by Jayden Leggett, Editor

Same Bat-game, new Bat-place!

Yes, that time has come once more for the latest game from the booming LEGO franchise to be released. That’s right folks, LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham has finally hit the shelves. But has it been worth the wait? According to my honorary junior reviewers: “Yes!” My opinion? Read this stellar review and the answer will be revealed!

As you may have gathered from my opening paragraph, I enlisted the services of a couple of enthusiastic youngsters that are very close to my heart: Emilio, an eight year old Bat-fan, and Erick, a five year old superhero aficionado. You see, the LEGO games are one of those rare creatures that can truly be enjoyed by child and adult alike, so I figured it would be nice to conduct this review with the occasional tidbit of input from these enthusiastic and energetic youngsters who have a penchant for getting bored easily.

Let’s begin with the story, shall we? In a word: Brainiac. You see, the evil android Brainiac has devised a plan to shrink and capture the entire planet Earth by stealing and utilising the power rings of the Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Purple, Pink and Green Lanterns. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he is also brainwashing any super hero or villain he can in order to help carry out his evil plan. Naturally, a hero as fine and upstanding as Batman won’t take an affront such as this without a fight. Thus the Dark Knight and the Boy Wonder (along with heroes and villains from the DC Universe) embark on an adventure that takes them to the far reaches of the galaxy. Holy intergalactic space travel, Batman!

Remaining true to typical LEGO game form, one or two players work their ways through numerous levels set in the DC Universe, beating up baddies, collecting LEGO studs and goodies, and building LEGO constructions in order to solve puzzles. While the previous two LEGO Batman games heavily revolved around constantly needing to switch suits via suit-swapping points, LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham now allows you to instantly change suits on the fly by using the newly implemented Bat-Tastic Gadget Wheel. Apart from this, however, it’s very much business as usual: complete a level, run around the hub stage (which this time around now mostly consists of the Watchtower), complete more levels and so on until you reach the story’s conclusion. At least, that’s what I initially thought.

You see, while my boys said the game was great fun and that the story “went for ages”, I couldn’t help but feel ever so slightly disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, the story campaign was great overall, what with that addictive smashing and looting gameplay and the vast amount of fan service on offer – not to mention that the boys had an absolute blast just messing about as their favourite superheroes. I just couldn’t help but feel that LEGO Batman 3 took a bit of a step backward from LEGO Batman 2 – I mean, where is the gigantic sandbox style open world that we were spoiled with last time? Well, as it turns out, this aspect does exist in LEGO Batman 3 – you just have to know where to find it…

As many of you may very well know, often when the story is finished in a LEGO title, that is where the fun truly begins! As I briefly mentioned earlier, there are hub zones in which the player can literally spend hours exploring in search for unlockable characters, undertaking bonus missions and so on. Further hidden within the game is a portal that grants access to the seven lantern worlds that are also fully explorable. That’s seven more huge locations where players can sink even more hours into this game! Seven more locations filled with races, unlockables, bonus missions and new characters. Also, if you snoop around the Batcave enough, you may just stumble upon the chance to play out an episode from the classic sixties Batman TV show…

In addition to the super addictive gameplay, LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham also delivers in spades both visually and audibly. The graphics are as crisp and shiny as they have ever been, but the real star of the show here is the sound and music. Musical scores from the classic Superman and Batman movies, as well as other fantastic themes, are used to great effect during levels, and I giggled every time I took flight as Wonder Woman and the theme music from her classic television show began to play. Then we have the excellent voice acting for the various characters, with favourites like Troy Baker and Josh Keaton reprising their roles as Batman and Green Lantern respectively. Last but not least, there are the guest actors who get to play as LEGO versions of themselves, with the likes of Kevin Smith, Conan O’Brien and of course the mighty Adam West lending their voices to further enhance the already enormous production values of this game!

LEGO Batman 3 really does pack in a heck of a lot of awesomeness into the one title. There are over 150 characters to unlock and even more gold bricks to collect. The bonus missions are fun and numerous, and the sizes of the various explorable worlds are large and satisfying, without going overboard. The boys loved the silly characters such as Joker for “being funny and being annoying”, and I was laughing alongside them during some of the funnier LEGO randomness that occurred during the cutscenes, not to mention the in-game shenanigans that only my Erick and Emilio are capable of.

At times I did feel that the two player mode suffered a bit with regards to the implementation of the split screen, as sometimes the action on screen would get so intense that we would often lose track of our characters while the dynamic split-screen was moving around, and the side scrolling space-shooter sections barely provided any viewing space to see the oncoming enemies. Also, the levels initially suffered from being slightly repetitive in terms of location variety (Watchtower level, Watchtower level, oh, another Watchtower level…) but thankfully the level variety increased dramatically by the latter half of the game. All told, these complaints are relatively minor and are not in any way deal-breakers.

If you’re after a game this Christmas that can be enjoyed by yourself as well as your young ones, LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is the game for you. And with a Season Pass worth of DLC already scheduled, it’s looking like it will be the gift that keeps on giving. Bat-tastic!

Emilio and Erick give LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham one hundred out of one hundred LEGO batarangs (because a five-star system apparently wasn’t high enough).

Rating:

ComicsOnline gives LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham 4.5 out of 5 Adam West Bat-suits.

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