The open world of Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is incredibly impressive, continuing a tradition of Batman games have great maps for players to explore. However, unlike the Batman: Arkham series, Legacy of the Dark Knight designs its world in a different way that helps it stand apart from patterns established in other games featuring the caped crusader. Instead of endless collectibles or hollow locations, the Lego game is one that represents some of the best aspects of a game set in Batman’s city of Gotham.
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The feel of the Batman: Arkham series is already present in Legacy of the Dark Knight beyond just its open world, as there are other systems that call back to those games. For example, the combat of Legacy of the Dark Knight is more action-focused, with reactive parries and chained attack strikes rather than the simplistic fighting of most Lego games. The free flow melee of Batman: Arkham games is captured well in this new outing, but while that might be a dumbed down version of what came before, the world map is better in almost every way.
Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Has Many Details Packed Into The Biggest Batman World Since Arkham: Knight
Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Knight both had incredibly huge adaptations of Gotham City, with criminals around every corner for Batman to fight and interrogate for numerous quests. That being said, Legacy of the Dark Knight might have the most “complete” version of Gotham, with streets packed with everyday people roaming the various locations in the dark, rainy metropolis. Unlike the situations in the Arkham games which had normal citizens evacuated or separated from the open world, Legacy of the Dark Knight has them anywhere you look.
Gliding through Gotham, you can see civilians driving through the streets or walking down sidewalks, as ordinary crime takes place for Batman to take action. Despite being just Lego people, this still makes Gotham feel alive in a way that no other Batman game has really tried to do. Random crime that appears from this bustling atmosphere makes crime fighting feel more dynamic, similar to the Insomniac Marvel’s Spider-Man games set in New York City. The level of detail to Gotham’s moment to moment encounters gives you many reasons to explore, making sure Batman never has a dull outing.
The Arkham games have big Gotham landscapes to explore, with highly detailed buildings, bridges, and other architecture with tons of variety. That being said, those games don’t usually allow you to go into certain locations unless they are tied to the story, or have a collectible available past some environmental puzzle. Meanwhile, Legacy of the Dark Knight has multiple small locations, which contain private vignettes or Easter Eggs designed solely to flesh out the world of Gotham. People live in places whether Batman is there or not, giving Gotham far more character.
Batman: Arkham Games Were Always Great To Explore, But Only For One Main Reason
Looking back on Batman: Arkham City, Origins, or Knight doesn’t take away from how good their versions of Gotham were, but fans mainly explored those maps for collectibles. The Riddler Trophy is a famous series of collectibles that numbered in the hundreds across multiple Arkham games, usually tucked away in the smallest corners of Gotham for Batman to find. Using your variety of gadgets and other tools in Batman’s utility belt made hunting for Riddler Trophies memorable, if sometimes frustrating due to the obscurity of some.
Riddler Trophies were often tied to story completion too, tackling the side quest tied to capturing The Riddler himself. Catching the elusive supervillain was always a great goal in Batman: Arkham games, but once that goal was finished, players had no real reason to investigate the open world further. Legacy of the Dark Knight includes Easter Eggs, crime scenes, and other content that make its version of Gotham worth investigating on a deeper level, encouraging players look around rather than flipping over every stone for a collectible.
References & Hidden Content Give Players More Reasons To Investigate Legacy of the Dark Knight’s Map
Legacy of the Dark Knight wears all of its inspirations well, from Batman’s numerous suits to the references to each of his most well-known films from many years. This extends into the map design of the Lego game’s open world, which is packed with dozens, if not hundreds, of small references to Batman’s larger mythos. Beyond the movies, Legacy of the Dark Knight pays homage to Batman from his best-known comic runs as well, with some locations being tied to infamous moments from the character’s history.
The wealth of hidden areas in this Lego Gotham could keep players busy for many hours, as they try to hunt down every callback to Batman’s greatest moments across media. The fact that Gotham’s world feels larger and more authentic than the Batman: Arkham games makes this process even more appealing. In my opinion, I believe that Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight constructs one of the best open world versions of Gotham ever, despite a long history of the moody city being adapted well into games.
What is your favorite open world Gotham to explore from throughout Batman games? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!
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