LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Is the Arkham Game You've Been Waiting For | gamescom 2025

Traveler’s Tales is erstwhile again bringing a boatload of brick-breaking battles with bat-baddies to the streets of Gotham City. For 20 years, the workplace has mostly followed the beloved and established look of adapting immoderate of the biggest media franchises successful the satellite and turning them into level-based action-adventures. But this time, TT looks to beryllium uncovering inspiration extracurricular of its ain walls, but elsewhere wrong its Warner Bros. family, giving the radical what they want: a caller Batman Arkham crippled successful each but name.

Legacy of the Dark Knight is structured somewhat otherwise from erstwhile LEGO games. Not rather an archetypal story, TT Games has immersed itself successful the satellite of the Bat by taking antithetic strands of the hero’s astir celebrated stories from crossed comics and films to trade a communicative connected its own. You’ll get a young Bruce Wayne root story, which appears to instrumentality inspiration from Batman Begins, if the trailer is thing to spell by, but aboriginal conscionable a Joker calved successful a vat of corrosive materials earlier aboriginal morphing into a mentation of Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning portrayal for a section oregon two.

I got to play done a afloat ngo from aboriginal successful the story, which took maine to Ace Chemicals, a mentation styled heavy connected the factory’s look from Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman. However, the communicative taking spot wrong those neo-gothic walls takes a leafage consecutive from the pages of Ed Brubaker’s one-shot comic The Man Who Laughs, arsenic Batman is sent to analyse Red Hood. The discourse is acceptable up done acquainted slapstick LEGO silliness arsenic the Bat is asked to way down 3 abstracted shipments of teddy bears successful bid to find what nefarious usage Hood has for them.

This opening takes spot extracurricular of the plant’s walls and allowed maine to experimentation with the instantly recognisable combat suite. I punched grunts a fewer times until their integrative legs broke escaped from their torsos and countered whenever they dared flash that small onslaught awesome implicit the apical of their head. Fans of the Batman: Arkham games volition cognize precisely what I’m talking astir present (as good arsenic anyone who played the many, galore enactment games Rocksteady’s strategy inspired), but from the small I experienced, I can’t spot it getting overmuch much mechanically analyzable from here.

That evident Arkham inspiration and tendency to bring it to an adjacent wider assemblage is thing that Jonathan Smith, Head of Production and Strategic Director astatine TT Games, willfully admitted to me: “You can't deliberation astir being Batman successful a video crippled without appreciating the achievements of our friends and colleagues astatine Rocksteady”, Smith said. “So arsenic we commencement to deliberation astir what a rich, heavy Batman combat acquisition is going to beryllium like, of course, we usage that arsenic an inspiration, but past we besides person caller approaches that we bring to that successful presumption of accessibility”.

The punches, kicks, and throws whitethorn good beryllium rooted successful the moveset archetypal established successful 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, but this is simply a TT LEGO crippled appealing to players of each ages, truthful I can’t spot intricate fastener combos becoming a cardinal aspect. Slow-motion finishers adhd a consciousness of benignant to proceedings, further adding to that acquainted Arkham flow. All successful all, brawling felt good, if not arsenic wholly satisfying arsenic successful Asylum and its sequels, possibly owed to the information that making interaction against the synthetic radiance of LEGO bricks ne'er afloat delivers the meaty sensation that pounding soma tin (yes, I did mean to operation it similar that).

Of course, arsenic overmuch arsenic the Caped Crusader enjoys shattering cheekbones with his blunt fists and padded knees, stealth has besides been a large portion of his games. Again, portion it doesn’t consciousness arsenic robust successful its plan arsenic the Arkham games, Legacy of the Dark Knight does cater to the sneakier option. High structures and perches loom ominously supra enemies, which tin beryllium zipped to with ease. From there, you tin usage a mentation of detective mode that acts much similar an country of effect pulse than a toggleable X-ray imaginativeness to prime retired enemies below. Stealth takedowns tin past beryllium performed connected your chosen prey and are animated with trademark LEGO humour; alternatively of a swift knockout blow, Batman volition onshore connected them with a minifig-shattering thud of his arse.

While the combat is heavy Arkham-coded, the remainder of the ngo plays retired similar a classical TT adventure. Platforming is integrated done moving platforms and swinging hooks, arsenic are puzzles that necessitate you to power betwixt characters (or get assistance from your co-op partner) to utlise their circumstantial skills. On this mission, I was joined by Jim Gordon, who comes packed with a foam-spraying weapon that tin occurrence blobs of goo to assistance you past obstacles. For example, Ace Chemicals is unsurprisingly afloat of hazardous chemicals, immoderate of which tin beryllium seen spurting retired of breached pipes and halting you successful your path. A speedy blast of the Commissioner’s cannon tin soon dispose of this mess, arsenic erstwhile it hardens, it blocks up the spread successful the pipe. Past that, a doorway whitethorn beryllium locked, but acknowledgment to an evident grappling point, it tin beryllium yanked down utilizing Batman’s hook. It’s this swapping betwixt batfriends and their skills that has formed the ground of LEGO games since the archetypal Star Wars adaptation backmost successful 2005, and inactive holds a definite level of charm.

It does beg the question of however varied missions volition beryllium this clip around, though, and the scope of puzzles we’ll beryllium faced with. When making my mode done Ace Chemicals, I didn’t rather get the aforesaid “metroidvania-esque” feeling I often subordinate with LEGO games — knowing there’ll beryllium galore concealed areas inaccessible connected a first-playthrough arsenic they necessitate abilities you’ve not yet unlocked. This mightiness beryllium owed to the information that lone 7 characters volition beryllium playable successful Legacy of The Dark Knight, and frankincense the assortment of powers and gadgets is vastly reduced — particularly compared to The Skywalker Saga’s roster of astir 400. That treasure-hunting replayability origin is simply a immense gully for some, truthful I fearfulness a small if this is the case, but possibly that information of the acquisition is being reserved chiefly for its unfastened world.

I lone got to walk astir 10 minutes successful a tiny outdoor conception of Gotham City, but recovered nary shortage of things to get up to. That Arkham muscle-memory kicked successful arsenic I grapple-hooked onto a adjacent extortion and launched into the aerial earlier spreading my Batwings and assessing the crime-ridden alleys for activity. In my abbreviated time, I prevented a transgression successful advancement by thumping a fewer goons, completed a Riddler trophy puzzle, and attempted a clip proceedings successful a Batmobile of my choosing — The Dark Knight’s Tumbler, 2022’s muscle-car similar monster from The Batman, and accompanying Batcycle were connected offer. Character outfits are customisable, from aureate property comic interpretations to modern movie looks. How these are unlocked is yet unclear, but I wouldn’t beryllium amazed if spending clip collecting treasures dotted astir the unfastened satellite plays into this.

Initial impressions that Legacy of The Dark Knight is an Arkham crippled successful a LEGO wrapping are reasonably spot-on, then. I settled snugly into the middle-ground betwixt dynamic combat and collectathon puzzling the bid has rooted itself truthful successfully successful for years. I’m near precise hopeful from the hr oregon truthful I’ve spent with it truthful far, and deliberation it could beryllium the cleanable happening to tide Arkham fans implicit until Rocksteady (or idiosyncratic other consenting to instrumentality up the mantle) answers the telephone of the Batsignal.

Simon Cardy is simply a Senior Editor astatine IGN who tin chiefly beryllium recovered skulking astir unfastened satellite games, indulging successful Korean cinema, oregon despairing astatine the authorities of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him connected Bluesky astatine @cardy.bsky.social.