Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is a joyful romp through Gotham City | preview

TT Games and Warner Bros. Games have been making Lego video games for more than two decades. Fortunately, they haven’t gotten bored of it. Rather, they’re really showing off their mastery.

It shows in Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. I played the action-adventure game on the PlayStation 5 at a recent preview event and I was impressed on multiple levels. The game has the same funny scenes and wacky humor that came through in earlier Star Wars games and the Lego Batman movie. That makes it a great family game (rated for age 10 and up).

But it also has hooks in the game for adults, like a full narrative of the Dark Knight story and the origin of the character Robin, as well as Batman’s flirtations with Catwoman. You can play it single player or two-person couch co-op. The combo of features that appeal to to the kids as well as the adults makes the Lego game series so appealing for all. The title ships on May 19 on early access and then May 22 for the standard edition.

All of this is coming together so well that I figure that these developers are not tired of making Lego games at all. I played for almost three hours, and you can see about an hour of my edited gameplay in the video below.

Batman pursues Falcone on his ground in Gotham City. Source: Lego/Warner In fact, there are some cool innovations they have built into Lego Batman. For starters, you’ll see it when you get the game running. The art is pretty amazing, as it’s a combination of simple blocky Lego bricks and highly realistic backdrops. It’s almost like it’s two games blended into one, like a fighting game with cool fighters in the foreground and the backdrop looking like it’s a totally different game.

The blended art has a unique effect on how you experience the game. On a microscopic level, you can see how the Lego bricks deal with light, details, imperfections and more things that improve the realism of the imagery, said Jonathan Smith, head of development for the game at TT Games, in an interview with me at the preview event.

The game also blends linear story missions where you follow a prescribed path with an open world in the city of Gotham, where you can explore as you wish. I couldn’t tell how vast the open world was in my three-hours or so of gameplay, but I got the feeling it was a little like the metropolis in the Spider-Man games.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/OHDgXfz5TOI?feature=oembed The game invites players to embark on Bruce Wayne’s epic journey to become the hero of Gotham City, inspired by decades of Batman films, television shows, comic books, and
games, combined with DC lore and familiar Lego humor. The game tells Batman’s story in full as a heroic story-led campaign from origin to legend, bringing together iconic moments from across the Caped Crusader’s history in media.

You start as a young Bruce Wayne training with The League of Shadows and play through
key events on the way to becoming the Dark Knight. Throughout the campaign, you build a family of crime-fighting allies with Jim Gordon, Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Catwoman, and Talia al Ghul and face off against the likes of The Joker, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Firefly, Ra’s al Ghul, Bane, and more.

I thought there were some fun moments when Batman credulously asks Catwoman if the side mission they’re on is actually a heist. Catwoman says, “Of course not,” and proceeds to pull off a heist while Batman tags along.

Lego Batman has a big open world. Source: Lego/Warner The game has dynamic Lego Batman combat, with a fighting system delivers an authentic expression of Batman’s fighting style with fluid attack chains, over-the-top takedowns, and powerful gadgets. It reminded me of the hand-to-hand fighting in the Batman Arkham games, which were set in a realistic universe.

If you press circle and left stick on the controller, you can just flip over an enemy and then take them out from behind with a quick punch before they can recover. This works against the thugs with shields. The fluidity works well, allowing you to chain together a bunch of attacks and evasions before enemies can react.

Batman’s Batarangs can distract or stun enemies and the Batclaw can reel them in. You can throw it at a security camera to disable it. Other playable characters have their own signature gear, including Jim Gordon’s Foam Sprayer and Rebound Launcher, Robin’s Cable Launcher and Birdarangs, Nightwing’s Electrorangs and Electric Cable Launcher, Batgirl’s Hackarang and drone, Catwoman’s whip and loyal companion kitten, and Talia al Ghul’s Nanda Parbat Blowdarts.

And of course there is the uniquely Lego joy of just going around and smashing things into Lego bricks just because you’re Batman. And if you want to go quiet, you can sneak up behind enemies, press R1, and then just take them down in a stealthy way.

Iceberg Lounge in Lego Batman. Source: Lego/Warner One of the best things about it is the open world of Gotham City. You can explore an open world Lego playground with puzzles to solve, challenges to complete, rewards to collect, crimes to stop, and surprises to discover around every corner, alleyway, and rooftop.

This is where the sounds in the game help with the immersion. You feel like you’re inside Gotham City, with spooky music to go with spooky scenes.

You can interact with pedestrians, traffic, and even animals all within Gotham City’s varied districts, which span across four separate islands with multiple levels, reaching both
vertically into the sky and underground. As the story unfolds, visit familiar locations such as Ace Chemicals, Gotham Botanical Gardens, Wayne Tower, and Arkham Asylum.

In one scene, you have to meet Catwoman at a location. You can get there any way you want, grappling through the city, almost like Spider-Man. You can sit on a perch on a tower to get a lay of the land and see where your help is needed.

You can stop and interrupt a crime on the streets. Those fights had a lot of variety to them, with big thugs mixed with small ones, each with a different fighting style. As Batman, you have to stay mobile and try different tricks and gadgets to stay ahead of teh different types of attacks coming at you.

Batman’s finishing move. Source: TT Games/Warner Bros. While the open world is vast, you can move through it quickly. You can pull out your grappling hook, target an interactive spot in the landscape and the grapple to it through the air. That allows you to traverse a lot of space at once. You can also jump off a tower and glide your way to a crime spot and take the enemies out from above.

And you can make your way quickly through the city, zipping from building to building using the grapple launcher, soar over the city with the Batglider, or cruise around in style with a range of Batmobiles and Batcycles. Each Gotham City island has glide currents enabling a closed-circuit, overhead tour of the open world.

One of the first scenes I encountered was a visit to the Iceberg Lounge, where crime lord Carmine Falcone is hiding out. Batman and police leader Jim Gordon team up to take out the thugs on the dance floor and pursue Falcone. The brawl that ensues is a fluid scene where you fight one thug at a time with a series of fast punches.

Thugs carrying shields can slow you down enough to let the others take you down. So you press a button and flip over them and then take them out from behind in a quick motion. When you take out the last criminal, the action moves into a satisfying slow-motion takedown or finishing move.

Throughout the level, you can learn how to use your gadgets. Your Batarang can disable a security camera and stop Falcone from catching on that you’re after him. Each stage of the level has a puzzle where you have to smash Lego furnishings to smithereens and then reassemble a weapon that can blast down the doors or otherwise get you to the next scene. The hints will steer you to where you need to be to solve the puzzles.

When you get to the scene of Catwoman’s heist, there’s an elaborate puzzle where you have to solve one part at a time. Eventually, as Catwoman, you can pull out a little kitty and wander through a mansion as the cat. You can go into air ducts and other small places where Catwoman herself can’t fit. And you can solve puzzles and then return to Catwoman with the press of a button. If you can’t figure out a piece of the puzzle, clues come along to help you figure it out.

You first meet Robin at the Haly’s Circus, where Dick Grayson and his parents are performers, the Flying Graysons. It turns out to be a trap for Bruce Wayne, set by Harvey Dent, aka Two Face. To escape the challenges and defuse a bomb, you have to perform one feat after another, building Lego creations that can help you move up the levels. You get ambushed by Two Face’s lackeys and have to fight your way out alongside Dick Grayson, who of course eventually becomes Robin.

Lego Batman has a big open world. Source: Lego/Warner You can take Robin over to the Wayne Manor and show him the Batcave.

The legendary underground headquarters located beneath Wayne Manor has been delightfully reimagined and serves as Batman’s central hub of operations where players will house suits and vehicles, upgrade gadgets, display trophies, review case files via the Batcomputer, and personalize the environment with a variety of Lego themed furnishings (even a personal gym), expanding and evolving as players progress through the campaign.

You can collect an assortment of wearable Batsuits and outfits celebrating the storied history of the Dark Knight. Overall, there are 100 different outfits for playable characters, showcasing an array of suits for both Batman and his crime-fighting allies.

Caped Crusader enhanced difficulty setting and an even more challenging Dark Knight difficulty level provide a tougher playthrough for seasoned gamers, in addition to the classic Lego game experience.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. Source: Lego/Warner All pre-orders (Standard & Deluxe Editions) will receive The Dark Knight Returns Batsuit (at launch), inspired by the acclaimed comic book series.

Deluxe Edition pre-orders will also receive 72-hour early access to the game beginning on May 19, prior to the main launch on May 22.

Lego has a bunch of Batman playsets debuting in the toy realm, including some that have digital unlocks for the video game. The Nintendo Switch 2 version will launch later in 2026.

Overall, I had a great time playing the preview and I could understand why the combination of story, open world, puzzles and combat make this Lego Batman game into a welcome addition to the triple-A fold.

Disclosure: Warner Bros. paid my way to the preview event.

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