Game Review: LEGO Batman - Legacy of the Dark Knight

Batman may be one of the most iconic comic book super heroes of all time.  The worlds greatest detective has had a storied history across nearly all forms of media since he very first debuted in Detective Comics issue #27 in 1939. When it comes to the big screen, the Dark Knight has gone through multiple iterations across several movies and big-name actors to don the cowl and cape. Whether it’s Michael Keaton in 1989 or Robert Pattison in 2022, each interpretation of the character has offered its unique approach to the character and his gallery of rogues.  That extensive history served as the perfect foundation for developer Traveller’s Tales to utilize for their next major LEGO game installment; LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.

Developed by Traveller’s Tales and published by Warner Bros. Games, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight was the next major action-adventure game in the developer’s line of licensed LEGO games. The more traditional LEGO games from the studio worked to adapt a licensed property into segmented levels through the utilization of a central HUB.  Legacy of the Dark Knight doesn’t actually adapt one single Batman story however but instead chooses to tell an original story which utilizes multiple different iterations of Batman primarily from his feature films. The game released on May 22nd 2026 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC to both commercial and critical success.  Opencritic reports the critical average at 84% and it sold over 1.2 million copies in the first week of release.

The narrative of LEGO Batman takes place in the dark and crime-ridden Gotham City. While chaos plagues the streets, the one beacon of hope comes from its own billionaire son Bruce Wayne. After losing his own parents at a young age to the criminals of the city, Bruce dedicated his entire life to finding a way to cleanse the city of its corruption. His aspiration takes him on a journey to learn to become a symbol that can instil fear into the heart of Gotham’s insidious underbelly.  Donning a cape and cowl, Bruce becomes a vigilante known as The Batman and begins his mission of bringing justice to the city by taking on some of it’s biggest criminal.  This will be far from a solo adventure however, as Bruce will come to meet and form alliances with an array of characters as they build their own Bat-family to defend Gotham one punch at a time.

Traveller’s Tales approach to try and tell an original Batman tale constructed through the familiar narrative structure of the Batman movies that they’re based on is an incredible concept by the studio.  It would be an easy and safe approach to just adapt one singular Batman movie but Traveller’s Tales found an incredible way to utilize all of the most iconic Batman movies into one core narrative through its chapter-based structure.  The other aspect that clearly defines the LEGO game identity is humour and Traveller’s Tales doesn’t miss a mark on that front with LOTDK.  While you don’t have to be a die-hard Batman fan to appreciate the many clever gags and references in this game, there’s a lot deep-cut jokes here that really reward people’s appreciation for The Worlds Greatest Detective and his long history across comics, television, movies and even video games.

On the gameplay front, you would be forgiven for coming into this game expecting the same standard LEGO game formula all the other games offered. LOTDK does utilize a lot of those familiar design concepts but the scope of the gameplay is much grander.  The main standout is the combat in itself, rather than a simple beat em’up functionality, the combat style is more akin to the Batman Arkham games in which you can chain combos together in fluid motion and use unique gadgets to dispatch a range of enemies.  The fact that Traveller’s Tales even added a difficulty system for the first time is a notable element in which they respect not just kids play their games but adults yearning for a bit more of a challenge do too. 

Exploration also plays a key aspect in LOTDK as its open HUB world serves as the primary playground for you to spend your time driving and gliding across. I would argue it’s one of, if not the best open world map Traveller’s Tales has ever designed for their LEGO games.  Formed of several distinct districts, there’s a notable level of depth to the city and its streets that captures the gritty, neon-soaked design of Gotham City.  There’s a plethora of activities the game offers to keep you busy like races, combat simulations, Riddler challenges, Cluemaster challenges and many more. I think the open world activities are one area that felt could be better implemented in retrospect however.  One part of the issue was half the activities required characters you would only unlock in the later stages of the games, so you were often shut out from doing the majority of the open-world activities until after the story was completed.  The second part of my issue was primarily the similarity between the Riddler and Cluemaster activities. These take up the majority of the games content and they both offered the same style of puzzle gameplay which quickly got repetitive the further you progressed.

On the presentation end, it’s impressive how much effort Traveller’s Tales put into the visual scope of this game. No one would really expect much on account of it being a LEGO game but it’s actually quite impressive how much visual fidelity the game offers. I’ve already discussed how impressive the open-world map is with its depth and scope but there’s a lot more to appreciate here as well.  The dynamic lighting goes such a long way to make Gotham feel like a character of its own and the level of detail you see on character and vehicle models is insane as well.  The texture of the plastic on the minfigs and LEGO pieces is one thing but seeing the number of pieces the game is able to render in any given display really puts into perspective how much the technology has progressed since the days the original LEGO Batman game. Simon Withenshaw is also credited for the original score in the game although I feel bad for saying I don’t really remember much of the tracks in the game.

 

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is clearly the next big step in the LEGO adventure series from Travaller’s Tales.  I was initially disappointed when the developer wasn’t able to put out consistent releases each year like they usually did but in retrospect the extended development time clearly allows them to release a more meaningful video game experience.  This game is a love letter to the legacy of The Batman; it’s not a completely perfect game from the gameplay end but it more than makes up for it’s shortfalls with the scope of its ambition. If Traveller’s Tales are able imbue this kind of quality into their future titles, I look forward to playing whatever franchise they adapt next.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐