Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is “a veritable hodgepodge” of gaming genres and features brought together with the Batman: Arkham series as its muse

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight sees everyone’s favorite morally questionable hero return to the streets of Gotham once again in TT Games’ latest brick-based adventure. It’s a real hodgepodge of genres, combining RPG and brawler elements with classic Lego action-adventure platforming fun, but it makes for a charming adventure that Bat fans will definitely love.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and at the very least, it’s something Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight has become an art form. Riddled with references, filled with jokes and quintessential, ka-powery comics, there’s no denying that this is an ode to all things Batman.

But in particular, it is obvious how Batman: Arkham series from Rocksteady Studios and WB Games heavily inspired the gameplay. If you’re more of a Lego fan than Batman, you may have missed the trilogy and its many accolades; Released in 2009, 2011, and 2015, the three games in the series received widespread praise for their free-form and inventive combat, excellent stealth gameplay, and exploration mechanics.

It should be noted that the original Lego Batman trilogy was released almost in parallel (in 2008, 2012 and 2014). Although creative and well-received, a Lego game is ultimately a Lego game; it’s for all ages and somewhat limited by its own brick source material. Times have changed and Lego has since gutted its typical play formula enough to Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight take a big step forward to be more Arkham-as, combining the best of these two trilogies and Bat-media beyond. But does it succeed or fail?

Put them in place…

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is still a Lego game at heart; its slapstick humor, zany parodies of iconic scenes, and low-stakes cooperative couch fun form the beating heart of its success. Generally speaking, Legacy of the Dark Knight sticks to the Lego gameplay loop: fight, smash stuff, build something grossly over-equipped to progress through the level, and repeat.

But hold your horses before denouncing it as “just another Lego set”; There are some tweaks to the formula here, including some that fans might disagree with. It starts with a smaller roster of seven playable characters (compared to over 100 in the most recent Lego Batman game), each with unique skills that you’ll unlock as the game progresses. Generally speaking, these are inventive and distinct, although some fare better than others – I’m looking at you, Batgirl.

Recently added to the mix is ​​a more fleshed-out combat system that mimics the Batman: Arkham series free-flow combat system. Now your heroes can create combos as they attack, dodge, counter, and land satisfying environmental takedowns, combining unique skills with melee combat in a super fun brawl-style showdown, uttered by the occasional “THAKK!” or “KAPOW!”.

Fights like these cost a dime, both in the overworld and in leveling, and while they can be a bit repetitive in the late game, it’s still a marked improvement over older Lego titles. That being said, it seems like a lot was added in half measures to keep things simple; for example, I was a bit disappointed by the skill tree for weapons, which offered a rather uninspiring range of moves and upgrades, especially for the wider Bat-family.

Many fights are entirely avoidable if you opt for a stealthier approach; The game is littered with rafters, tunnels, and alcoves that you can pass through or use to surprise enemies with a sneak attack. This was a lot of fun for me, but again it makes things a little too easy in places, especially when coupled with the detective mode-style area scanning that will help you locate objects and intractable enemies.

Thanks to new difficulty settings, you can choose to make these encounters a little more substantial in-game; I played mostly the medium difficulty Caped Crusader mode, which still has infinite health but with more enemies. This is especially true since, for some reason, enemies could see me through walls on several levels when I switched to the more difficult Dark Knight mode. I hope this is a bug we see fixed soon, because I enjoyed the higher stakes of having a finite number of lives… even though it was still pretty easy.

A treat for Bat fans

So how Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight does it differ from Arkham and the original Lego trilogy? Well, the game is full of quizzes, old and new, parodying everything from more obscure comic book references like Bat-Mite to The Batman (2022)mixed with numerous pop culture references to combine the humor of Will Arnett’s portrait in The Lego Batman Movie. As a long-time Batman fan, this is a real joy, and the hits just keep coming.

This mix of references could well have led to frequent whiplash between the darker skies of Gotham and the campy tales of the Caped Crusader’s escapades, but TT Games has wonderfully stitched these disparate plots together through the power of parody. Yet over the course of its six chapters, the story loses its way in places, but I was too enamored by the imaginative level design, slapstick humor, and endless reel of references to really care about whether or not a game built around children’s toys delivers a powerful narrative experience.

For me, Lego games have always scratched my collectathon itch, and this new Batman adventure is no different; You’ll collect everything from drivable vehicles, wearable costumes, and accessories inspired by the franchise, all of which you can proudly display in your customizable Batcave in between attacks against hordes of mindless henchmen.

Exploring Gotham City is also great fun as you slip and slide between looming skyscrapers, marking Wayne Tech and hidden loot on rooftops and alleyways. It’s full of life and, despite the dark setting, there’s a real dynamism to the game, not to mention the slightly excessive level of detail. You can literally see the paint texture of the Lego characters as if they were real toys, and I’m not sure I liked it as much as I was impressed by it.

On that note, I never imagined – or hoped – that a Lego game could be one of the most demanding games in my library, and I had to drop a few settings to get the best performance from the game, especially when playing on my Steam Deck. Additionally, I’m slightly disappointed to see that the same wall issues I found in my demo are still present in the pre-release software I reviewed, and I also found a few additional bugs in the overworld. I was rewarded for completing encounters without ever going near them, Sub-Wayne entry points frequently reset mid-solution, henchmen didn’t always appear, and when they did, as mentioned above, they were sometimes x-rayed.

That being said, it’s definitely one of my favorite Lego games, and the magic lies in the love and appreciation the developers clearly have for Lego and Batman. I doubt the new additions to Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight saying too much about the future of Lego games in general; in fact, it tells me that TT Games may be keen to do more new and exciting things with each franchise, and that’s never a bad thing. There’s still a lot of fun to be had with the Lego formula, and Legacy of the Dark Knight is a fantastic example.

Should you play Lego Batman: The Dark Knight Legacy?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility Features

Much attention is paid to accessibility options within Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight; upon first launch, players can choose from Vision, Hearing, Motor, and Motion Sickness accessibility presets, as well as between three difficulty levels, two of which have no failure status (Classic and Caped Crusader).

If these presets aren’t suitable, there are a litany of settings to customize; For visual needs, you can switch between audio description, high contrast mode, color blindness, full screen effects, text size, HUD visibility, marker display, camera shake, lingering center point and third person camera reset, configure customizable subtitles and choose between adjustable and dynamic field of view. For auditory accessibility, there are volume controls, closed captioning, voiceover icons, night mode and audio output settings, and for all the engine needs, you can remap the controls including the sticks, invert the camera and adjust sensitivity, adjust controller dead zone and held or repeat button inputs, toggle aim assist and lock-on, adjust game speed, aim mode, gadget rapid fire and ignore quick events or simplify them.

You can also toggle stud loss on/off to make the game less painful, it auto-saves for ease, and you can view text logs and tutorials at any time from the pause menu. Some events can be skipped via the pause menu (shown on the HUD), and you can pause at any time, even during cutscenes.

How I Reviewed Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

I spent over 20 hours Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, playing on my custom gaming PC with a Dell S3225QS monitor, 8BitDo Ultimate controller and Razer Kraken Kitty headset, but also on my Steam Deck.

I covered the majority of the main storyline, explored Gotham to complete side quests and unlockable content, and played through all three difficulties to gauge their impact on the game. I compared my experience to other recent Lego games like the The Skywalker Saga as well as my fond memories of playing the original Lego Batman trilogy.

First evaluation of Mat 2026.

Editor-in-Chief, Social and Engagement

Josephine Watson is the Editor-in-Chief of TechRadar – Social & Engagement. Joséphine is an award-winning journalist (PPA 30 under 30 2024) trained at NCTJ. Having previously written on everything from pop culture to gaming to the energy industry, she joined TechRadar to support the overall management of the site. She is a smart home enthusiast, a champion of TechRadar’s sustainability efforts, and an advocate for internet safety and education. She has used her position to fight for progressive approaches to diversity and inclusion, mental health, and neurodiversity in business. Typically, you’ll find her playing around with her smart home setup, watching Disney movies, gaming on her Switch, or rewatching the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition…again.

Related