LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

There isn't too much bad I can say about LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes . Sure every game has minor gripes, and Lego Batman 2 isn't without them, but for a game that I really wasn't anticipating more then simply put: "I've always said I will return to the Lego series when Batman returns to the Lego series" and thus, I haven't played a Lego game in about four years. With that being said, my experiences with this game are going to differ much more than the average, "I've played every Lego game" player out there. But when Lego Batman 2 strikes gold, it strikes it deep, and it strikes it rich.

For starters, this is the first LEGO game to feature a fully open world to explore. Granted, it isn't a straight up open world experience, merely the hub world offers that joy. There are fifteen chapters that make up the story mode, and for that it is standard fare like most Lego games. Throughout the fifteen chapters, which will take an average player the better part of an afternoon to accomplish, you will be treated to pretty much standard practice for a lego game. Most of the puzzles are simple, as this is a child's game, but I can't lie that there were a few that did stump me for a few moments, and some of them might go over the heads of younger players. One of the biggest changes to the Lego franchise here is that, now, Lego Batman 2 comes with full voice acting. Some of the voice acting is terrific (Joker, Lex Luthor), some of it is Sub Par (Batman), and some of it is downright awful (Superman, Two-Face). With that being said, I can't really fault them for going this route. Sure with most of the Lego Games, the franchise followed major films so the jokes and gags worked silently, but played out well. However with the first Lego Batman, the Lego games were forced to come up with an original story. Thus is the case for LB2, and it works.

The next thing you will notice is that the game offers some pretty excellent driving mechanics. There are a multitude of vehicles to unlock and drive, and they all work and handle, for the most part, pretty well. In fact, during some of the missions you will be straight up battling in vehicles, and I for one appreciated the fact that you don't control the driving, but just the shooting. That works extremely well.

Finally, Lego Batman 2 doesn't only just have the good fortune of being one of the better Batman games this side of Arkham City , but it also is probably the best Superman game ever made as well. Sure, you read that right, Superman is in this game. And you are in for a surprise when you take flight with him, because every time you take flight, you get to hear John Williams amazing Superman score over and over again, and it never gets old. Never. For the most part, Superman controls pretty decent, but I had some troubles at times, especially when collecting gold bricks.

The major gripes I have with Lego Batman 2 is that some puzzles when unlocking gold bricks are straight up just copy and pasted over again, sometimes more then three times. That becomes especially noticeable when you are collectable hunting in the theme park. I have had the game freeze on me at least once, and another time I had Robin get stuck in a wall. While these are minor gripes, they did take away from my enjoyment. My only final gripe is that while Lego Batman 2 is a fantastic experience, I can't help but feel it is all a test drive for Traveller's Tales Ltd. to make a full out Lego Justice League game. You don't get to enjoy those characters until way too late in the story, and the only villains really utilized are Joker and Lex Luthor. Batman's fantastic rouge gallery is downplayed into just simple unlockables after easily beating them up. There are a few villains to support other Justice League members, but they again are also under utilized.

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is a fantastic surprise, as a game I was only buying because it involves Batman, I didn't really know what to expect. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of including all of these super heroes, but in the end it was a worthwhile move that turned out for the better. I can fully welcome a Lego Justice League game, and I know that no one will turn down that possibility.