LEGO: Batman 3 - Beyond Gotham

I've gone through a fair chunk of LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, and my first honest impression is that TT Games wanted to make a Justice League game and slapped Batman's name on it because the branding was safer. That identity stretch is real, and it shows in the story, where Batman occasionally gets shunted into a grumpy sidekick role in his own title while the Flash steals every cutscene he appears in. But here is the thing: once you accept that this is basically a LEGO DC Universe adventure with Brainiac as the big bad and the seven Lantern Corps at the centre of the plot, the game opens up into something genuinely fun. The core loop is exactly what LEGO game veterans expect. You move through linear levels, smash everything that is not bolted down, collect studs, solve simple environmental puzzles using character-specific abilities, and chip away at gold bricks and character tokens. Batman can switch between suit loadouts on the fly now, including a stealth suit with a lite detective-vision mode, a space suit, and others, without hunting for suit-change pads. Robin, Green Lantern, Plastic Man, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and well over 150 other characters each bring distinct abilities, whether that is Green Lantern conjuring ring constructs, Plastic Man morphing into ridiculous shapes, or the Flash sprinting across pressure-sensitive switches faster than you can blink. Switching between them during Free Play to reach previously locked areas is still one of the better collectible-hunting loops the series has ever produced. The hub structure is different from LEGO Batman 2's open Gotham City, and critics and players both flagged that as a step down. Instead of one big roamable city, the game gives you several smaller connected hubs: the Watchtower, the Batcave, the Hall of Justice, and six Lantern Planets (Oa, Zamaron, Odym, Nok, Ysmault, Okaara, Qward) that offer a bit more sandbox freedom. Vehicles exist but are largely reduced to racing activities with little practical use, which is a genuine downgrade if you loved barrelling the Batmobile through Gotham. The campaign runs roughly 12 hours, and hunting everything toward 100 percent can push that well past 30. Some of that extra content is genuinely charming. Some of it, specifically the Lantern Planet racing and certain collectible hunts, is filler dressed up as content. The first couple of hours are also on the duller side visually before the game sends you to shrunken versions of European cities and the more colourful Lantern worlds. Where the game earns its 88 percent Steam rating is in the sheer density of DC fan-service and the quality of its writing. The voice cast is strong, the humour lands more often than it misses, and the roster depth is almost absurd. Completionists who want to find every Adam West in Peril, collect every mini-kit, and build out a custom character in the Watchtower lab will have more to do here than most action games offer. If you have never touched a LEGO title before, this is not the best entry point given it assumes some familiarity with the formula. If you are already a LEGO game regular who has grown tired of the formula, this will not change your mind. But if you are a DC fan who wants the widest possible comic-book roster in a lighthearted action game, Beyond Gotham sits comfortably near the top of that specific pile. Alex, Scout Team