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Clearing My Backlog #9
LEGO Batman is one of those games that effortlessly brings you back to your childhood, and almost never fails to put a smile on your face… except for when it crashes every single level, has loads of softlocks, visual glitches, freezing, and rubberbanding issues that completely ruin any fun that you were having; the Steam port is in a shocking state, and the definitive way to experience this game is sadly through hardware that is two generations old — unless you want to stream it on PS Plus Extra (nobody does). I will say that this seems to be more of an issue with high-end hardware, so if you don’t have the latest stuff you’ll be fine; but if you do, a quick fix would be to install cheat engine and speed the game up, this seems to resolve a lot of the rubberbanding/softlock issues. It’s a miracle that I somehow managed to power through this game and get 100%, because I genuinely got so frustrated losing all of my progress in a level every time it crashed for seemingly no fucking reason. I would give it a much higher score if it wasn’t riddled with so many technical issues, because the ACTUAL game is brilliant in almost every single way.
The thing that stands out the most to me, is the atmosphere that this game manages to create; through its iconic Danny Elfman soundtrack (which I associate more with this game than I do with the Tim Burton films), the spectacular level design — which is simple but still engaging to go through, and its classic character designs that scream BTAS (because they were quite literally inspired by the show, the opening title screen is a reference to the show’s intro, like how cool is that?). Not to mention that you can walk around the Batcave and Arkham Asylum, which are both pretty good hubworlds, even if they lack the substance that other — more newer LEGO games have, such as the humorous side content. It’s seriously cool how walking through Arkham makes me FEEL like I’m locked up in a psychiatric institution, there’s nothing like it. (okay maybe Batman: Arkham Asylum comes close, but that feeling of pure nostalgia is unbeatable).
One of the most important things in a LEGO game are the character rosters, and this one sadly disappoints. I mean sure it has all of the iconic rogues and some of the Batfamily characters, but they don’t feel different enough; why does Harley Quinn have a gun? when that isn’t anywhere near her weapon of choice; and so many of them just use their fists with the same repeated animations, which don't fit their characters at all. I really like the idea of Ra’s al Ghul and Hush being the bonus characters but again, they’re just re-skins of Nightwing and Two-Face, which is a really boring reward for getting 100%. I’m not sure I like the Batman/Robin suit variants either, they’re all just basically: Batman… but blue! Batman… but red! and don’t even get me started on all of those ugly Robin suits. They are by far the weakest aspect of the game, and whenever I approached one in a level I audibly sighed.
And speaking of levels, I loved both sides of the story; all of the cutscenes are so goofy and charming, and were probably the highlight for me. I’m not one of those people that is against speaking in LEGO games, I probably even prefer it (when it’s done well) but there’s something so authentic and endearing about the cutscenes when the characters don’t speak. The only levels that I found unenjoyable were the vehicle missions, which feel clunky and outdated; the bonus levels are also horrible, with one of them having a Mario themed minigame that is a fucking nightmare to play — thanks to all of the technical issues that I mentioned earlier.
All in all though, I fucking love this game. None of these issues really impact my enjoyment of it, it’s still one hell of a good time. Play it. (Just not the Steam version)
Playtime: 26.8 hours
Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Superhero Games - Ranked
Clearing My Backlog
Batman - Ranked
LEGO - Ranked
2008 - Ranked
Clearing My Backlog #9
LEGO Batman is one of those games that effortlessly brings you back to your childhood, and almost never fails to put a smile on your face… except for when it crashes every single level, has loads of softlocks, visual glitches, freezing, and rubberbanding issues that completely ruin any fun that you were having; the Steam port is in a shocking state, and the definitive way to experience this game is sadly through hardware that is two generations old — unless you want to stream it on PS Plus Extra (nobody does). I will say that this seems to be more of an issue with high-end hardware, so if you don’t have the latest stuff you’ll be fine; but if you do, a quick fix would be to install cheat engine and speed the game up, this seems to resolve a lot of the rubberbanding/softlock issues. It’s a miracle that I somehow managed to power through this game and get 100%, because I genuinely got so frustrated losing all of my progress in a level every time it crashed for seemingly no fucking reason. I would give it a much higher score if it wasn’t riddled with so many technical issues, because the ACTUAL game is brilliant in almost every single way.
The thing that stands out the most to me, is the atmosphere that this game manages to create; through its iconic Danny Elfman soundtrack (which I associate more with this game than I do with the Tim Burton films), the spectacular level design — which is simple but still engaging to go through, and its classic character designs that scream BTAS (because they were quite literally inspired by the show, the opening title screen is a reference to the show’s intro, like how cool is that?). Not to mention that you can walk around the Batcave and Arkham Asylum, which are both pretty good hubworlds, even if they lack the substance that other — more newer LEGO games have, such as the humorous side content. It’s seriously cool how walking through Arkham makes me FEEL like I’m locked up in a psychiatric institution, there’s nothing like it. (okay maybe Batman: Arkham Asylum comes close, but that feeling of pure nostalgia is unbeatable).
One of the most important things in a LEGO game are the character rosters, and this one sadly disappoints. I mean sure it has all of the iconic rogues and some of the Batfamily characters, but they don’t feel different enough; why does Harley Quinn have a gun? when that isn’t anywhere near her weapon of choice; and so many of them just use their fists with the same repeated animations, which don't fit their characters at all. I really like the idea of Ra’s al Ghul and Hush being the bonus characters but again, they’re just re-skins of Nightwing and Two-Face, which is a really boring reward for getting 100%. I’m not sure I like the Batman/Robin suit variants either, they’re all just basically: Batman… but blue! Batman… but red! and don’t even get me started on all of those ugly Robin suits. They are by far the weakest aspect of the game, and whenever I approached one in a level I audibly sighed.
And speaking of levels, I loved both sides of the story; all of the cutscenes are so goofy and charming, and were probably the highlight for me. I’m not one of those people that is against speaking in LEGO games, I probably even prefer it (when it’s done well) but there’s something so authentic and endearing about the cutscenes when the characters don’t speak. The only levels that I found unenjoyable were the vehicle missions, which feel clunky and outdated; the bonus levels are also horrible, with one of them having a Mario themed minigame that is a fucking nightmare to play — thanks to all of the technical issues that I mentioned earlier.
All in all though, I fucking love this game. None of these issues really impact my enjoyment of it, it’s still one hell of a good time. Play it. (Just not the Steam version)
Playtime: 26.8 hours
Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Superhero Games - Ranked
Clearing My Backlog
Batman - Ranked
LEGO - Ranked
2008 - Ranked