Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Gotham bricky
Review The only Batman I have ever cared about is the cynical desperate anti-hero of Frank Miller's The Dark Night Returns but Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes may have just changed my mind.
The fall of Superman
Like the Batman franchise the Lego game series is prolific. Since 2005 we have Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and Indy given the boxy treatment. And I enjoyed them all as, it seems, did a lot of other people. So how is Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes going to expand the franchise? By expanding the world, that’s how. But is bigger necessarily better?
Traveller’s Tales has decided not to break its successful mould, only add more bricks, make them bigger and offer an abundance of new collectables, content and puzzles in Lego Batman 2.
Build upon your driving skills
Now I had always appreciated that Batman is a man of few words and really enjoyed the slapstick miming of the first instalment. This is still apparent, but is now combined with some excellent voice acting. You can’t go wrong with the likes of Clancy Brown – a favourite of mine from such classics as Highlander and Starship Troopers – giving a darkly droll personality to Lex Luthor.
But it's not just the script that breaks new ground. The sheer size and scale of each level eclipse anything I have played in the rest of the Lego franchise, and is helpfully broken up with midlevel checkpoints. Lego Gotham city hub acts as a pivot connecting players to the numerous plot lines and unlocking sections of the city as I progress.
Heating up with the man of steel
My only gripe with the new enlarged Gotham is that its sheer scale makes it a little too easy to lose my way especially for my poor navigational skills – my kingdom for a minimap. Yes, there’s a compass and also a trail to follow but too often I found I wasn’t sure where I was going especially at high speeds in the Batmobile – this is in no way related to the fine I received in the post today for driving up Lewisham's bus-only high street, m'lud.
Next page: Wayne County?
COMMENTS
One Downer
Unfortunately they have kept the Compulsory Dynamic Split Screen thing. In the latest Lego Star Wars, you can select a fixed split screen, which works much better than the dynamic thing.
Who would have thought that Lego would come out with video games? As a child I grew up with lego. I was so into the idea of Lego video game. The best experience would be playing the game 3d. Ever since I was introduced to 3d gaming, I got addicted. Nothing can get better than Lego plus batman on my LG LM660T.
Slightly off topic I know...
...but sorry girl I have to disagree - although a real game changer in comic book terms a far superior aged incarnation of Wayne/Bats can be found in the Waid/Ross classic 'Kingdom Come' series.
Best Bats ever? Loeb/Sale 'The Long Halloween'. And that one isn't even up for discussion.
Seminal Performance!
Surely Clancy Brown must truly be recognised for his portrayal of Eugene H Krabs in SpongeBob Squarepants!
I'm not convinced on the whole 'everyone in the DC universe' shtick. I mean... most of the villains are basically name-checks and included for the sake of inclusion and given stupid mechanics to 'justify it'.
Aquaman is there. Yes, really. But the only use for him is to use his ability to spray a jet of water much as Robin does with one of the suits, except just in the places where you don't have Robin + his suit or it would be really inconvenient to do so (like in parts of Gotham City)
The Flash is there too. His only reason for inclusion, other than a name check, is to 'reassemble' the things that Lex's deconstructor ray has disassembled.
I mean, just by the conclusion of the main storyline, you'll have Batman, Robin, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Cyborg, and The Flash to play with.
Don't even get me started on the number of villains they included, all of which are on roof-tops and need to be duelled, and serve little or no real other purpose in the game other than that.
As far as navigation goes, that was handled surprisingly poorly, I thought, but turn on all the remote Batcomputer terminals (look for the red beams of light, can't really miss those) and then you can be shown a map with everything on it, and after that it isn't really hard to find, especially since you have multiple characters who can fly and thus float and look down on things... and this follows through for the roof-top duels: if you can find them and get to them, you almost certainly have Superman who can fly - and is invulnerable.
Completion of the main story campaign and only getting 20% is absolutely par for the course. Though I too felt unsatisfied - I was kind of hoping for the same as Lego Batman, having the villains' story to play too or at least more than 15 levels.
I like the idea of the massive Gotham City area to explore; it's done even better than Hogwarts was in the first Lego Harry Potter game (years 5-7 was quite poor by comparison, IMHO), but doing it this way is way too linear, it's one overall storyline and one huge area to explore, though there is a lot to do there.
If you liked the series thus far you probably won't be too disappointed, but you probably will be a little disappointed.
Not sure this should have had 85%, I'd have given it about 75% myself, that's after 25 hours thus far - it's a lot of fun, of course, but I'm not sure it's as polished as has been stated.
