Gameplay
The gameplay is solid. With many improvements since the previous game (Lego Marvel Heroes) you'll find flying around as Superman to be a lot easier. The game also has a lot of new suits or transformations for different characters as well. To change your character into a special suit is easier than ever thanks to the selection wheel. When a specific suit is needed you can change into it by pressing B in the right area. However when you use the bumpers to switch suits the order is out of whack sometimes. That can get annoying when your being attacked and count on the right suit in the click of a button. The fighting mechanics can be a little bit crazy sometimes. The game auto-targets enemies and sometimes you end up not hitting anything despite your best efforts. However fighting as different characters actually has some variation. Take Frankenstein for instance. He uses his gun from a distance with awesome animation, but up close he takes out his massive sword and makes combos using both weapons. The fighting animations were thought out very well this time around. When flying as Red Tornado his body does have a tornado making him fly. It's a nice touch. Also the VR missions are exceptionally fun! They're the most replayable parts of the game. Unfortunately when it comes to vehicles you're not going to be happy. It actually deserves it's own section, so here goes...
Vehicles/Open World
A lot of people ask "does this game have an open world?" and the answer is a... kind of. The Watchtower, Hall of Justice, and Batcave are the first areas you'll probably explore. They have a lot of small missions in them too which is great until you finish them all. The game also has different Lantern planets where you can freely explore. When I played the game, even after I beat it I had no clue how to access these planets. There was no mention of it at all and that was frustrating. Once you get to the planets there's a number of races and activities for you to do. However, you can only fly or run, no vehicles unless you go to Oa. While the activities on the planets are fun, they are also short lived. Once you finish them there is NOTHING to do. There aren't even enemies. The planets have ZERO interesting places to journey to. They all try to have one spot where you enter and explore a tiny area in-depth but even there, nothing. You can fly in circles and break stuff, which begs the question. How much of an "open world" can it be when you're the only one in it? It really isn't fun anymore and lowers the replay value drastically. Each room you enter your greater by Conan O'Brian. He is HORRIBLE. He couldn't be more annoying if he tried. He ALWAYS talks, and ALWAYS says the same things! That can get tired really quick. The planets amount to barren wastelands. They remind me of Will Smith in I Am Legend, just without the zombies to fight. Then there's OA, the one place where you can use your vehicles. There is nothing on Oa. No other cars, no other people (except Conan) and it's not very big. It doesn't have twists and turns to make driving fun and it's very linear. The only thing you see is green. It's such a letdown because the vehicle roster is so impressive. You can even drive the Tim Burton Batmobile from 1989! But what fun is it to drive in circles with random ramps scattered around. Oa is SMALL. Which really hurts the flying vehicles. Again, they have great vehicles to fly in! They even have The Bat from The Dark Knight Rises. But, how fun can it be to fly a plane in such a small area. You try to pick up speed and you hit an invisible wall. You try to turn back into the playable area and your stuck on that invisible wall. It's so frustrating. You can tell that was an afterthought. It truly is one of the most disappointing aspects of the game. With all the characters, GREAT characters brought into the game, what's the point if your the only one on the planet?
Story
The story was very well done, with Braniac being the main baddy. He's not as bad as he in in the comics. He's actually a pretty light character. The bad guys overrun the Watchtower and the Justice League (and Robin) are out to take them down. Then Braniac appears and shrinks different cities to add to his collection. His plan is to steal power rings from the different Lantern Corps to fuel his shrink ray and collect Earth. When his plans fail and the Lanterns he kidnapped are released, the energy gets in contact of different league members and they're now heavily influenced by the emotion of the Lantern energy that hit them. Now the group must journey to the different Lantern worlds to get a sample of the Lanterns power for a shrink ray for themselves to use on Braniac. The story was fun although the attention deviated away from Batman after a while. It ended up being a Justice league game, but since Batman was clearly the main character it wouldn't be fair to call it a Justice League game. The story has some strong levels that would be fun to replay and others that weren't that fun. Some levels have hidden areas that are pretty neat, like the Fortress of Solitude. Adam west is also in distress this time around and adds a ton of awesomeness into the game. The level based on the classic Batman series was extremely fun to play!
Characters
The game has A LOT of characters, and even more coming with the different DLC packs. The main cast had great voice work and a great script. You're going to want to watch the cutscenes in this. Robin is such a charming character and extremely likable. A lot of designs changes to the new look of The New 52, and it looks great. Batman looks better than ever. I would have preferred Damian Wayne be Robin instead of Tim Drake. Or even have Tim's Robin suit change too but that can be forgiven. Cyborg is an awesome character to play with and his upgraded design looks great. The Flash controls much better in this game as well. The classic Wonder Woman theme has also been added when the character flies, which is a nice touch. The games Big Figs are great too! They can also fly this time (they couldn't fly in Lego marvel). Some small figs can change to the bigger ones too, like Bane. They included some characters everyone may not know but for a DC fan they're dreams come true. Even Batcow made it into the game. Which brings up the question. You have batcow, but no Damian Wayne? For a Batman game that reflects The New 52 to not even have the current Robin playable, yet have his cow is pretty odd. Also they have Kevin Smith in the game. They have characters like Polka Dot Man and Condiment King, but no Red Robin? No Earth 2 characters? No Guy Gardener? No Arsenal? I feel like before you start throwing in obscure characters or Kevin Smith there were really some that should have been in the game that were skipped. Damian was in Lego Batman 2 so they have the character model. Still he's M.I.A. I was surprised that Azrael Batman was in the game through the DLC, which brings us to the next section.
DLC
The DLC available so far has been pretty fun. Some better than others. The 75th anniversary pack had a pretty fun level and you get tons of different Batman incarnations to play with. They even included The Dark Knight Returns Batman as a Big Fig. Azrael Batman is playable and is awesome. Small details like him shooting Batarangs from his hands and lighting up show how much love went into each character. Some DLC gives you vehicles, which would be great if you had more than Oa to use them in. The Dark Knight Trilogy pack gave you some nice characters and the story was fun to play. The Man of Steel pack had you play as Jor-el on Krypton trying to send Kal off into space. It was funny seeing all the guys shooting at me while my wife holds a baby. It was a fun level, and you get the Man of Steel Superman, Zod and a few other characters too. I look forward to the next set of DLC (The Batman Beyond DLC was supposed to be released, however it isn't available on the 360. Lego Batman 3 has yet to respond to questions).
Conclusion
It's a solid game. The characters are great and the story is fun. When the main game is over there's a lot to do, however that comes to an end quick and you end up in an empty world with nothing to do. Where Lego Batman 2 and Lego Marvel triumph is with the content in the open worlds. The Lantern planets are a good step in the right direction, but once you get to the planet there's nothing there. Not even people to fight. Vehicle use just sucks but the characters are so much better than any other lego game, it's sad there's no place like Gotham City to show them off and create your own experiences with them. I do recommend getting this game even though the replay value goes down the tube. When you have stuff to do the game is awesome. The Lantern planets, while still pretty bland have more life and you see the benefit of having something like that in future games. There's a lot of room for improvement and I hope the devs learn from their mistakes, though I do applaud them for trying something new. Next time I'm sure the issues will be fixed and the foundations will be built to their fullest potential.
7/10
