Taking Batman and Co’s adventures beyond the streets of Gotham. The Justice League are forced to from an uneasy alliance as they defend Earth from the menacing Brainaic. A world consuming being that has now set his sights on our world and will stop at nothing to achieve this goal.
Lego Batman in all honesty hasn’t made any huge improvements since it’s original conception but at all costs do not let that weigh you down. The tried and true method of “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” applies to this beyond all measure. The amount of detail in each Lego brick is fantastic and the way the levels are built is magical sure to inspire any child. Particular note has to be made of the exemplary space segments.
Cutscenes are crisply rendered and outrageously humorous, with some stellar voice acting from stars such as Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Nolan North, Conan O’Brien and even Adam West, the original Batman for a lot of people. Beyond Gotham boasts an outstanding soundtrack that has taken snippets from the wonderful Tim Burton Batman film’s of the early 90’s and incorporated them wonderfully.
One particular gripe I had with the games choice of presentation was during the local couch co-op portions where wandering too far from your partner would force the screen to split dynamically. This rotating nightmare was disorientating beyond description, sure it could be counter acted to a fixed vertical split screen which then cut your viewing space down to almost nothing. Perhaps I am showing my age but I really believe good old fashioned horizontal split screen is the answer to this but it might of just been something that was over looked in development.
Being a Lego character the bricked world is at your finger tips to destroy and create as needs be to further your progress. Just about any object can be bludgeoned to reveal collectible Lego points which accumulate to reveal a sense of progress throughout each level. Ultimately it hasn’t changed a lot from previous games but the same principle I gave in Presentation applies. I do have to mention the outstanding array of DC cast members that are made available throughout this game: Batman, Superman, Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern and that is only naming the more major characters. Looking past those bigger names there is still an abundance of characters to play as, in the 100s!
Once characters are unlocked you can take them back to previously completed sections to unlock or collect things that were otherwise unobtainable the first time through, increasing the replay value immensely. I must say it was excellent to see the various sizes of characters coming into play such as Lex’s Battle suit, Martian Man hunters natural form and Killer Croc just to name a few.
Not too far into the game players are given a huge treat in terms of game play. A small segment out in space opens up for some epic intergalactic battling. Reminiscent of the PS4’s launch game Resogun, this twin stick shooter segment was a great addition and a fantastic break in game play. That’s not too say I needed the break in game play but it certainly was welcome.
Abundance of fun aside and exceptional variations in game play aside. I felt that at a few times the methods to progress in the game were a bit vague. I don’t need hand holding but for an adult, sorry two adults playing this game. There were segments where we were both stumped, perhaps our Lego imagination wasn’t up to scratch but these examples surely did ruin the immersion we shared in this game.
