Year: 2026
Platform: PlayStation 5
Genre: Action/adventure
Review Date: 6/17/26
Rating: ****

"The nipples were a bit much."

It's been four years since "The Skywalker Saga" came out, and the Lego game devs have been very busy cleaning up the code from that debacle. Similar to that game, "Legacy Of The Dark Knight" takes the last nine Batman movies, as well as a few comic book storylines and the 1966 TV series, and rolls them into one epic adventure. However, unlike "The Skywalker Saga," it attempts to combine all of the source material into a single bizarre story with its own continuity. It's a massive undertaking and comes together surprisingly well, although it's not without flaws and questionable choices. The biggest challenge is with the characters that have been played by multiple actors over the years. Batman most closely resembles Kevin Conroy from "Batman: The Animated Series," which is a fine and logical choice. But what about other characters like James Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth? The game opts for the Jeffrey Wright version of Lt. Gordon ("The Batman"), the Michael Caine version of Alfred ("Batman Begins"), Zoë Kravitz's Catwoman ("The Batman"), Jack Nicholson's Joker ("Batman '89"), and Danny Devito's Penguin ("Batman Returns"). Other characters are obvious and straight forward, like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze ("Batman And Robin"), Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy ("Batman And Robin"), Liam Neeson's Ra's Al Ghul ("Batman Begins"), and Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox ("Batman Begins"), but some characters don't match their movie counterparts at all, like Batgirl, Talia Al Ghul, Two-Face, and The Riddler.

Like other Lego games, this one forces you to go through the story first, where you unlock members of the Bat Fam with different abilities, like James Gordon, Catwoman, Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Talia (although having two versions of Dick Grayson is a little weird). Once you complete the story, all of Gotham City opens up with tons of collectibles and side missions to complete. Much like "Lego Marvel Super Heroes", the story and the open world are like two completely different games. What's different about Story Mode in this game is that there's no Free Play. If you choose to replay story missions, you're locked into using the mission specific characters, which means that all collectibles can be picked up on your first playthrough, if you know what you're looking for. It's a smart choice and maintains the integrity of the story elements.

If you've played a Lego adventure game before, the controls will be immediately familiar. Batman and his chosen ally run, jump, beat up bad guys, build things, and use their unique abilities to solve environmental puzzles. You can switch your partner to any member of the Bat Family, but Batman is always the main character. Unlike previous Lego games, "Legacy Of The Dark Knight" adds an extra difficulty option for those who want more of a challenge with combat, and combat is one of the areas that really stands out. In many ways, you could call this game "Arkham Lite" because it borrows a lot of ideas and mechanics from the Arkham games. Combos, counters, and stealth attacks feel very similar to Arkham combat, and the "detect" ability and flight mechanics are very familiar. This definitely works in the game's favor as a blend of classic Lego gameplay with more sophisticated features.

As you would expect from a Lego game (except for "Lego 2K Drive"), the writing is very good and includes some clever jokes and deep cuts. Even though "Batman Vs. Superman" isn't included in the main story, there are several funny Martha moments. Alfred makes a couple of quips poking fun at Michael Caine, and calls out Batman's nipple suit from "Batman And Robin." There are also some cross-cultural jokes as well, like Ra's Al Ghul mentioning his "certain set of skills." "Batman '66" is also well-represented with The Batusi, a can of shark repellant bat spray, and a cameo by the late Adam West. The various signs, shops, and billboards in Gotham City are also very clever and funny, and one even honors the great Kevin Conroy.

Presentation-wise, the game looks gorgeous and Gotham City is a dark and moody place, punctuated by street lights and neon signs. The highly detailed environment is full of interesting and diverse locales, including several parks and gardens, a few industrial areas, a junk yard, museum, zoo, theater, and an amusement park. Arguably one of the most enjoyable parts of the game is riding the roller coaster at Amusement Mile. Gotham is divided into several districts spread across several islands, and travelling between areas is seamless. There's a fast travel option, but I found it more enjoyable to either drive or glide to each destination, as I was always discovering new buildings and side activities. The game's greatest graphic conceit is its rain effect, as it rains a lot in Gotham City. The way that water drops run down the characters' faces and bodies is superb, and wet surfaces look great and react accordingly. The only issue I noted was that indoor concrete surfaces were always inexplicably wet and they would ripple when you walked on them.

The game is also remarkably stable, unlike the overly buggy "Skywalker Saga." I never ran into any bugs or crashes, and it's clear that the development team spent a lot of time polishing and tuning the game engine. The only strange behavior that I saw was that occasionally the AI partner would get stuck on a piece of geometry while flying, but they always eventually freed themselves. Only on one occasion did I get stuck, but swapping characters was an easy solution for that. The collectibles and activities markers are actually accurate (most of the time), which may be a first for the Lego franchise, and is much appreciated. The difficulty is refreshingly mild and it's a great casual game to play, although the final gauntlet of the story is very intense. The AR challenges can also be demanding, and several of the traversal trials are unreasonably difficult. Fortunately, the vehicle racing mechanics are an improvement over earlier games, as you can plow right through other cars that are in your way, instead of having them block your path and hinder your progress.

The game has over 600 collectibles and side activities, which can honestly become a bit exhausting and tiresome. The hardest collectibles to find are the 50 bat symbols that are hidden throughout the city, but they curiously aren't required to reach a 100% completion score. Gold bricks are earned through progression and allow you to unlock extra abilities. Unlike other Lego games, red bricks don't offer any perks, and only unlock color variations, so there's no incentive to track them down other than for completeness. Another noticeable gameplay element is the lack of unlockable characters. Unlike "The Skywalker Saga's" whopping 385 playable characters, "Legacy Of The Dark Knight" has only six, and they're all close members of Batman's inner circle. It's a logical game design choice, but it's a little disappointing. Instead of unlocking characters, you unlock costumes, which isn't as fun, but offers a great amount of variety from both the movies and the comics.

Despite all the wonderful things I have to say about the game, it does have one glaring problem: the voice acting. In general, the voice acting is very good, but the direction is questionable and most of the characters sound overly cartoonish. Catwoman's forcefully sexualized delivery is laughably inappropriate and uncomfortable, and I was constantly thinking, "who actually talks like that?" Robin and Bat-Mite are expectedly annoying, but Batgirl is extremely irritating. Bane is also annoyingly goofy, but he had an annoyingly goofy voice in "The Dark Knight Rises" as well. Talia's heavy French accent feels forced and exaggerated, and is also inappropriate as she's obviously Asian. However, Marion Cotillard played Talia in "The Dark Knight Rises" (sort of), so that kind of makes sense. And then there's Renee Montoya, who is clearly Hispanic, but inexplicably has an African accent. It's like they just randomly assigned voices to characters. It's also apparent that a lot of the voice actors are British and using American accents. To their credit, they get very close, but the pronunciation is off just enough to be noticeable.

That said, I could forgive most of the voice acting issues if the game weren't so darn chatty. The characters always have something to say, including random people on the street, and are constantly repeating themselves. And when you hear the same annoying quips over and over for 60+ hours of gameplay, it becomes VERY grating. On top of that, a new crime is reported every couple of minutes, and hearing the police radio is a constant source of ire. It makes you wish there was a way to turn off the voices altogether.

The bottom line is that "Lego Batman: Legacy Of The Dark Knight" is a great game, regardless of whether you're a Batman fan or a Lego fan. If you enjoyed any of the previous Lego games, this one is a must-have for your collection. It took me 61 hours to reach 100%, and I still didn't see everything that Gotham City had to offer. That said, the last couple dozen Riddler and Cluemaster challenges did admittedly become tedious and tiresome, but I kept coming back. I just needed to pace myself better. And given all the insanity, corruption, and injustice in the world right now, it felt good to dispense justice and clean up the streets of Gotham City, where I felt like I could actually make a difference.