LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight review for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch 2

Is LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight the most ambitious game of the year? As crazy as it may sound, I think there’s a decent argument to be made that yes, in fact, it is.

Obviously, there’s a big Rockstar-shaped caveat to that response. But at the same time, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight takes its title very seriously: it’s trying to pack nearly 90 years of Batman lore into one package. Not only that, it’s very obviously influenced by the Batman Arkham games, which are some of the most enjoyable games ever made (even Arkham Knight, with its much-maligned take on the Batmobile). And on top of that, it’s a LEGO Batman game, and those have always been worth your while. So to try to cram all that into one game – and using the word “Legacy” right in the title to put it front and centre, in case you weren’t sure – shows a pretty impressive amount of ambition.

What’s even more remarkable is that LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight delivers on its promise. It’s a game that wants to be both Batman Arkham and LEGO Batman, and it somehow proves that the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

On the Arkham side, this means that you get outstanding freeflowing combat. Legacy of the Dark Knight loves to drop you in the middle of hordes of enemies, and makes it a cinch to whirl your way through them in a flurry of punches, kicks, and dodgers. It’s a little easier to chain together combos here than it is in the Arkham games, but I’m not going to complain about that too much – not when it means that I’m putting together combos that get up into the 50+ range.

Likewise, Legacy of the Dark Knight somehow captures the feel of Gotham City that served the Arkham games so well. While it takes a few hours for the game to open up and give you the tools you need to explore – which is the one drawback here, as far as I’m concerned – once it does, you’re set loose in a Gotham that doesn’t feel too far from what we saw in Arkham City. It’s not quite as big, mind you, but given how easy it makes it to swoop around the city, finding bad guys to beat up and secrets to unlock, it’s still a blast.

Remarkably, none of this feels at odds with the fact that we’re talking about a LEGO Batman game. You might think that means it’s geared more towards young people, but the game never feels like it’s compromising itself or the history of the Caped Crusader. That means we get a dark, spooky Gotham City on the one hand, but on the other hand the game thinks nothing of having Batman and Detective Gordon (since the game starts in his pre-Commissioner days) sneak into a club and blend in with a dance-off – and, impressively, those two things aren’t at all at odds with each other.

The LEGO aspect also comes shining through in the dialogue and the humour. The game loves throwing in little jokes – both spoken and visual – to remind you that you shouldn’t take anything too seriously, and, as is the case in most LEGO games, it works.

But that shouldn’t be a surprise, because the whole game works. I don’t know if we’re likely to see another Arkham game any time soon, but as long as we get something as inventive and as fun as LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, I’m perfectly prepared to wait a lot longer.

Warner Bros. Games provided us with a LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight PC code for review purposes.