Knight shift
I found the Lego Batman 2 campaign mode with its 15 chapters takes around 11 hours to get through. The gameplay consists of the same mêlée combat with Quick Time Event prompts and isn't anything new from the previous instalment. Even so, the game really comes good as a collector's heaven – I am sure that I could spend innumerable hours making double or triple passes to collect more studs, gold bricks and minikits.
Moments of Wonder
I really appreciated the refined textures and epic backgrounds of Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes – time has been spent making it a visually appealing game. This city reminds me of the Gotham of Frank Miller's Dark Knight, where dark colours are muted by constant rain.
The shiny plastic of the characters and sparking lights of the city are super bling and this makes them stand out all the more by comparison.
Light touch
There is no on-line multiplayer in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, which is a shame. Indeed, if anything, on-line co-op would be the new spark to reignite this series. Still, if I want to play locally with my mates, a second player can drop in the game if I am in the same room at the same time. And trust me, this is an infinitely superior experience to working alongside the AI, which often leaves me fighting all alone.
Suits you, sir
Verdict
I like Lego, I like Batman and luckily Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes does them both justice with its inventive storyline, obsessive-compulsive collecting mission and not very Alan Turing problem solving in a vast, if somewhat sprawling, world. It’s the sense of discovery that gives this game mass appeal and makes it enjoyable.
Traveller's Tales hasn’t made a lot of changes, and definitely hasn't fixed any flaws, but the open world design of Lego Batman 2 could lend a new lease of life to the other titles in the series. This game has real scope and I’m sure I’ll still be revisiting it long after Dark Knight Rising is consigned to Netflix. ®
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Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
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.
