Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight was one of the big surprises during last year’s Gamescom: Opening Night Live showcase. Not only is it mechanically a pretty big departure from the usual fare of Traveller’s Tales’ Lego games, but it also kind of seems like a follow-up to the Arkham games that we’ve been lacking for over a decade. The game’s nearly here, so let’s break down everything we know so far.
The obvious Arkham influence
Legacy of the Dark Knight draws heavily from Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham games. Like those games, it takes place in an open-world Gotham with Bruce gliding and grappling around as he finds thugs to beat up and Riddler puzzles to solve. When he’s on the ground, the mini-figure Batman rides around on a motorcycle and in the Batmobile, and in combat, he throws almost rhythmic punches, kicks, and parries like he does in the Arkham games. When I played the game in October, my muscle memory for those old games kicked in pretty quick. It’s QTE-driven, which means that if you’re on top of your blocks and dodges, you can pretty much dance your way through a fight without taking a hit.
Arkham fans will also recognize a few of Batman’s tools, including the explosive gel that he uses to break through walls. Overall, it looks like Traveller’s Tales is stepping up in Rocksteady’s absence.
Making Arkham gameplay accessible for any Lego player
In an interview with Kotaku, Jonathan Smith, Strategic Director & Head of Development Team at TT Games, said that Rocksteady “so definitively embodied the experience in a video game of being Batman,” that Legacy of the Dark Knight obviously had to draw inspiration from it. though the team wanted to make sure it had a combat system that would be accessible to the Lego games’ wide player base. To accomplish this, Legacy of the Dark Knight is including difficulty settings to accomodate different skill levels, rather than expecting a pro-level Arkham veteran to holding the controller.
We’ve got a broad audience of players of all ages, and we want to deliver a rewarding, high quality experience that requires that depth. We also need to present those systems in a way that’s legible and accessible and straightforward for everybody. We offer a choice of difficulty settings, so you can play the game however you want. You can have a low-stress, very forgiving experience, notice the button prompts, stay on the main path; you’ll progress, you’ll feel like Batman. That’s fantastic. Or you can dial it up to Dark Knight mode where you’ll really need to use your understanding of the systems, use stealth to approach enemies from unexpected directions, use the gadgets in effective ways, use your upgrades to then give you even more power and capability in your combat encounters. Because if you don’t, you won’t progress. You’ll run out of hearts, you’ll be set back. That’s a completely new feature for Lego games.
Playable characters
Like most Lego games, Legacy of the Dark Knight is a co-op game. One player will play as Batman, while the other can play as multiple characters from a rotating roster of partners. The first wave we learned of included Catwoman, Jim Gordon, Nightwing, Robin, and Talia al Ghul. Since then, TT Games has also revaled Batgirl, Harley Quinn, and Joker will also be playable. Each of them will have a special ability, which will sometimes be necessary to progress through a level. Gordon, for example, has a foam gun which can be used to block obstacles in Batman’s way. If you don’t have someone to play with, you can swap between characters on the fly to use these abilities.
The Batcave will be an evergrowing space
The Batcave is Batman’s lair, so it’s no surprise that it acts as your base of operations in Legacy of the Dark Knight. Here you’ll be able to change your costume, look at treasures you acquire as you progress, store your various Batmobiles, and also build onto the space with new equipment and furniture. The Batcave is also where you’ll manage upgrades, whether that be for Bruce or your co-op partners.
An homage to the many Batmen that came before
Legacy of the Dark Knight seems to pay tribute to multiple versions of Batman from movies, animation, and of course, comic books. Some notable cameos we’ve seen in the trailer include characters from the Christopher Nolan, Tim Burton, and Matt Reeves films, and no matter what version of Batman is your favorite, you’ll probably see it celebrated here. The idea is that you’ll be playing through a blocky version of Batman’s life, drawing from different iterations but telling the general story of how he went from sad orphan boy to sad orphan man who beats up people in dark alleyways. We’ll surely see cameos from different characters, such as the rest of the Bat Family, his butler Alfred, and maybe members of the Justice League and League of Assassins. Plus, we know we’ll see plenty of Batman’s iconic villains, such as the Joker, Bane, the Penguin, and Poison Ivy.
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is clearly made by people who are Extremely Online
After a new round of previews, we have some more to dig into, and one of the funnier standouts is that Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is paying homage to more than just Batman’s canonical history, but also the extremely online side of its fandom. Folks have already caught references to things like Alfred actor Michael Caine’s memetic “Batman Begin” tweet from 2024, and could potentially set up a reference to the “Surfing Joker” post that joked that, if given the opportunity to create an aquatic villain for Batman, DC Comics would simply put Joker on a surfboard.
Pre-order will get you in early
As has become standard for a lot of big games these days, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is letting folks who pre-order the $90 deluxe edition play the game a few days early. This will give you 72 hours of early access, allowing you to start swinging Batman’s blocky fists around on May 19 while everyone else has to wait.
Release date and system info
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S on May 22, with a Switch 2 version expected later in the year.
