| System: PS4*, PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U |  |
| Dev: Traveler’s Tales | |
| Pub: Warner Bros. | |
| Release: November 11, 2014 | |
| Players: 1-2 | |
| Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p | Cartoon Violence |
After a small while, the game opens up and multiple missions become available, including missions you already completed. This is kind of cool, but doesn’t really effect game flow much. It’s certainly completionist bait, as people who want to perfect their runs through stages can go back over and over again, collect more studs, save Adam West (he needs rescuing in multiple stages), so on so forth. But overall I just proceeded from one mission to another, not really knowing what the next one entailed, and not really caring for that matter. It’s not like I had a lot of info about the missions ahead of time, so it was really just kind of an empty decision for me.
The graphics are decent, with the miniaturized planet missions being the most interesting. It’s definitely cool to see these giant sized LEGO figures stomping around LEGO buildings and causing wanton destruction. When the graphics are turned up on high on a PC, the game looks a lot like the LEGO Movie and that’s kinda cool. It’s easily one of the best looking LEGO games that we have seen in a while.
The voice acting is also pretty good, but in my opinion falls a little short. We get halfway decent facsimiles of the voices we had growing up, the deep Kevin Conroy Batman voice, the cackling Joker, so on so forth, but facsimiles are all they are. It’s easy to lose yourself in the voices, forgetting that these aren’t the same voice actors we grew up with, until just a couple lines that are delivered in strange ways that make you remember, “Oh yeah, it’s not the 90s and I’m a 30 year old playing a LEGO video game.”
The pacing kills it for me. I feel like levels plod on at a snail’s pace and frequently when solving puzzles I I find myself wanting them to be over so I can just proceed to the next part of the time. That portion of the gameplay just doesn’t feel rewarding, and as such I find myself taking multiple breaks simply due to frustration.
But in comparison to the other LEGO titles out there, LEGO Batman 3 is still one of the better ones. It has a lot of personality, a lot of interesting ideas, and just a lot of stuff to do. It very much knows its fans, with its slick references and expansive character roster, and I like that. It appeals to the culture of comic book fans, and even LEGO fans to a certain extent. The game is at its best when you go, “Haha I get it!”
The best way to describe LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is fun, but frustrating. If you are a PC player, you’ll run into a ton of glitches and controller issues and game crashes and just general unpleasant technical fidgeting. Even if you aren’t the game’s tedious puzzles will make you shake your controller with rage. However, if you manage to get past all that, there is a decent game here, with interesting action sequences, decent tongue-in-cheek humor, and a lot of fan service. I wouldn’t call the game a “must have” title, but if you are looking for a new LEGO title you sink your teeth into, you could do a lot worse than this one.
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By Angelo M. D'Argenio Contributing Writer Date: November 12, 2014 |
Game Features:
