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dapperkobold · 6 years

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Review at Random: Lego Batman 3

Yeah, really putting that ‘at Random’ to work today, huh? The lego games are something of a guilty pleasure for me, I know I’m not the target audience but they’re fun, clever, sometimes funny, and the breadth of characters and moments of... almost lucid absurdity are great.

So, let’s talk about the most recent (if still kind of old) Lego DC game!

Presentation

One nice thing about the lego games is that there generally isn’t a lot of advanced geometry, so my computer can handle them well. Not a lot to say, really, the interactive objects are pretty consistently separate from the non-interactive ones, the characters all look good, and the voice acting is all pretty fine.

Now, there’s moments of shakiness in all those, and the occasionally inconsistent bug that can be annoying, but at the same time there’s a fair amount of extra flourishes that can be great. Characters have differing body language, elements are only rarely re-used between them even with the giant host of extra characters, and someone clearly went and had a lot of fun with the joker’s extra outfits. However, that mass of characters means that basically everyone you don’t get in the main story has very similar animations and (mostly) generic voice grunts with few if any lines.

The environments all look fine, every area custom-made and hand-designed, even the big(ish) open world planets have some variance to their layout (Barring Oa, which is just racetracks). The interactive elements often integrate with the static ones well, and the end result is that every area is a joy to explore the first time and interesting even afterward.

Other than that, the UI is fine and the sound design is nothing to write home about. Now, the occasional reference-tastic line of dialogue is great, but there’s a few other things that seem great for a moment but get old fast. The first thing that jumps to mind is the Wonder Woman theme playing when she starts flying, which is hilarious the first three times you do it and then agitating from there. Superman has something similar, but the mellow brass of the beginning of the Superman theme is much less agitating than the whistles and choir of the Wonder Woman one.

I didn’t even know Wonder Woman had a TV show in the 70s.

Other than that, the scan effect covers the entire screen for several seconds whenever it’s used, something that annoys me to no end. It was faster in the the LEGO Marvel game, I’m just pretty sure! Of course then LEGO Avengers (A different game) added a stupid minigame to it, so...

Final Presentation Score: A-

While more certainly could be done, it’s a solid art style with solid art direction and fairly good production quality. Nothing amazing, but I don’t require games to BE amazing. The main thing keeping it back is the occasional honestly annoying decision or bug, but nothing so big that I want to knock it down a letter grade.

Gameplay

Analyzing the gameplay of a LEGO game is a little tricky because you need to keep in mind the thoughts behind the game: this is not a game for you, this is a game for kids. It’s not a ‘puzzle game’ like you likely think of, it’s a game where the ‘puzzles’ are a mix of figuring which character needs to push which button where and then doing that and watching strange things unfold as doing that doesn’t always have the result you expected.

So, there’s little point in gauging the combat, it’s there to give kids something fun to knock around. The puzzles are overwhelmingly effortless, completion is a matter of perseverance over cleverness, and challenges are made to be novel over being thought-provoking.

That’s all well and good; this is a game for elementary school or middle school kids. Sure, others can still have some ‘shut your brain off’ fun with it but if you want to push yourself in any way and you’re conscious of some kind of job or educational degree you should be striving for, this game is unlikely to satisfy you. Maybe the races, but they’re less hard because of tight design and more because of varying amounts of nonsense.

Using the abilities is pretty reliable, the targets are reliably identifiable and nothing important is hidden away where it can’t be found. Sometimes placement can be a little hit and miss but all said and done it does what it sets out to do.

Other than that, if you’ve played a LEGO superhero game, you know how this goes: Break, Fight, Build, use, swap to the other character, go in in freeplay and do it again. Sure, one mechanic may be missing and another may be present in its place, but nothing extreme. If you haven’t played a LEGO superhero game, it’s like other LEGO games but with superheroes. If you haven’t played LEGO games... just look up about any gameplay footage from a modern LEGO game on youtube. It’s like that but with more green lantern. With the flying and the hard light constructs and the lasers. Yeah.

The main really unique thing this game has going for it is the suit system, and even that isn’t really new: In previous LEGO Batman games Batman and Robin had a number of suits they could swap between to accomplish required tasks, giving those two the kind of absurd flexibility they should have when it comes to solving puzzles. It works, and in this game they’ve stopped hogging it: Cyborg, Lex Luthor, and Joker get in on the fun, too.

The issue with these characters is that in Free Play they’re an extra button press or two to get to a specific ability. As a result you avoid them in free play, unless you’re messing around some or are honestly drawing a blank on who has that one power you need right now. The suit goons are reliably near the top of the character select screen and one of them likely has it.

And let me tell you, when you’re not in the mood to mess around most of those characters will get ignored. In the end you’re going to tend toward characters toward the top of the screen, where the storyline characters are, and the bottom of the screen where the DLC characters are if you have them. There’s a few reasons for this; the characters aren’t organized in any fashion I can think of and so knowing that a character can do something doesn’t mean a thing if you can’t find them on the giant grid. Ever since the beginning the LEGO games could have benefited from some kind of sort, search, or favorite function, and as the cast size increases this lack will be felt more and more (Lego Marvel 2 is supposed to have over 300 characters!).

Something that the people at Tt have caught onto a little but only after this game is letting the player know who has what abilities. As is, you’re going to have to experiment, and with a lot of abilities being situation-sensitive it’s not easy to do testing. This further encourages a player to find a small team of reliable characters and stick with them.

My personal favorite characters in terms of mechanics are (alas) both DLC characters. Bizarro has fire breath (the most powerful combat ability in the game) and can do almost anything superman can do. Joker (Nurse) has a rocket launcher, maybe the best explosive weapon in the game.

On the other hand, if you want to discover more about the DC universe, choose a character you don’t recognize from this game and look them up. Polka Dot Man, Azreal, Bat-Mite, Ambush Bug, Cyborg Superman, Heat Wave, Manchester Black, Vibe, take your pick. There’s some weird stuff here.

At the same time, if you are too familiar with the DC continuity you may occasionally stumble across something that should work but doesn’t for no reason. Like Wonder Woman and strength handles. Also, Braniac has an entirely new skillset. This just makes experimentation that much more needed... and in turn, it that much more aggravating that there’s no way to do it easily.

However, there’s a few LEGO game rules this game breaks; There’s a few characters that have an ability unique to them: Braniac, The Atom, and Plastic man. Personally I consider that more than a little low, forcing the player to unlock specific characters to go about certain things. In LEGO Avengers there’s something that basically only Ultron can do, but there’s three kinds of Ultron one of which is pretty cheap. Plastic Man they at least give you for free, but HIS gimmick is that he’s the only way to get power bricks. And THAT is even lower.

Oh, one more thing: I wish I could turn off the hints.

Final Gameplay Score: B

For a LEGO game, this is fine. For a LEGO game. Sure, there’s trip-ups enough that I won’t go easy on it, but still it’s a good time if you’re into this kind of game.

Personally, the single character in this game I want to see more of? The Fierce Flame. I’m a little tired of Speed Force speedsters, let’s get someone who’s fast but not absurdly so and without a risk of making a temporal paradox by breaking wind.

Writing

Once again, this story is not aimed at you. It’s aimed at kids. It’s basically middle school-targeted writing.

Not that the basic idea is bad, in the setting of the last two Lego Batman games (which are not really needed to understand the plot here) Brainiac appears above earth and (after some opening intrigue involving mind control and a mob of villains) reveals his intent to shrink the Earth for his collection using the different colors of the emotional spectrum to super-charge his shrink machine. From there the different lantern cores need to be brought together and coerced into fixing the earth... much easier said than done.

I make it sound more complex there than it actually comes across: the plot is fine (other than the occasional minor plot hole) and works well enough. The place were the writing suffers is the character writing: A lot of characters have one angle and lean on it. Sure, we weren’t going to get well-rounded characters from this in any case, but they could honestly have done better than what they did. Martian Manhunter referring to everyone by their title is lame. Cyborg was given the generic teen attitude. Not like he was in the Teen Titans cartoon (though he does say ‘booyah’ as a random quip) but instead as a fairly generic tech-savy teen. Other characters either have too few lines to get a grasp on them or are just straightforward in presentation.

And don’t even get me started on the emotional spectrum personality shifts. That just makes everyone involved annoying. Sakes alive...

But, all the same there’s a few times when some comedy honestly shines through, like Wonder Woman putting Cheetah in the magic lasso... and Cheetah telling her that she doubts Superman likes Wonderwoman back. Those moments are pretty good, but they’re not as reliable in coming as I would like.

Other than that... I dunno, the quest writing isn’t bad, forming little plots and getting characters to interact on occasion. Don’t expect anything to be as complex or as characterized as you’re used to, but there is not-bad writing here.

Final Writing Score: C

...but “not bad” is all I can say. More could certainly have been done, the few plot holes are jarring when you notice them, the character writing is okay at most and agitating at worst. I kind of like it, but that’s pretty clearly because I default to positive emotions. Someone more critical than I am is more likely to have it hurt their enjoyment.

Overall

Well, it’s a LEGO game. It works fine, even if the writing is lackluster, and I enjoy it despite really not being the target audience. I just enjoy OTHER LEGO games more. That said, if you’re not the sort to enjoy things aimed at middle schoolers, likely just don’t bother. You wouldn’t be missing out on any writing or gameplay of note.

On the other hand, it’s not solidly bad.

Presentation: A-

Gameplay: B

Writing: C

FINAL GRADE: B

If you like the LEGO games, you could do worse!

Awards:

Batman Flash Can Breathe In Space

Bizarro #1

Super LEGO Experience

#reviews at random #lego batman #lego batman 3 #stuff i made #I'm 90% sure I could find someone else who could do shrinking #and in previous games clayface did the shapeshifting #so there's really no excuse for the exclusivity.

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