Caped Crusades’ Review of LEGO Batman 3 Beyond Gotham

Version Reviewed: Xbox One. Also available on PS4, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, 3DS, Vita & PC
Warning: This review will likely contain spoilers for the video game LEGO Batman 3 Beyond Gotham

Let me start off this review by saying that I was really looking forward to reviewing this game for my Caped Crusades audience, despite my annoyance with the constant character announcements I was still expecting an enjoyable experience. I’m a fan of the LEGO video game franchise and I own the first LEGO Batman game as well as LEGO Harry Potter. Sadly I have to report that I was greatly disappointed. While the game is definitely humorous, family friendly, and is also chalk full of fan service, that is probably the best thing I can say about the game as a whole.

More from Video Games

• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will have a battle pass (and that’s a bad sign)
• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League gets exciting updates and leaks
• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League gets new gameplay deep dive
• Top 10 Star Trek video games ranked from worst to best
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 spoiler review: Does the game live up to the hype?

This game is meant to be enjoyed by children as well as adults but I found that far too many of the puzzles were too obtuse for children to figure out. And far too often the hardest part was finding the puzzle to begin with, and running around smashing LEGOs (what I feel many children playing the game would resort to when they can’t figure out a level) while fun, usually doesn’t bring the results you might hope for. LEGO Batman 3 gives you hints at random times, usually when no hint is required to figure out what you are doing and then on the harder puzzles not a single useful clue is given. I have wasted so much of my time shouting ” I don’t know what the Hell I’m doing!” at the TV that Eric, the sites new co-editor and my husband, suggested that I should turn it into a drinking game, take a shot. Which sounds fun, until I realized I would be plastered right away. The AI is typical of a LEGO game, which is to say that it’s a bit incompetent. For example, certain characters like Batman and Cyborg have stealth suits allowing them to sneak past censors undetected, which is great, except when your AI partners try to follow you and trip the censor, making it that much harder to complete the task at hand.

I mentioned earlier that the game was fairly humorous, and it is, however, and I suspect that this is because it is a child friendly game and kids love to repeat the same jokes over and over, the games jokes quickly become annoying as they are repeated at every opportunity. For example, multiple Conan O’Brien’s are dotted around the Watchtower to tell you a little about certain pieces of technology you can use, like the globe in the monitor womb that allows you to select levels. a Conan stands next to the globe and every time you approach the globe to select a level O’Brien states something along the lines of: ” I asked around about this thing and the best answer I got was the Big-computery-ball-thing-that-let’s-you-choose-levels”. Which granted, was funny the first time I heard it, but five levels later and I was thinking of muting the game so I wouldn’t have to hear Conan’s voice anymore! The first time you get to play as Wonder Woman and try out her ability to fly, it is quite amusing to here the old Wonder Woman TV show theme song, but it quickly grows tiresome and I ended up trying to avoid using Wonder Woman to fly because it was so annoying.

I feel that the game really adds nothing to the LEGO Batman universe, and frankly it looks to me that the creators were so concerned with filling the game with fan service in the form of tons and tons of DC characters as well as some celebrities like Adam West, Kevin Smith, and Conan O’Brien, and plenty of kid friendly jokes, that they didn’t really pay much attention to creating a good video game. What’s worse is that the creative team behind LEGO Batman 3 failed to improve on the flaws that exist in all LEGO video games, like AI partners with no intelligence to speak of that often get in your way. The jokes are stale, the puzzles often make no sense, and Brainiac is beyond irritating. If you don’t already have the game I recommend you give this one a miss.

We want to hear from you! Tell us what you thought of LEGO Batman 3 in the comments section! Want more Batman? Download the Fansided app for more Batman news! Don’t forget to like Caped Crusades on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Really love Batman? Caped Crusades is always looking for volunteer writers! Leave us a comment and apply on Fansided.com!