by R834, 25th June 2012
 LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes UK Release: 22nd June 2012 Available For: PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, 3DS, DS, PS Vita Reviewed On: PS3 | It’s the Gotham City Man
of the Year Awards and Bruce Wayne has just won the trophy, beating jealous
rival billionaire Lex Luthor. But Bruce barely has time to accept his
award before Joker makes a rather unsubtle entrance to spoil the show.
It’s time to don the costume and mask, and step into Wayne’s alter-ego
to put a stop to the mayhem. In miniature form. |
LEGO
Batman 2's story sees Lex Luthor and Joker team up, with each helping
the other to kill Superman and get elected as President, and defeat
Batman, respectively. Lex has a ‘Deconstructor’
filled with Kyrptonite that can destroy ‘shiny black things’, which just
so happens to be Batman’s favourite colour for gadgets; Joker has some
‘Joker gas’ that acts as a mind-control and Luthor uses this to his
advantage in his Presidential campaign rallies. Other villains, such as
Scarecrow and Two Face, also play small parts in the mayhem, as well as other heroes coming to clean it up, most noticeably Superman. It’s meant
to be silly, and it is, helped along by some humourous, well voice-acted dialogue
– a first for the series - from the super heroes and villains, as well
as running commentary from the presenter of a local news channel. There
are plenty of references to keep knowledgeable fans amused, including
one to last year’s Batman: Arkham City game.
Adding in voice acting now after so many games was a gamble, but it is a definite
improvement. There’s only so much that can be conveyed with mimes and
visual gags, so proper dialogue allows DC Super Heroes to have more of a
story than could have been portrayed with mute characters, which is
particularly helpful as the game isn’t based on any specific movie or
Batman story.
Most of the time we will be playing as Batman, but Robin is also present a lot, and Superman pops up a fair bit. At the end of the game, we also get to play as some other Justice League heroes, including Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern, who come with helpful superpowers to use.
To progress in the story missions, pretty much all of the gameplay relies on superpower-based puzzles. Want to get to that lever? Sure, but there’s lots of electricity. You need to turn off the electricity, but the switch is protected by shiny objects. Blow them up? You need a Power Suit to do that. Oh wait, but what if we do this..? This is how most of the levels play out, with the player having to juggle between different super powers to overcome them.
Batman and Robin’s suits – and the powers of specific superheroes - give abilities that can be used on these puzzles. There’s a Power Suit that fires explosives to destroy shiny silver blocks and gives super strength, an electricity-proof suit, a suit resistant to toxic chemical, one that turns you invisible to avoid security cameras, a Magnetic Suit to climb metal walls and attract magnetic objects, the Bat Suit that allows you to glide and use a ray gun in order to shake certain objects apart, and an Ice Suit to put out fires and freeze running water into scalable ice. The use of the batarang and a grappling hook is also very important, although both can only be used on predetermined objects.
Superman is without a doubt the most powerful character in the game. He can fly, has super strength, laser vision, ice breath, can build objects ridiculously fast and has a metal health bar that is normally used on vehicles, so he is literally a walking, flying tank. He still does have some weaknesses though, including electricity, a lack of grappling hook, and, of course, Kryptonite, which stops his flying ability altogether after exposure at one point in the campaign, which prevents him from just breezing through the levels.
The story clocked in at around 7.5 hours for me, which is a fairly average length for a modern game story, but it's consistent the whole way through, and offers some impressive setpieces, including a free fall battle and navigating a giant, moving truck. Plus, you can finish the campaign while still being a very long way from complete – I was sitting at only 20%.
There are a ton of collectibles to obtain throughout the
campaign, which increases the replayability of the game by a lot.
Smashing LEGO objects often yields studs, which can be collected towards
an overall total, as well as an in-game counter, which, when full,
gives a Superhero bonus. There’s also 10 Minikit pieces to collect in each level, which build to create a model, a Citizen in Peril, who gives a bonus when saved, and Golden Bricks, which are awarded for completing the previous objectives, but are also found as collectibles within levels. On
top of this, there are characters that are unlocked for use in Free
Play by completing certain objectives. Unlocking these additional
characters is very important to finding all the collectibles, as there
are lots of areas you’ll notice throughout that can only be opened by
characters available in Free Play, and collecting Red Bricks can only be done this way as they require a Villain.
There’s side-missions to do, that can be accessed from the game's open world hub (another series first). The world is fairly interesting, filled with LEGO civilians running around in panic, chased by criminals wielding ridiculous weapons such as giant mallets and exploding pies, but it's never an integral part of the story. Most of the time I spent here was just speeding through the streets in the Batmobile to get to my next objective.
Vehicle handling is manageable, but is hurt by a camera that is very closely zoomed in and cars that are eager to skid out of control. This may put some players off of using vehicles, but, realistically, they are the best way to get around the city, even with the new ability to sprint.
Gameplay is simplistic, and the controls are easy to master. Aside from the obvious movement control, there’s jump, two action buttons, and the shoulder buttons are used to switch characters. That’s it.
Dying is fairly unimportant, as in all LEGO games, with the only real loss being some of your studs, which can harm your progress towards the Superhero bonus. However, the studs remain temporarily, so it’s likely that you’ll be able to pick them up and retrieve most of your lost coins, unless you die from falling into a death pit.
Combat is very basic, with enemies being taken out in one hit almost every time. This means they are little more than a slight distraction, with many dropping hearts upon death to replace any that may have been lost (although a lot swarming you at once may take you down). What saves combat from being almost completely pointless is the grapple moves initiated with O. Each character has some unique finisher moves, which not only look really cool, but make the enemies drop studs when pulled off. If it wasn’t a LEGO game, a lot of these moves would actually be fairly violent, with limbs flying in every direction, which is very satisfying.
However, all of this simplicity is to be expected from a game whose target audience is fairly young.
The real problem is the fact that there are several sections where the way to progress is simply not very obvious, and this results in a lot of time wasted walking round in circles trying to find that one grapple point or buildable suit station needed to proceed, which can be very dull and detracts from the game’s fun.
The AI of the allies is reasonable, but can sometimes fail at critical points, occasionally dying repeatedly until you step in to help, or not fulfilling an objective that requires both players, such as two buttons that need to be stood on simultaneously.
If you don’t want to rely on the computer to help you,
and have a buddy and an extra controller, the drop-in drop-out co-op is
good fun. And this time you can split up: as
you move apart, a black line seperates the screen and gives each player
exactly half of the screen at whatever angle is most appropriate for
their position relative to each other. Moving back together seamlessly
melds the halves together again. It’s an odd experience, and you’ll need
to keep a close eye on your character to avoid confusion, but it is
very clever, and eliminates obvious restrictions from being tied to the
same screen. The only problem that arises from this is a slight frame
rate dip, that may not be noticeable to most, but I definitely saw it (although
this is understandable from a console suddenly having to process things
twice, without the normal reduction of quality seen in most
split-screen experiences).
Graphically, the game is mixed. There’s a lot of destruction that goes on, with bricks and studs flying everywhere, and the reflections off the plastic minifigures is a nice touch. The animations are impressive considering the limitations of a LEGO figure, which are often avoided by making the figures much more flexible, especially in the arms.
However the game suffers from a lack of anti-aliasing, and screen-tearing is visible in some sections. While screen-tearing is much less so than in other LEGO titles, it’s been a persistent issue throughout the series, and one of my pet hates, so it’s a real shame that it still hasn’t been sorted. A lot of objects clip into others, such as the batarang through pretty much everything on its ways to its target, and pedestrians through stationary cars. Speeding down a city street in a vehicle will result in pop-in of pedestrians and other vehicles.
The checkpoints are pretty far apart as well, and it seems that the game isn’t really designed to be stopped halfway through a level. While it isn’t ideal to shut down mid-mission, it’s sometimes necessary, and it’s not nice having to lose half an hour’s work in doing so.
A lack of multiplayer in this title is a real shame. I’m not one to try and force multiplayer onto any game, but this title – and, in fact, any LEGO title – is so perfect for co-op P2P multiplayer, that it would have been great if it had been implemented this time around.
Overall, despite being slightly let down by some little niggles, the game's charm undoubtedly shines through, and will appeal to LEGO and/or Batman lovers of any age.
Final Score
8/10
Most of the time we will be playing as Batman, but Robin is also present a lot, and Superman pops up a fair bit. At the end of the game, we also get to play as some other Justice League heroes, including Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern, who come with helpful superpowers to use.
To progress in the story missions, pretty much all of the gameplay relies on superpower-based puzzles. Want to get to that lever? Sure, but there’s lots of electricity. You need to turn off the electricity, but the switch is protected by shiny objects. Blow them up? You need a Power Suit to do that. Oh wait, but what if we do this..? This is how most of the levels play out, with the player having to juggle between different super powers to overcome them.
Batman and Robin’s suits – and the powers of specific superheroes - give abilities that can be used on these puzzles. There’s a Power Suit that fires explosives to destroy shiny silver blocks and gives super strength, an electricity-proof suit, a suit resistant to toxic chemical, one that turns you invisible to avoid security cameras, a Magnetic Suit to climb metal walls and attract magnetic objects, the Bat Suit that allows you to glide and use a ray gun in order to shake certain objects apart, and an Ice Suit to put out fires and freeze running water into scalable ice. The use of the batarang and a grappling hook is also very important, although both can only be used on predetermined objects.
Superman is without a doubt the most powerful character in the game. He can fly, has super strength, laser vision, ice breath, can build objects ridiculously fast and has a metal health bar that is normally used on vehicles, so he is literally a walking, flying tank. He still does have some weaknesses though, including electricity, a lack of grappling hook, and, of course, Kryptonite, which stops his flying ability altogether after exposure at one point in the campaign, which prevents him from just breezing through the levels.
The story clocked in at around 7.5 hours for me, which is a fairly average length for a modern game story, but it's consistent the whole way through, and offers some impressive setpieces, including a free fall battle and navigating a giant, moving truck. Plus, you can finish the campaign while still being a very long way from complete – I was sitting at only 20%.
There’s side-missions to do, that can be accessed from the game's open world hub (another series first). The world is fairly interesting, filled with LEGO civilians running around in panic, chased by criminals wielding ridiculous weapons such as giant mallets and exploding pies, but it's never an integral part of the story. Most of the time I spent here was just speeding through the streets in the Batmobile to get to my next objective.
Vehicle handling is manageable, but is hurt by a camera that is very closely zoomed in and cars that are eager to skid out of control. This may put some players off of using vehicles, but, realistically, they are the best way to get around the city, even with the new ability to sprint.
Gameplay is simplistic, and the controls are easy to master. Aside from the obvious movement control, there’s jump, two action buttons, and the shoulder buttons are used to switch characters. That’s it.
Dying is fairly unimportant, as in all LEGO games, with the only real loss being some of your studs, which can harm your progress towards the Superhero bonus. However, the studs remain temporarily, so it’s likely that you’ll be able to pick them up and retrieve most of your lost coins, unless you die from falling into a death pit.
Combat is very basic, with enemies being taken out in one hit almost every time. This means they are little more than a slight distraction, with many dropping hearts upon death to replace any that may have been lost (although a lot swarming you at once may take you down). What saves combat from being almost completely pointless is the grapple moves initiated with O. Each character has some unique finisher moves, which not only look really cool, but make the enemies drop studs when pulled off. If it wasn’t a LEGO game, a lot of these moves would actually be fairly violent, with limbs flying in every direction, which is very satisfying.
However, all of this simplicity is to be expected from a game whose target audience is fairly young.
The real problem is the fact that there are several sections where the way to progress is simply not very obvious, and this results in a lot of time wasted walking round in circles trying to find that one grapple point or buildable suit station needed to proceed, which can be very dull and detracts from the game’s fun.
The AI of the allies is reasonable, but can sometimes fail at critical points, occasionally dying repeatedly until you step in to help, or not fulfilling an objective that requires both players, such as two buttons that need to be stood on simultaneously.
Graphically, the game is mixed. There’s a lot of destruction that goes on, with bricks and studs flying everywhere, and the reflections off the plastic minifigures is a nice touch. The animations are impressive considering the limitations of a LEGO figure, which are often avoided by making the figures much more flexible, especially in the arms.
However the game suffers from a lack of anti-aliasing, and screen-tearing is visible in some sections. While screen-tearing is much less so than in other LEGO titles, it’s been a persistent issue throughout the series, and one of my pet hates, so it’s a real shame that it still hasn’t been sorted. A lot of objects clip into others, such as the batarang through pretty much everything on its ways to its target, and pedestrians through stationary cars. Speeding down a city street in a vehicle will result in pop-in of pedestrians and other vehicles.
The checkpoints are pretty far apart as well, and it seems that the game isn’t really designed to be stopped halfway through a level. While it isn’t ideal to shut down mid-mission, it’s sometimes necessary, and it’s not nice having to lose half an hour’s work in doing so.
A lack of multiplayer in this title is a real shame. I’m not one to try and force multiplayer onto any game, but this title – and, in fact, any LEGO title – is so perfect for co-op P2P multiplayer, that it would have been great if it had been implemented this time around.
Overall, despite being slightly let down by some little niggles, the game's charm undoubtedly shines through, and will appeal to LEGO and/or Batman lovers of any age.
Final Score
8/10