00:00I'm gonna be honest guys, I went into LEGO Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight expecting
00:04absolutely nothing. And yes, I had my fair share of LEGO games, so I'm kind of familiar with the
00:11overall formula, but also I have played all of the Arkham Wars Batman games, so I was kind of
00:17sneakily hoping that this is going to be Arkham Wars but in LEGO. And I can safely say I was
00:24kind of right. Also, because of this particular combination, I could probably say this is the
00:29most ambitious LEGO Batman game I've played ever, and it does a lot of things really well.
00:35So today I want to talk about my first impressions of LEGO Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight, based on
00:40five hours of game time. Let's get into it. The first thing that you probably will notice is it
00:45feels like LEGO plus Arkham Hybrid, and for me it actually works really good. You kind of have all
00:51the elements of the Arkham games, and then you add up LEGO quirks and humor, and it actually feels
00:58really damn good. We are talking about combat, stealth, gadgets, gliding, and detective sections,
01:03while still keeping the goofy LEGO tone. I could probably describe it as the closest thing to a
01:10new Arkham game in years, just with LEGO charm layered on top. While I was playing the initial
01:15hours of the game, that is the first two areas or chapters, or whatever you want to call it,
01:20I was secretly hoping that eventually, when this is all over, the next map is probably going to be
01:26Gotham City. Because remember, I played through all of the Arkham games, and that's where that
01:32feeling was coming from. And oh my god, it actually happened. There it was, Gotham City, a full freaking
01:39map, and you can do whatever the hell you want. And to be honest, I love just messing around in
01:45Gotham. You get distracted constantly by collectibles, secrets, and hidden content instead
01:51of following the main story. Exploration actually feels rewarding, and traversal, especially gliding
01:57and using the Batmobile, is one of the most amazing things ever. You will definitely ignore
02:03the main mission, make no mistake. Obviously, you won't be able to complete everything unless you
02:09unlock more characters with more special abilities, but I mean, what else do you want, other than being
02:15Lego Batman and doing whatever the hell you wish in Lego Gotham? Now, when it comes to story, what I
02:21managed to gather so far in my five hours of playtime, the game mixes content and references
02:27from different Batman eras. Movies, animated shows, comics, and games, without feeling random. It actually
02:34kinda makes sense when you see it as a whole story. It's pretty much a huge celebration of Batman
02:41legacy, and it blends iconic versions into one story surprisingly well. For example, one of the
02:47missions in Lego Batman is all about finding these teddy bears that have these chemical compounds,
02:53and then you are kinda using Batcomputer in order to figure out what the compounds are all about,
02:59that is, when you fuse them together. And that's basically a plot point in The Batman Begins,
03:05which, if you remember, if you watched the movie, it's all about Batman figuring out what Jonathan
03:10Crane is doing, that is dumping this hallucinogen inside the Gotham water supply. And then when you
03:17are kind of progressing through the story, you see Red Hood actually being the main bad guy who is
03:23doing this, which, again, is a throwback to the Michael Keaton's Batman, in a sense that you witness
03:30how Joker became Joker. And that particular blending of all of these plots that we are already familiar with,
03:38it actually feels really, really good. So I can only imagine there's going to be more of these
03:44occasions where the plot points from all the Batman media is taken and then fused together
03:50in order to make some sort of a wholesome storyline. Another thing that impressed me is the visuals.
03:56Normally, I don't really talk about graphics, but this one, I would say, is the best-looking Lego game
04:02ever, with highly detailed Lego textures, cinematic cutscenes, and a Gotham that feels more alive and
04:09atmospheric than previous Lego titles. I especially like how the Batcave looks like. I think it's by far
04:15the best Batcave I've ever seen. And overall, you could see how the darker Batman tone still feels
04:22unmistakably Lego. So again, like I said, I'm not really into graphics, but you know, credit where credit
04:29is due. Now, if you have played previous Lego games, you pretty much know how the Lego formula
04:35works. Here, however, there are more RPG-like progression systems. You have the skill tree
04:41and gadget upgrades. You can customize Batcave, outfits, and vehicles. And combined with all the
04:49collectibles, this actually makes the game feel deeper and more rewarding. I would say compared to
04:55the previous Lego games, unlocking stuff in Lego Batman feels more meaningful. Finally, I want to
05:01talk about missions. I would say that they feel more memorable than older Lego games. Mainly because,
05:07like I said before, you are fusing different plot points from different media, and you are kinda
05:12creating this wholesome picture of Batman. Which, when you think about it, nobody has done this before.
05:18The Batman franchise was always kinda fragmented, and everybody had their own plot point, but here,
05:24when they're all merged together, it feels like it fits really good. Also, several elements have been
05:31borrowed from the Arkham games. For example, detective puzzles, action set pieces, and story
05:37moments that remix famous Batman scenes in creative way. If you have played Lego Star Wars The Skywalker
05:44Saga, you can definitely see an improvement compared to the missions in there, because here, they feel
05:50tighter and more focused. Overall, I could say that the biggest and the most important elements of this
05:57game are Arkham-inspired gameplay, fun open-world Gotham, strong Batman fan service, because obviously,
06:04it is fan service, let's not kid ourselves, amazing traversal, either if you're using Batmobile or gliding,
06:11and more progression and customization options. Basically, you could say this is a Lego game that
06:17feels more ambitious than older entries. However, not everything is amazing, and for this section,
06:23I'm going to play a bit of a devil's advocate, so hear me out. If you have been a long
06:30-time Lego fan,
06:31you could say that this game leans too hard into Arkham mechanics, and it basically loses some of the
06:37classic Lego identity. You could even say that it's basically Batman with Lego visuals, rather than a
06:43true Lego Batman game. The focus on combat is much more heavier, the tone is much more darker, and the
06:50emphasis on goofy sandbox fun and character variety is reduced. Which basically brings me to my next
06:56point, because older Lego Batman games, especially titles like Lego Batman 3 and DC Supervillains, had
07:03massive character rosters. Here, the cast is more curated, and you could say that the game traded
07:09quantity for depth in a way that you might not enjoy. For example, you have fewer playable characters,
07:15because I have seen that there's going to be maybe eight of them, in comparison with the older Lego
07:21games where you can have up to 50 characters in your character roster. That can lead to less
07:26experimentation, because in these initial five hours, I was only playing with two characters. Again,
07:32not a huge deal breaker for me, I would personally only play with Batman, but we are talking about
07:38people who enjoy Lego stuff, like previous Lego games. So you need to take this into consideration
07:44as well. Also, another thing that I might mention, based on the things that I have seen, is that the
07:50game might feel short. I don't know where I'm getting this particular feeling, because like I said,
07:55I only played five hours of it, but it seems to me that there's not going to be a lot
08:00of time spent in
08:01this game. If I extrapolate by the characters that Batman is going to hang out with, I would say maybe
08:08there's going to be five more chapters, and that's about it. Now, I could be wrong, but you know,
08:14that's something you cannot really see in the initial five hours, so maybe when I finish the
08:18game, or if I finish the game, I will know more, and then I will probably go back to this
08:22particular
08:23point, saying that I was wrong, or I was right. Obviously, I could go online and spoil myself to see
08:28what's going on, but I don't want to do that, so if you don't mind those spoilers, again, you can
08:32always
08:33type stuff into Google to see the playtime or average playtimes for this particular game. Not to
08:37mention, you can check walkthroughs and see how many chapters there really are. Now, one thing that I
08:43kind of noticed were the boss fights. They don't really feel amazing, or at least the two major ones
08:49that I had. It was pretty much basic, and I kind of expected a bit more, especially the duration of
08:56the
08:56boss fight. For example, certain bosses, they basically took, what, a couple of minutes in
09:01order to defeat. I was kind of thinking, you know, okay, this is it. Is there maybe more of it,
09:06but
09:07then the cutscene started, and that was my cue that the boss fight ended. I don't know, maybe boss fights
09:12are going to be more complex as I continue playing, but what I have seen so far, I'm not that
09:18impressed.
09:18Same thing goes with performance and technical issues. I'm playing on PC, and sometimes I can see
09:24frame rate drops in open world Gotham, stutters when I'm driving the Batmobile, and I would say
09:30overall performance inconsistency. So to conclude, I would say, honestly, I think this game lands best
09:37if you're a Batman fan first and a Lego fan second. If you love Batman lore, Gotham open world, so
09:44Arkhamverse essentially, and all that stuff that comes from it, like detective stuff, gliding around
09:49the city gadgets, you know, stuff like that, there's a lot here to enjoy. But if you're a fan of
09:56Lego
09:56games where the goofy co-op chaos and unlocking 400 random character was a thing, I don't think this
10:03game might be for you. But at the same time, I respect the fact that developers actually tried
10:08something different instead of releasing the exact same game again and again. And at the end of the day,
10:15this is just my opinion or my first impression based on 5 hours of game time. So now I wanna
10:21hear
10:21from you. Have you played Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight yet? Do you think it is the right
10:27direction for Lego games, or should the developers go back to the old formula? Post your comments down
10:33below so I can see what you think about this whole situation. And if you enjoyed the video, don't forget
10:39to like, subscribe, and all that good stuff. And that's it from me, until the next one.
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