Lego Batman 3: go beyond Gotham or to the 1960s

If you’ve played one Lego game you’ve played them all, right? Well, not exactly. Sure, the gameplay might be fairly similar, but each version brings in a fun take on characters and plenty of cool new experiences. Lego Batman 3 expands on the DC universe in a really fun new way.

After an opening section of the game that picks up where Lego Batman 2 left off, it becomes clear that Brainiac is involved in a much bigger scheme – one that extends beyond Gotham. As a result, early on the game, players will end up venturing to Odym, a Blue Lantern planet with Martian Manhunter, The Flash and Cyborg. That’s right, there will be tons of stuff with the lanterns this time around, with most of the exploration taking place on lantern planets as a hub rather than gotham.

When players start the Odym level, the planet is actually under attack. This means that we end up with a really cool twin stick space shooter section that changes depending on your character load out. That’s right, the play through we saw had the characters in a space ship, but you can swap out to playing as Martian Manhunter or Superman and they will fly around in space without requiring a ship.

Using secret DC lore that they didn’t explain to us in the demo, the character traits of the different heroes have been altered. The Flash has become really greedy while Cyborg has become fearful.

There are a whole ton of playable characters in the new Lego Batman, characters that go way beyond what you might expect to see. Here is a list of what we were shown at Gamescom:

• Cyborg
• Batman
• Robin
• Joker
• Lex Luther
• Arkillo
• The Atom
• Adam West
• 1966 Batman and Robin
• Bleez
• Black manta
• Blue beetle
• Catwoman
• Doomsday
• Firefly
• Frankenstein
• Grayson
• Plastic man
• Billy Batson/Shazam
• Bat mite
• Mxyzplk
• Super dog
• Bat cow
• Beast boy

This will certainly make DC fans ridiculously happy. The cast of characters is huge with some excellent voice actors adding their talent into the mix. Each of the characters has different versions or modes – obviously Billy Batson can change into Shazam, but it goes beyond that. There are different suits that grant various abilities to each hero, plus naturally changeable characters can morph into their alter-egos at will. There is even a gadget wheel to make the whole experience more fluid and natural.

I particularly loved an extra level that the developers showed us that makes use of all the 1960s style Batman elements. It’s not just about a change in the Batman and Robin costumes, they also show the Kaboom and Splat effects in the space as they bash all the things. And of course, you get the voice talent of Adam West to make it all worthwhile.

I’m glad to see Lego Batman branching out into new territories and I’m excited to see how people react to all the new heroes that will be available.

Last Updated: August 19, 2014