Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight makes a bold attempt to recreate what made the Arkham games so good

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight sees everyone’s favorite morally dubious hero return to the streets of Gotham once more in TT Games’ latest brick-based adventure. It’s a real mish-mash of genres, combining RPG and brawler elements with classic Lego action-adventure platforming fun, but it makes for a charming adventure that Bat-fans are sure to love.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and if nothing else, it’s something Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight has turned into an art form. Riddled with references, jam-packed with jokes, and quintessential comic book ka-powery, there’s no denying that this is an ode to all things Batman.

But in particular, it’s evident how much the Batman: Arkham series by Rocksteady Studios and WB Games heavily inspired gameplay. If you’re more a fan of Lego than you are Batman, you might have missed the trilogy and its many accolades; released in 2009, 2011, and 2015, the three games in the series were met with abundant praise for their inventive free-flow combat, excellent stealth gameplay, and exploration mechanics.

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Of note is that the original Lego Batman trilogy was released almost in parallel (across 2008, 2012, and 2014). While creative and well-received, ultimately, a Lego game is a Lego game; it’s for all ages and somewhat limited by its own bricky source material. Times have changed, and Lego has since gutted its typical game formula enough for Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight to make a pretty big swing at being more Arkham-like, combining the best of these two trilogies and Bat-media beyond. But does it hit or miss?

Put ‘em up…

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is still a Lego game at heart; its slapstick humor, goofy parodies of iconic scenes, and low-stakes couch co-op fun form the beating heart of its success. Broadly speaking, Legacy of the Dark Knight respects the Lego gameplay loop: fight, smash stuff, build something grossly overequipped to progress through the level, and repeat.

But hold your horses before you decry it as “just another Lego game”; there are some tweaks to the formula here, including some that fans may take issue with. That starts with the slimmer roster of seven playable characters (compared to over 100 in the most recent Lego Batman game), each with unique skills you’ll unlock as the game progresses. Broadly, these are inventive and distinct, though some fare better than others — I’m looking at you, Batgirl.

Newly added to the mix is a more fleshed-out combat system that mimics the Batman: Arkham series’ free-flow combat system. Now, your heroes can build combo stacks as they attack, dodge, counter, and land satisfying environmental takedowns, combining unique skills with melee combat in a super-fun brawl-style showdown, enunciated by the occasional “THAKK!” or “KAPOW!”.

Fights such as these are a dime a dozen in both the overworld and in-level, and while they can be a little repetitive towards the late game, it’s still a marked improvement over older Lego titles. That being said, it feels like a lot was added in half measures to keep things simple; for example, I was a little disappointed by the skill tree for weapons, which offered a rather uninspiring array of movesets and upgrades, especially for the wider Bat-family.

A lot of fights are entirely avoidable if you opt for the stealthier approach; the game is littered with rafters, tunnels, and alcoves you can traverse or use to surprise enemies with a sneak attack. I got a lot of fun out of this, but again, it does make things a little too easy in places, especially when paired with the Detective Mode-like area scan that will help you locate intractable items and enemies.

Thanks to new difficulty settings, you can choose to make these encounters a little more consequential in play; I played mostly in the medium difficulty Caped Crusader mode, which still has infinite health but with more enemies. That’s more so because, for some reason, enemies could see me through walls on a few levels when I’d switched up to the more difficult Dark Knight mode. I’m hoping that’s a bug we’ll see fixed soon, because I enjoyed the higher stakes of having a finite number of lives… even if it was still pretty easy.

A feast for Bat-fans

So, how does Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight distinguish itself from Arkham and the original Lego trilogy? Well, the game is packed to the brim with trivia, old and new, parodying everything from more obscure comic book references like Bat-Mite right through to The Batman (2022), laced with ample pop culture references to tie in the humor of Will Arnett’s portrayal in The Lego Batman Movie. As a lifelong fan of Batman, it’s a real joy, and the hits just keep coming.

This mashup of references could well have led to frequent tonal whiplash between bleaker Gotham skies and campier retellings of the Caped Crusader’s escapades, but TT Games has sewn together these disparate storylines wonderfully through the power of parody. Still, over the course of its six chapters, the story does, in places, lose its way, but I was too enamoured by the imaginative level design, slapstick humor, and endless reel of references to really care about whether or not a game built around kids' toys is delivering a powerful narrative experience.

For me, Lego games have always scratched my collectathon itch, and this new Batman adventure is no different; you’ll collect everything from driveable vehicles, wearable costumes, and props inspired by the franchise, which you can proudly display in your customizable Batcave between bouts of pummeling through mindless hordes of henchmen.

Exploring Gotham City is also great fun as you zip and glide between the looming skyscrapers, scoring Wayne Tech and hidden loot from the rooftops and alleyways. It’s teeming with life and, despite the gloomy backdrop, there’s a real vibrancy to the game — not to mention the somewhat excessive levels of detail. You can literally see the texture of the Lego character paint as though they were real toys, and I’m not sure I even liked it as much as I was impressed with it.

On that note, I had never imagined — or hoped — a Lego game could be one of the more demanding games in my library, and had to drop a fair few settings to eke out the best performance from the game, especially when playing on my Steam Deck. Plus, I’m slightly disappointed to see that the same wall glitches I found in my demo playthrough are still there in the pre-launch software I’ve been reviewing, and I also found a fair few more bugs in the overworld. I was rewarded for completing encounters without ever going near them, the Sub-Wayne entry points frequently reset mid-solution, henchmen didn’t always spawn, and when they did, as aforementioned, they were sometimes X-Ray visioned.

All that being said, it’s undoubtedly up there with my favorite Lego games, and the magic is in how much love and appreciation the developers clearly have for both Lego and Batman. I doubt the new additions to Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight spell too much about the future of Lego games overall; in fact, it tells me that TT Games might just be itching to do more new and exciting things with each franchise, and that’s never a bad thing. There’s still plenty of fun to be had with the Lego formula, though, and Legacy of the Dark Knight stands as a fantastic example.

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Accessibility features

There’s great attention to accessibility options within Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight; on first launch, players can select from Vision, Hearing, Motor, and Motion Sickness accessibility presets, as well as between the three difficulty levels, two of which have no fail state (Classic and Caped Crusader).

If these presets aren’t quite right, there’s a litany of settings to customize; for visual needs, you can toggle audio description, high contrast mode, color blindness, full screen effects, text size, HUD visibility, marker display, camera shake, persistent center dot, and third-person camera reset, set up customizable subtitles, and choose between adjustable and dynamic field of view. For auditory accessibility, there are volume controls, closed captions, voiceover icons, night mode and audio output settings, and for any motor needs you can remap controls including sticks, invert the camera and tweak sensitivity, adjust controller deadzone and held or repeated button inputs, toggle aim snap and lock-on assist, adjust the game speed, aiming mode, gadget rapid fire, and skip quick time events or simplify them.

You can also toggle stud loss so the game is less punishing, it auto-saves for ease, and you can review text logs and tutorials at any time from the pause menu. Certain events are skippable via the pause menu (indicated on the HUD), and you can pause any time, even during cinematics.

How I reviewed Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

I spent over 20 hours in Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, playing on my custom-built gaming PC with a Dell S3225QS monitor, 8BitDo Ultimate controller, and Razer Kraken Kitty headset, but also on my Steam Deck.

I covered a majority of the main storyline, explored Gotham to complete side quests and unlockable content, and played in all three difficulties to assess their impact on play. I compared my experience to other recent Lego games like the Skywalker Saga as well as my fond memories of playing the original Lego Batman trilogy.

First reviewed Mat 2026.