is the real reason to play this game and much better than the story. In free play, any collected character can be swapped at any time by the player.
With all of these abilities at my disposal, I was able to conduct the serious business of collecting even more Lego characters, as well as minikits and other collectibles. Each level also gives an opportunity to save a man in peril - Adam West, who portrayed the Batman in the 1960s TV show. Speaking of West, the octogenarian voices himself and the Bat in an amazing bonus level spoofing the TV show, which itself spoofed the comics. The bonus level and many other great Easter eggs can be found in the Batcave and other places during free play. The game has a two-player, split-screen, drop-in co-op mode. I call it co-op, but there’s no friendly fire so the players are free to destroy one another if they so desire. The split screen is a bit odd and a comic-like divider tends to rotate the screen around as the characters move, so sometimes player one will be on the left, and other times on the top or bottom. The divider disappears when both players are in the same vicinity. Co-op is a blast and I used it as an opportunity to harass friends who were gracious enough to help me test it.