Review: LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (PS5) – Brick Gaming at Its Joyful Best

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While creating LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, it seems TT Games had a simple rule: if something wasn’t enjoyable, they immediately cut it. They prioritized fun above all else.

This established studio has crafted a thoroughly enjoyable experience. By drawing on the rich history of Batman, they’ve created a campaign that feels like a collection of the best moments from the franchise, constantly offering fresh and exciting ways to engage with the world.

As a huge LEGO Batman fan, I can tell you this game isn’t just trying to be fun – it practically guarantees it! Seriously, it’s built into the whole experience. You’re going to have a blast playing – I honestly don’t think it’s possible not to!

Dedicated Batman fans will especially enjoy this game, as it’s packed with references to classic comic books, films, and previous games – including both well-known moments and more obscure details.

This movie isn’t based on any single story from Batman’s long history; instead, it’s a tribute to the character and a celebration of everything Batman represents. However, you don’t need to be a lifelong fan to enjoy it.

I’ve experienced the Batman universe through the Arkham game series and films like The Dark Knight and the newer The Batman. While I’m not a Batman expert, the game was so enjoyable that it didn’t matter if I didn’t catch every reference.

The heart of the game is a vast, explorable Gotham City, with the story unfolding across its different areas. This combination of free roaming and story missions shows a clear improvement in TT Games’ LEGO games compared to their 2022 release, The Skywalker Saga.

It’s stripped things back in some ways and doubled down in others.

Instead of a huge list of over 350 characters, this game features only seven. And instead of simple, unimportant battles, it uses the exciting and well-designed fights directly from the Batman: Arkham games.

This LEGO game is the most detailed and comprehensive one yet. The seven playable characters aren’t just cosmetic changes – they each have unique abilities and can be upgraded with their own skill trees. This adds depth to the combat, giving each character special moves that complement the familiar combo-based fighting style from the Batman: Arkham games.

The game often feels like a classic Rocksteady title from the 2010s, but built entirely out of LEGOs.

You’ll navigate the expansive world from above, soaring across the city and using a grapple to quickly move between buildings. When you need to cover ground quickly, a variety of vehicles are available, and they handle just as smoothly and intuitively as gliding.

The game features a large open world made up of islands that become available as you play. Like many LEGO games, it’s filled with tons of collectibles – I was constantly finding new ones on my map! There are also plenty of side activities like races, challenges, and puzzles, which offer a fun break from the main story and keep things interesting.

The Batcave serves as your central hub, where you can personalize the space with items you’ve collected and keep track of remaining objectives. It features stations for unlocking and viewing collectible suits and vehicles, a shop to spend your earned Studs, and other useful tools.

LEGO Batman has been updated with even more features, making it the best LEGO game yet, while still keeping the fun elements fans already love.

The combat system has been significantly improved, taking inspiration from games like Batman: Arkham. It focuses on chaining together longer and longer combos – you’ll move around, fight enemies, and dodge attacks. As you fight, a meter fills up, letting you perform a special takedown, and then the cycle repeats. While it can feel a bit frantic, the real reward comes from mastering those long combos and unlocking impressive takedowns.

The game features frequent battles mixed with puzzles and enjoyable story scenes. Exploring locations like the Iceberg Lounge and Ace Chemical, rebuilt with LEGO bricks, is a real highlight. The puzzles offer a nice break from the action, the humor is clever and funny, and the gameplay is more challenging than previous LEGO games.

As you progress, the combat can become a bit repetitive. All the characters you unlock use the same abilities – briefly stunning enemies – and there’s no real difference in how they fight. Whether you’re playing as Catwoman, Robin, or Jim Gordon, the gameplay feels identical. This repetitive, button-mashing style eventually became tiresome, and I often found myself losing focus and messing up combos out of boredom.

Whenever a fight started to drag, a funny scene would usually follow, quickly boosting my enjoyment. The game has a really appealing energy; it’s clear the developers always have another creative level up their sleeve.

The game truly delivers on the fun I talked about – it’s consistently enjoyable. Whether you’re invested in the Batman narrative, exploring the open world, or searching for collectibles, you’re sure to have a good time.

I’d recommend waiting for a patch or two on the PS5 before playing, if possible. I played on PS5 Pro using Performance Mode (which aims for 60 frames per second), and while it was generally okay, the frame rate wasn’t always smooth. It’s definitely playable at launch, but not perfectly stable.

During fast-paced moments and fights, the game’s frame rate can sometimes dip, causing brief stuttering. There’s a ‘Quality Mode’ for improved visuals, but it locks the frame rate to 30, which can lead to even more performance issues.

Even putting everything else aside, LEGO Gotham City is visually impressive, regardless of how you play. This is TT Games’ best-looking game yet. The nighttime lighting of the open world is particularly beautiful, and the detailed interiors used in story missions are fantastic. Even though some of these locations are only visited once, they’re filled with references to Batman and boast high-quality graphics.

I was particularly impressed with how well the game uses the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller. It’s not common to see this level of support in games not made by Sony, and the controller’s features – like the vibrations and adjustable triggers – are used in clever and noticeable ways.

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2026-05-18 15:08