LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

I recently took a look at my unplayed Xbox One collection and Lego Batman 3 looked like one of the easiest ones I had available. I thought I would give it a go and get another disc off the shelf. What I keep forgetting though is that if a game has Lego in the title, it is not going to be completed in less than 25 hours. Batman 3 is no exception to this rule. In fact I clocked in at marginally over 50 hours so it’s no quickie. I would even like to think I played smart in the standard Lego way but more on that later.

Lego Batman 3 follows the story of Green Lantern... hang on, what? Let me check that. So yeah, Lego Batman 3 follows the story of Green Lantern and all of his lantern equivalent colours after they are captured by Brianiac so he can use their power to collect worlds. He comes to Earth in order to claim the planet for his collection and it’s up to Superman and Wonder Woman to stop him, save Green Lantern and save the world. Oh, and Batman is there too.

A lot of effort has gone in to crafting an original storyline with ridiculous, over the top characterisation but there are a few moments of pure originality mostly focussing on Batman’s emotional connection to Robin and his other friends. The game was released long before the Lego Batman movie so perhaps the movie makers gained a little inspiration from the game.

The gameplay is your standard Lego style stuff where different characters can do different things but they have maintained the suit gimmick from Batman 2 and several more characters have different suits that can do different things. There are so many characters with different skill sets that playing through the story for the first time is a trying experience. It’s little less linear than most games as half way through, you have the option of completing 5ish missions in any order you want.

Aside from the main story missions, there is a load of side exploring to do and other mini missions in the hub worlds of which there are an obscene amount and it borders on mental. There are three normal areas to explore as well eight different planets that you visit throughout the story. There is so much to do – like 50 hours worth of stuff.

Achievements – 1,300 Points – 70 Achievements

As part of the main game completion, you will get 15 of these for completing the 15 story missions and another for completing the obligatory bonus level at the end. This one is slightly different though as it’s actually a proper level and I have to say this was a bit of a relief considering how shit the normal Lego game bonus levels are.

There are a load of achievements for playing as certain characters which you need to unlock to get the 100%. In fact, there is nothing really to write home about except for the massive time investment that goes into collecting all 250 gold bricks and this can be summed up by the amount of shit you have to do outside of the main levels. I mentioned earlier that there are fuck loads of worlds you have to visit and a load of obscure shit you need to do on them, some of which involves having to follow shitty way points without any clues. This basically factors down to walking around praying you go in the right direction.

Once you’ve done all of that shit, including gathering all the red bricks first to get practically unlimited money, you then get awarded with... unlimited money from the stud fountain. Witness this for the last achievement in the game before moving on to...

Downloadable Content

There are six packs of DLC for this each offering 50 points. They just give you an extra level to play with a couple of relatively straightforward, but varied, achievements. The most annoying thing is that it is essentially six extra levels that you have to play twice, something I complained about it my previous Lego reviews.

To be fair, Lego Batman does offer a little bit more variety than some of the older Lego games. It didn’t feel like half as much of a drag as Lego Harry Potter but that may be because I hate Harry Potter. I don’t think the 100% was worth the 50 hour investment though.