Last updated on June 23, 2026
I had the privilege of getting my hands on the latest game from TT Games, one of my all-time favorite studios in the entire industry. Growing up with LEGO games built around Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Harry Potter and everything in between, the series became part of my gaming identity before I even fully understood what a video game was. The sheer variety, the humor, the chaos of smashing everything in sight; those titles shaped a lot of early gaming memories for me.
After roughly four years of silence, with no new game and no announcements to speak of, most fans were left staring at the horizon with dwindling hope. Then last year, TT Games finally broke the quiet by announcing a new entry in the LEGO Batman series, one of the most beloved corners of the entire LEGO franchise. And now, having played through it, I can say the wait was worth it in more ways than one.
A New LEGO Game Built in Unreal Engine 5
There is a lot to unpack here because Legacy of the Dark Knight brings an enormous number of changes to the formula, and yet the core experience still feels unmistakably like a LEGO game. I never had a dull moment throughout my playthrough, though there were a few moments of genuine frustration that I will get to in due time.
The most immediately obvious shift is the engine. TT Games have moved entirely to Unreal Engine 5, which almost certainly explains the lengthy development period. The visual jump is significant and the results speak for themselves. Alongside that, the character roster has been dramatically scaled back. Where previous LEGO games offered dozens or even hundreds of unlockable characters scattered across the campaign and open world, Legacy of the Dark Knight currently ships with just seven playable characters, with nine planned once the Joker and Harley Quinn expansion arrives in September.
The reason for that smaller roster becomes clear once you start playing. TT Games brought in former Gameplay Engineers from Rocksteady, the studio behind the Arkham series, to help redesign the combat from scratch. Each character now carries a genuinely distinct set of abilities, and those abilities matter most when the game puts a puzzle in front of you. The smaller cast is a trade-off, and a deliberate one.
Arkham Combat Built from the Ground Up
Combat in previous LEGO games was, to put it charitably, functional. It got the job done but rarely felt engaging or satisfying. Here, TT Games have committed fully to an Arkham-style system, and it shows. The flow of combat, the rhythm of countering and chaining attacks, the weight behind each hit; it all feels genuinely good in a way that no LEGO game has managed before.
My only real complaint about this system is that the skill tree feels more decorative than meaningful. Unlocking new abilities is not particularly impactful in moment-to-moment play, and the tree seems to exist primarily as a completionist checkbox rather than a tool for shaping how you approach combat. A bit more depth there would have gone a long way.
The puzzles, however, are in a completely different league compared to the rest of the series. Everything is well-structured, nothing feels like a chore you are grinding through just to chase a platinum trophy. I will admit the sheer volume of collectibles is a bit much for a 14 to 16 hour game, with over 700 items to hunt down, but the puzzle design itself never made me want to put the controller down. I spent a maximum of around 15 minutes on any single puzzle, and even then only on the more elaborate multi-step ones. Using each character differently to approach the same challenge kept things fresh and genuinely enjoyable throughout.
Gotham, It Has Been a While
Visually, Legacy of the Dark Knight is one of the most impressive-looking games of 2026, both in terms of raw fidelity and artistic direction. If you stripped away the LEGO branding, you could genuinely mistake it for a spiritual successor to Arkham Knight, a game that still holds up remarkably well even today. That level of visual quality was actually one of my biggest concerns going in, because this is the first time TT Games have worked with a new engine, and those transitions do not always go smoothly.
To my genuine surprise, performance was rock solid throughout. I maintained a consistent 60 frames per second without any PS5 Pro patch or PSSR support, which is an impressive technical achievement for a studio building on an unfamiliar foundation.
The one performance caveat worth noting is couch co-op splitscreen, which drops to 30 frames per second because the game is essentially rendering twice simultaneously. It is an understandable technical compromise, but worth knowing before you sit down with a partner expecting a full-speed experience.
The artistic direction deserves special mention. The character design is thoughtful and detailed in a way that DC fans will immediately appreciate. Small touches that most players might overlook are there for the people who know where to look, and that kind of care is exactly what separates a great licensed game from a forgettable one.
No Thanks, I Am Keeping My Headphones On
The soundtrack is, predictably, excellent. One of the defining charms of LEGO games has always been the satisfying crunch of plastic bricks as you smash through environments, and that signature sound design is very much present here. It is a detail that sounds trivial but would be noticed immediately if it were missing.
The musical score itself has a clear pedigree behind it. The composers clearly understood their assignment: bring Gotham City back to life in a way that feels cinematic and immersive without losing the playful irreverence that makes a LEGO game feel like a LEGO game. They found that balance, and the result is a soundtrack that earns its place in the game rather than just filling space behind it.
The Origin of Our Favorite Bat
There have been dozens of takes on Gotham and its most famous protector over the decades, but TT Games manage to offer something that feels fresh while still being deeply respectful of the source material. Batman is genuinely intimidating here, which is saying something when the entire world is built from plastic bricks.
The story is told across multiple chapters, beginning at the origin: the tragedy that defined Bruce Wayne, his months of training under Ra’s Al Ghul, and his eventual reckoning with the creature that would become his symbol. Alongside Jim Gordon, the one honest cop in a thoroughly crooked city, Batman begins tracking Carmine Falcone, one of Gotham’s most dangerous criminal minds.
The narrative expands naturally as you progress, and one of the smartest decisions TT Games made was ensuring that nearly every mission features a memorable villain. The rogue’s gallery is used properly, with each encounter feeling distinct rather than repetitive. The balance between the game’s comedic side and its more sincere emotional beats is handled with genuine skill. It is funny when it wants to be and earnest when it needs to be, and that tonal control is harder to pull off than it looks.
TT Games Are Back in a Big Way
Legacy of the Dark Knight delivers on combat, on visual identity, on storytelling. It is a confident return from a studio that had gone quiet for too long. The main criticism that lingers is the limited character roster. With only seven characters at launch, there are moments where the cast starts to blur together, particularly between Robin and Nightwing, who share a little too much ability overlap for two characters sharing roster space. Having two versions of essentially the same archetype in a lineup this small is a choice that invites some reasonable frustration.
Even so, the world TT Games have built here is one I was genuinely happy to spend time in. It is the Gotham fans have been waiting years to revisit, and the studio has returned with a title that earns its place not just as another LEGO game, but as one of the best Batman games in a very long time.
Final Score: 9 / 10
I’m passionate about books and video games. These two great passions represent, for me, a boundless universe where I can “escape” from reality whenever I need or want to. There are so many stories, worlds, and landscapes where I can instantly teleport that I don’t think a whole lifetime would be enough to explore them all (though it would be my greatest dream to be able to).
