It’s been kind of a long time since we had a proper new Batman action game–more than a decade, in fact, since 2015’s Arkham Knight was the most recent one. But that’s going to change on May 22, when Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight hits digital storefronts. I had the chance recently to get about two hours of hands-on time with the newest Lego Batman epic, and it feels as much like a new Arkham game as it does a new Lego Batman game.
It didn’t take long for the parallels to become obvious. My session began with a battle against Carmine Falcone’s thugs at the Iceberg Lounge, and I felt immediately at home with the familiar control scheme–square to attack, triangle to counter, X to evade or jump over an enemy’s head. As you play, you’ll unlock gadgets and additional moves that will make each brawl more dynamic and fun, though the battles certainly aren’t as difficult as they were in the Arkham games–Lego games are not generally intended to be challenging in that way, after all.
The feeling of familiarity didn’t fade once I got out into the open world of Gotham City, gliding around and using Batman’s grappler to zip all over the place with ease, or drifting around corners in a Lego version of Robert Pattinson’s Batmobile. But it’s not the aesthetic similarities between Rocksteady’s games and this new Lego Batman that matter, since it’s not as though there are a lot of different ways for Gotham City to look. What really matters is that Legacy of the Dark Knight sports the same sort of smooth gameplay that the Arkham games had. If you played any of the Arkham games, Legacy of the Dark Knight will fit you like a glove.
