Posted by zompist under Lego Batman 2 was on sale recently, so I picked it up. In brief: the main story is fun and very cute; the open world bit is only half cooked. I’ve never played one of these Lego games before, so here’s how that works: the characters are made of Legos. So are part but not all of their surroundings– in general, the Lego bits are the things you can interact with, which is a pretty clever bit of design signaling. (If you’ve played the others, apparently it’s a big thing that in this one the characters talk.) A level basically consists of a series of obstacles, to be solved by the characters’ special abilities. E.g. you might use Batman’s batarangs to destroy something out of reach, or Robin’s acrobatics to climb, or Superman’s super-breath to turn water into ice (which can be traversed). It looks like it’s optimized for two-player co-op, but it’s quite easy to play solo– there’s a key press to switch characters. At first you only get Batman and Robin, but later you get Superman and then a whole slew of heroes.
The puzzles are designed so that you have to switch frequently. Sometimes when you destroy something, they can rebuild the Lego pieces into something else. Often this is a suit dispenser: jump on it and Batman or Robin changes into a different outfit with new powers. In the screenshot, Bats is wearing his Electrical Suit, which lets him walk through electrified areas and power devices up or down. The story levels are a lot of fun. The designers have worked hard to make the game look and act like a set of toys: the characters waddle around cutely, they look pleased as punch when they change suits, when a character dies it shatters into blocks, and you are encouraged to mindlessly destroy things. If you die yourself, you respawn right there, so it’s never a real setback. Most of the time it’s fairly clear what to do; I am not very good at the sort of thinking required and had to consult a walkthrough. The game was evidently designed for consoles, so it comes with a pretty horrible set of controls– all keys, no mouse.
I had to remap just about everything to have it make sense. (I recommend using the arrow keys for movement, using space for jump and E for action as in sanely designed games, then using T for tag and G for ‘special’. Then you move with the right hand and do stuff with the left.) There aren’t many controls, and most are explained in-game, but they neglected to tell you how to punch things (it’s Action, the one I remapped to E). After the Asylum mission you can wander Gotham City as you like. The walkthrough suggested that you wait till the story mode is over before doing so, as there’s a lot you can’t do till you’ve unlocked all the basic heroes. This is bad advice, because the story missions are the best part, and you shouldn’t rush through them. In any case, the main mission took me about 15 hours. After this you can roam Gotham and pick up new characters. This part of the game is frankly disappointing. For one thing, you have to buy each character– not with real money, but with the studs you’ve collected by destroying Lego objects.
This was a strange design decision, because it’s easy to run out of studs, so you can’t collect more heroes till you go on a rampage. And busting up objects, in the quantities needed to collect 50 characters, is not that fun. There’s a lot to do– climb buildings as Robin, rescue citizens, drive or boat around. But it feels like you have to run a round quite a bit to find these diversions. Finding the unlockable characters sounds like it should be a great time– each one is slightly different– but for the most part the fights are too easy and the payoff is low. (One exception is Lex Luthor, who you want for his special gun that destroys black Lego objects, which no other character can do.) Plus if you defeat them and you don’t have enough studs, you’re out of luck, which is a strange punishment for the game to apply. So, it’s fun to run around for awhile changing characters, but actually unlocking everyone and finding all the collectibles doesn’t seem very attractive.
I think they would have done a lot better to have fewer characters, but more challenging mini-levels to get through to unlock them. Or have more character-specific things to do, like the Robin acrobatics diversions. Story mode has a story, by the way. It’s pretty good, as Batman stories go. Probably the best thing about it is the interaction between grumpy Batman and cocky jocky Superman. It lightly pokes fun at their relationship, and yet it actually creates a character arc for the game, which is more than you might expect in a kids’ version of DC. The Games on Demand version supports English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian. and selecting “See Game Manual". The Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin join other famous super heroes from the DC Universe including Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern to save Gotham City from destruction at the hands of the notorious villains Lex Luthor and the Joker. Collect 50 DC Comics characters, flex your new super abilities, and master new suits and gadgets.
Players can also explore Gotham City and unlock a variety of cool vehicles. Original release date: 6/19/2012 Genre: Action & Adventure, Family All ProductsGames (1)Game Demos (1)Game Videos (1)Game Add-ons (2)Your Xbox 360 console will automatically download the content next time you turn it on and connect to Xbox Live. LEGO® Batman™ 2: DC Super Heroes Click to create and send a link using your email application Download to Xbox 360 LEGO® Batman™ 2: DC Super Heroes - 5 Heroes Pack LEGO® Batman™ 2: DC Super Heroes - 5 Villains Pack LEGO® Batman™ 2: DC Super Heroes - Demo Download to Xbox 360 More playable heroes and villains Masses of content to discover and unlock Packed with puns and slapstick humour Early stages are slow and a little dull Misses the open-world Gotham Available on Xbox One, PS4 (reviewed), Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, PCTT Games' fourth Lego superhero opus could have been its best, fixing the few complaints fans had about Lego Batman 2 and boasting some of the strongest levels in the series.
Yet while Lego Batman 3 is fantastic fun, it's also slightly less satisfying than its predecessors. Put it down to a failure to introduce something fresh and unexpected, or to a structure that doesn't leave as much room for free play, but it's the first major Lego game in years that doesn't feel like an essential family game.There's nothing wrong with the minute-by-minute gameplay, which sticks to the tried and tested formula laid down by Lego Batman 1 and 2. Each level is effectively a series of simple puzzles where Batman, Robin and the other playable heroes have to work their way past each obstacle en-route to the level's conclusion. The heroes themselves have their own specific capabilities, but Lego Batman has already focused on the role of suits, with Batman and Robin switching costumes to tackle certain tasks.Batman's sensor suit, for instance, can highlight hidden grapple points or enable him to sneak past security. His power suit has missile launchers which can shatter silver objects, while the space suit has a jetpack and a laser that can cut through gold bricks.
Robin's hazard suit is proof against chemical spills and can hoover up and deposit useful bricks, while his magnet suit has magnetic boots and the power to attract glowing objects. Only by switching characters (if you're playing solo) or through teamwork (in co-op play) can you use all your powers and all your costumes to make your way from start to end.The one thing we didn't like about Lego Batman 2 was that it sidelined its other DC super heroes, giving you a little time with Superman, but holding back the rest of the Justice League until the last few missions. Lego Batman 3 doesn't make the same mistake. While the early sections stick to the dynamic duo, it's not too long before you're handling Superman, Cyborg, the Flash, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter, and not too long after that before you're playing as the villains too, with Killer Croc, Solomon Grundy, The Cheetah, Lex Luthor and the Joker joining in with the main campaign missions, not just the unlocked free-roaming stuff.
See also: Best Xbox One games 2014What's more, more of these characters get extra forms or extra suits, so that Cyborg, Lex Luthor and the Joker get variations of Batman and Robin's kits, while Martian Manhunter gets a larger, secondary form and cool mind-control powers.There's plenty of fighting, too, as you bash, smash and sometimes tear your enemies apart, plastic piece by plastic piece. Following on from Lego Marvel Super Heroes, each of the game's stars gets his or her own distinctive moves, and the giant-sized characters (or those with transforming robot suits) can really trash the scenery in style. There's nothing all that new here, but the old adage 'if it ain't broke...' still applies. Even the traditional arcade elements – particularly an excellent Resogun-style shoot-em-up – work better here than they have in years.See also: Best PS4 games 2014The series' secret ingredients have always been fan service and humour, and here Lego Batman 3 doesn't disappoint. We get a huge 150-strong cast of DC heroes, villains and side-characters, while po-faced Batman and youthful, attention-seeking Robin have never been such an entertaining team.
The other heroes and villains - with more of them voiced - get their own share of dastardly puns and self-consciously cheesy lines, and there's some great slapstick stuff to enjoy. Kids will seriously bust a gut with the Joker's routine about 'pants', and even adults as grouchy as Batman might be caught smirking from time to time. And while the graphics aren’t exactly cutting-edge, they do more with plastic surfaces and coloured lighting than any Lego game before. The visuals might not be convincingly lifelike, but convincingly Lego-like? We’d certainly say so.Why, then, the slightly downbeat reception? Well, the goal of Lego Batman 3 is, as the title suggests, to take the series 'Beyond Gotham'. Out goes the familiar gothic city of the Tim Burton Batman movies and the animated series. In comes a bolder, more sci-fi plot involving Brainiac, alien worlds and the Green Lantern corps.See also: Xbox One vs PS4This approach has its upsides. The game suffers from a slightly dull first chunk which focuses too much and for too long on the Batcave and the Justice League's orbital Watchtower.
Our grown-up tester started to get bored, our younger tester even more so. Then, suddenly and brilliantly the action goes all cosmic, with different planets to explore and some fantastic levels that play with scale or defy expectations. At times, Lego Batman 3 is the most imaginative and playful Lego game you've ever seen.With Gotham gone there is no central open-world, just a series of levels tied together by a handful of hubs. There's still a big endgame to enjoy once you've conquered the story; exploring every area, unlocking every character, finding every secret by taking new heroes and villains into the levels in Free Play mode, and there's a whole mass of content hidden away. Yet the hubs just aren't as interesting as Gotham was, with fewer distinctive areas and landmarks to explore, and while there are still vehicles to race around in, they don't the same toy box feel.See also: Best games 2014And that's where Lego Batman 3 falls down. It's a brilliant, funny and thoroughly enjoyable game with the best and biggest cast of any Lego epic - even if Lego Marvel Super Heroes wins on the familiarity front.
Yet where Lego Batman 2 and Lego Marvel Super Heroes kept us playing for hours after we'd polished off the campaign, working to discover and unlock every last hero and villain on the map, we're not so sure that the threequel has what it takes.Meanwhile there is one further irritation: unwelcome celebrity cameos. We're happy to see sixties Batman Adam West put in an appearance in the Stan Lee 'person to be rescued' role, but not so happy to see US talk show host, Conan O'Brien, bundled in for no reason whatsoever. While brief, his appearances are annoying, adding nothing and slowing down the flow.See also: Skylanders Trap Team vs Disney Infinity 2.0This isn’t by any means a bad game. It isn’t even a bad Lego game, and we're sure it'll be as popular this Christmas as Lego Marvel Super Heroes was last year or Lego The Lord of the Rings the year before. All the same, there's something missing. It’s entertaining, exuberant and perfect for a spot of co-op play, but while lovable it’s still not quite as lovable as the Lego games that came before.