Given how much my wife and I have come to enjoy playing great co-op games together over the last generation, I’ll absolutely say that whenever a new LEGO game is available it’s a source of quite a bit of anticipation and excitement. Unfortunately though, while the series has remained reliably accessible and family-friendly, we’ve also seen quite a number of titles like Split Fiction and the very recent Orbitals demonstrate the far higher bar that can be achieved for co-op play. While I’m very aware that these LEGO titles can be enjoyed solo, I’d also think they could be a little tougher to enjoy that way, given the puzzle-solving mechanics that are very geared towards two characters. The need to constantly switch to another character to complete puzzles can be aggravating enough with a partner, by yourself I’d wonder if it could border on tedious at times.

Starting with the Batman side of the equation, this is nothing short of a love letter to everything associated with the World’s Greatest Detective. Featuring deep cut references to the comics, the 60’s TV show, and every iteration of the caped crusader from the movies and television over the years, it’s a satisfying feast of pop culture for anyone who has been a long-time fan. That said, for people who are more casual fans, and who’ve maybe only seen bits and pieces of things over time, I can also see where it could get pretty damned confusing given how it puts everything into a blender for the story. You’ve got some wild shifts of characters, costumes, and demeanors from different eras, shotgunned together in ways that don’t always even make sense. As an added bonus, if you loved the Batman Arkham titles, there’s no missing the major influences they’ve had on how this LEGO title has been structured, with Riddler missions and countless other things to find in the expansive city of Gotham as you explore.

All that said, if you’re a LEGO game fan who likes things to be structured in familiar ways, this may make for a pretty abrupt change in direction. The large overworld is a lot of fun to explore, and there’s absolutely a mission structure to follow and discover via checkpoints, but it isn’t nearly as cut and dry as most titles, which may lead to some initial confusion. To the game’s credit though, combat has been vastly improved (though it still skews to being quite easy), and I appreciate the trimming of the normal cavalcade of a hundred mostly redundant characters for the much tighter limited roster who all have various costumes available. It’s worth noting that performance and stability are troublesome at times, with the game occasionally crashing and there being many brief pauses to the action, particularly in co-op mode as it feels like the system is trying to keep up with all of the action as you and your partner explore independently. These issues are by no means crippling, and in general this feels like the best constructed LEGO game in a long time overall, but I can see where for people who aren’t huge Bat-fans it may not be as easy a home run. With a patch or two to stabilize performance, this should be an easy winner for people who love this sort of gameplay though.