LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Shows How Badly WB Games Misread Batman

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It’s always satisfying when a project goes according to plan, and LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is proving to be a hit! Currently, it boasts an impressive Metascore of 84 based on 56 critic reviews. The game has also been wishlisted over a million times on Steam, and despite being in early access for Deluxe Edition owners, it’s already received a “Very Positive” rating (93%) from players, based on over 300 reviews.

From the moment the new LEGO Batman game was announced, it felt destined to succeed. It taps into the decades of Batman stories, playfully recreating memorable scenes from the popular Nolan-verse films – like the Gotham museum heist with Prince’s “Partyman” – but in a way that’s fitting for LEGO. The game features a huge collection of Batman’s iconic suits and vehicles, drawing from well-known and lesser-known parts of his history, and includes a cast of villains who have challenged the Dark Knight over the years.

Beyond all of that, the game looks fantastic, with beautiful graphics that run smoothly on PCs. It also features a smaller, but more detailed, cast of characters than past LEGO games, and a sprawling, lively open-world Gotham City packed with famous locations and things to do. The biggest criticism? It’s not very challenging—though Dark Knight mode fixes that—and it doesn’t have online co-op. That really highlights how good the game is overall.

While playing LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight brought me a lot of happiness, it also reminded me of some past frustrations. It wasn’t about previous LEGO Batman games – even the not-so-great ones that featured Batman – which are now well-known, for good or bad. What surprised me was learning that TT Games wasn’t the only studio involved in making this particular game; two other studios contributed as well.

From the moment the combat system was shown, people immediately compared it to Batman: Arkham, and rightly so – the fluid, free-flowing combat style was back and better than ever. It seems Rocksteady Studios played a key role in its implementation, with one of their directors and around 24 team members – including programmers, artists, and designers – contributing to the game. WB Games Montreal also provided assistance.

Here’s the situation: two game studios famous for their work on the Batman: Arkham series are collaborating. One created a highly acclaimed trilogy considered among the greatest games ever made. The other developed a prequel that, while perhaps not fully appreciated by its publisher, still features some of the best boss fights in the series – excluding the tank battles. Now, both studios are working together on a new, single-player, open-world Batman game that could be seen as a lighter version of the Arkham style.

It’s been nearly a decade since Batman: Arkham Knight came out, and almost thirteen years since Batman: Arkham Origins. The question is, why hasn’t there been a new game in the series? This isn’t directed at the developers, TT Games or the original studios, but at Warner Bros. Games.

As a huge LEGO and Batman fan, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight finally proves what we’ve all been saying for ages: a really solid, single-player game in the style of Arkham would be a hit! Honestly, it’s baffling that Warner Bros. Discovery kept going with all those other disappointing approaches instead of this. It just feels like the obvious path!

I clearly dislike games that constantly try to follow current trends, and I particularly hated Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It was a frustrating experience that quickly made me lose interest, and I remained completely apathetic even when they revealed, almost a year later, that the Justice League members you were fighting were just clones. (Spoiler alert, for the few who might care.)

Let’s be clear: Gotham Knights wasn’t a success. There were a lot of missteps – from how it handled key elements like the Court of Owls and Bruce Wayne, to its portrayal of four major Bat Family characters. The action RPG combat and awkward movement system, which limited you to specific grappling and jumping points, also didn’t work well. All of this seemed to be in service of a live-service, co-op game that never materialized, leaving us with a disjointed and unfinished product.

Ultimately, the responsibility for what happened lies with WB Games. While they may have been chasing the potential profits of ongoing live-service games – and hoping Gotham Knights would be a success – the result was significant financial losses. Both studios experienced layoffs, but these were likely overshadowed by the larger issues stemming from the Warner Bros. Discovery merger and sale.

Some might say Legacy of the Dark Knight would have done well even without Rocksteady or WB Games Montreal, and that actually supports my argument. We didn’t need the uninspired side stories with Waller’s mercenaries or the clumsy adventures of those four characters. A focused, single-player Batman game would have been enough on its own. It’s also important to remember that LEGO Batman isn’t inherently a huge draw – the last game came out in 2014 and received the lowest ratings in the series (though it still scored a respectable 74 on Metacritic). And even though The Lego Batman Movie did well, its sequel was cancelled after The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part didn’t perform as expected.

Interestingly, whispers about the development of LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight started way back in January 2023. At the time, TT Games was facing some internal challenges after a period of intense work on LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. They were not only cancelling certain projects, but also creating downloadable content for Skywalker Saga while simultaneously beginning work on the new LEGO Batman game.

It wasn’t the smoothest process, but a new Batman game was released within about three years, with some assistance. Around the same time, development on Gotham Knights reportedly started after plans for another Batman game—focused on Damian Wayne—were cancelled around early 2018. Work on Suicide Squad also began in 2016, after a previous version that the Montreal studio was creating was scrapped.

After nearly six and nine years of development, the results were disappointing: a flawed action RPG that nobody remembers and a live service game that failed to gain traction. Well done, Warner Bros.

I’m not a fan of how much extra content costs in Legacy of the Dark Knight, nor do I think TT Games is perfect. However, the new LEGO Batman proves something important: WB Games has mismanaged things for over ten years, squandering the skills of talented developers on poor-quality games. It shows a single-player Batman game can be successful with both critics and fans, and that WB has been making mistakes for a long time.

Let’s hope this inspires Rocksteady to create another great Batman game. While tough times often come before success, we’re hoping the wait for their next title isn’t too long.

Just so you know, the opinions in this article are the author’s own and don’t reflect the official stance of GamingBolt.

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2026-05-22 18:45