Batman returns to the LEGO video game universe with an original game based on a handful of popular comic storylines. After his parents’ death, Bruce Wayne becomes Gotham City’s nightly guardian, donning the cowl for the first time in this new origin story. Following his training with Ra’s al Ghul, he suits up as the Dark Knight to protect Gotham from corruption and conspiracy while living a double life.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is a 2026 action-adventure game; it was developed by Traveller’s Tales and published by Warner Bros. Games.  It is available on PC, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Editor’s Note: Spoilers for LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight as well as some of the storylines in the Batman mythos that the game covers may be present in this review.

The Dark Knight is LEGO’d once more in ‘Legacy of the Dark Knight ‘.

In an unexpected turn of events and after years of going cold the next Batman game was announced. Warner Bros. Games got awe-inspiring looks of intrigue when it revealed it was a LEGO title taking heavy inspiration from its universally acclaimed Arkham franchise. Though it has a strong Arkham foundation, it doesn’t shy away from building its own original world as a series of its own.

The Bat and the Cat rekindle their love in a new origin story.

THE GOOD: While on a night out with his parents, Thomas and Martha, Bruce and his parents walk home from a theater. During a walk home, they’re attacked by a robber, leading to the murder of the Waynes and Bruce being the only survivor. As a young adult, Bruce finds his way to Ra’s al Ghul, who offers him the training necessary to truly protect Gotham City from the evil rotting from within. During his training, he bonds with Ra’s daughter Talia, and they complete their training together. Ra’s reveals his true intention: to destroy Gotham, believing it beyond help. Bruce and Ra’s fight, and Bruce destroys Ra’s temple, killing him and leaving Talia’s whereabouts unknown.

Ten years go by, and Gotham City is worse than ever, so much so that many officers of the GCPD are on the take. While dealing with some goons from Marco Falcone’s gang, Jim Gordon, one of the few still holding on to law and order, is ambushed. He’s backed up by the sudden arrival of Wayne’s vigilante persona, The Batman. Already having a waryness of Batman’s infamy, Gordon accepts the team-up and takes out Falcone’s men. After working some investigations together, the two begin to trust each other, then defeat Falcone and have him arrested. Sometime later, a new gang known as the Red Hood Gang tries to take over Falcone’s territory and the rest of Gotham. Jim and Batman track its leader, the Red Hood, down to a chemical plant, leading to him falling into a vat of chemicals and seemingly dying.

Still cleaning up the streets of Gotham, Batman meets Catwoman after a string of robberies. Catwoman works with Batman to stop The Penguin, who tried to run as Mayor of Gotham. They bond and soon begin a relationship after revealing their identities as Bruce and Selina Kyle. Red Hood makes his return under a new identity: The Joker, a hardened clown-like crime boss. He starts a fake parade where he plans to kill citizens, but is stopped by Batman & Catwoman. Bruce and Selina go out on a date to a circus, which is attacked by the former Harvey Dent, now going by Two-Face. They’re helped by a circus performer, Dick Grayson, who aids them in defeating Two-Face, but he loses his parents in the attack. Bruce takes Dick under his wing and adopts the new vigilante identity of Robin as Batman’s sidekick.

While protecting Gotham, the duo face Poison Ivy, Firefly, and Mr. Freeze, sending the villains to Arkham Asylum upon defeat. Gordon’s daughter Barbara, inspired by Batman and Robin’s activities, takes on the identity of Batgirl, much to Bruce’s initial annoyance. After a couple of nights out defending Gotham, Batman begins to respect her and her efforts. Years go by, and Gotham undergoes a small bit of peace with Bruce creating a clean energy device for the city. Joker resurfaces with an even bigger gang and does major damage to the city. Bruce is reunited with Talia, who helps him defeat Joker and save the city.

Talia reveals to Bruce that she was tracking down the remains of her father’s group, the League of Shadows, and its new leader, Bane. Bane has plans to continue Ra’s plan to destroy Gotham, and Bruce rushes to stop him, but is defeated. Left battered and broken by Bane, Bruce is forced to recover, leaving Gotham’s protection to his allies. Batgirl & Dick, now as Nightwing, team up to defeat Bane with help from Catwoman. They learn that Talia was the true leader of the League of Shadows all along, enacting revenge on Bruce for her father’s death. The Batfamily all work together to stop Talia from destroying Gotham. Bruce offers Talia an opportunity to reform, but she declines and escapes, leaving the Batfamily to assist in the recovery efforts of the city.

Gotham City never sleeps.

Legacy of the Dark Knight is mostly what you’ve come to expect if you’ve played either LEGO or Batman Arkham title. The appeal comes from the mix of concepts of the two. Something is entertaining about seeing the dark, gritty Arkham series of the Batman world being presented as LEGO bricks. As charming a mirror image the art direction for Legacy of the Dark Knight is, it doesn’t use its aesthetic as its only selling point. Generally speaking, most LEGO games often have a respectable budget added to them, both the adapted and non-adapted games from the franchise. Legacy of the Dark Knight feels like a totally different animal with a real AAA-level budget to provide a dedicated LEGO-built love letter to Batman fans.

Gameplay is mostly a near-exact recreation of the Arkham series. While those games had environment-based weapons to help Batman and the others get around, here they’re much more diverse. An example is Robin/Nightwing’s staff being used to reach new heights or pry open reinforced gates, or Gordon’s glue gun to make treacherous terrain safer to pass. Every character has their specific uses to either further progress a level or unlock a secret. Combat is pretty much the same as it is in Arkham with the fast combos, blocking, dodging, and jumping over enemies mechanic. You can unlock certain skills by earning skill points with every level up from XP.

The open-world is impressive for a LEGO game; it honestly felt like a fully-realized Gotham City. You can even do long-form travel with vehicles such as the Batmobile. Air travel with the glider was a fun distraction, and I often preferred it to vehicles, as it felt faster and more enjoyable. There are a lot of collectibles in the map, and you can get lost exploring the city to see what you can find. The story was a cool take on the first tenish years of Batman, combining a handful of classic comic book storylines and pleasantly meshing them together into one cohesive campaign.

Like its source of inspiration, Legacy of the Dark Knight features an open world.

THE BAD: Even for a game aimed at kids and families, there’s a very lacking level of difficulty. You’d think for a game taking heavy inspiration from the Arkham series, it’d also follow suit with some of its more challenging aspects, especially in the combat area. The darker tone present in the game makes the lack of removal of kid gloves even more baffling. There’s an abundance of collectibles, almost too much, to the point where you may be spending an unnecessary amount of additional hours on a completionist run because of it.

Returning from previous LEGO games is the character-switching mechanic.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight makes a surprising switchup from a silly LEGO game to a viable Game of the Year Contender without losing its initial soul. Though on the surface it appears to be as simple as an Arkham repaint, it pays a large array of homages not only to it, but to several Batman stories and canons for a shockingly well-put-together package. With dozens of LEGO adaptations under their wing, Traveller’s Tales may have found their magnum opus even following a very good string of LEGO titles from years past.