TL;DR ~ Not quite like previous LEGO games, not quite like an Arkham game, and is happily a nice medium between them. Solid, silly fun that is playable alone but very much rewards co-op play. 8/10

To preface my qualifications, I have over 1000hrs of logged hours on Steam in the Arkham trilogy, and I've been playing LEGO games since I was a wee lad.

I thought LEGO truly peaked with the Skywalker Saga, but then they announced this and I nearly lost my mind. The potential, the scale of what they could deliver...

It came out well. I am pleased, but not blown away.

Story:
Taking every Batman movie and mashing them together into one unique story is no small feat. It truly is impressive and while I think they did that well, I feel that they pigeonholed themselves by (basically) only focusing on the movies. I think if they decided to not only adapt the films but famous comic stories as well, more could've felt natural with the story. This isn't coming from me as a critic, but as a Batman fan. Regardless, what is there is still fun and enjoyable for kids and fans. It's not perfect though; one of the biggest negatives I have is how slow the beginning is. Adapting Batman Begins to start is definitely the obvious route but the prologue really drags, especially when all you want to do is get into that Gotham freeroam. Speaking of which...

Open world:
The open world is pretty, and definitely crafted with love. References and uniqueness everywhere. However, for how big it is I feel that it takes too long to get from one end to the other. I wasn't expecting to actually utilize fast travel mechanic but it's a bit too slow traveling using gliding and cars. Even with the gliding wind tunnels and the boost on the cars, I never feel like I'm moving fast enough. The open world activities are fitting for the kind of game this is, but cannot avoid feeling tedious. Perhaps this feels better in co-op though, which I haven't had the chance to play a lot of yet. Only having the main hero roster to play as is also weird for a LEGO game, but I suppose I can forgive it. I hope the DLC will have us play as multiple villains.

Combat/Stealth:
Honestly... clunky. Tracking with aimed punches doesn't always work. Dodging doesn't always put you out of harms way. In terms of stealth, I think the designs of the areas you perform said stealth in could be better. I suppose utilizing your gadgets more could remedy this a bit, but it would require you to use them a LOT. Now, none of this makes the combat/stealth hard, but it could definitely function better.

Graphics:
Game look good. Really good. Best looking LEGO game yet. It also runs really well. Not too bad on the Steam Deck as well.

Nostalgia/Easter Eggs:
Yes, and yes.

Overall, the game is great. I think people are hyping it up a bit too much as GOTY, and while I think it's a shoe in to win family game of the year, I don't think it's quite GOTY material. I love superhero games and I love LEGO games. I don't think as a LEGO game it's better than Skywalker Saga, and this doesn't take me back to the Arkham games. But it also doesn't need to.

If you're on the fence, hop on over and buy it. It's a ton of fun especially if you have a partner to play it with.

Overall I'd recommend this for fans of metroidvanias. If you're a fan of just cute looking games but don't have a lot of skill or patience, even with the assist settings, I'd recommend you stay away until you're ready.

The visuals and soundtrack are both stellar; my eyes and ears were delighted throughout the entire journey (my save file says exactly 11hrs after the credits rolled). I have saved the soundtrack on my Spotify and will be listening to it for the next few weeks. Absolutely crushed it in the audio/visual department.

I've noticed quite a few reviews saying that this game was very hard and in some ways unfair. I would disagree, but maybe I'm just really good at these kinds of games now? That being said, the game wasn't a cake walk, but I think its actual difficulty stems from different areas that I haven't seen people talk about.

First things first before diving into the difficulty: you do not come with a standard way to self heal in this game. To heal, you must go to a healing station, go to your respawn point which also respawns all enemies, or have the correct modifications equipped (I'll get into mods later). This can be unforgiving, but also isn't as bad as people make it out to be, particularly due to where the heal stations are placed throughout the world (I tended to find them before challenging areas, but maybe that's just me).

In terms of combat, the game starts simple and... kind of stays simple. While some boss fights incorporate new movement abilities you gain, most don't need you to use them all. It really comes down to using your standard combo over and over on bosses. Learning their move sets is not a difficult process, as I found that the way bosses telegraph their attacks is very readable. This can be good if you find that you struggle with games like this, but bad if you've come looking for a challenge. General enemies I don't believe were too hard outside of 2 or 3 of them. 2 of them that comes to mind are crazy difficult compared to everything around them, which is quite strange to me.

In terms of movement and environmental challenges, that's where the difficulty really cranks up. At first, learning and exploring with your new movement is really fun, but as you get to exploring some of the harder to reach areas, the challenge can ramp pretty fast. You'll find yourself going through sections where you don't touch the ground for like 20 or so seconds. Taking a hit and respawning all that ways back isn't that bad on it's own, buuuuuut when you take into consideration that you cannot self heal, finally getting through a troublesome section can immediately be made moot by another difficult section or a random enemy that removes that last sliver of health you had, putting you aaaaaall the way back at a respawn point. Obviously, the solution is just "get gud", but I found it a bit odd (and at times frustrating) that the actual challenge in the game wasn't coming from enemies, but the environment itself.

The in-game modifications can be used to build a playstyle that will benefit you on your journey, and maybe I should've spent more time playing around with it to see how the "healing" you get from that works. But I just went straight damage, which also may be a reason bosses weren't difficult for me. Even the final boss took me only 4 or 5 tries because I can just overwhelm them with damage. I don't have to learn every single move in their arsenal perfectly, only dodge enough to pummel them faster than they can kill me.

Run backs aren't that bad; there are plenty of shortcuts you can unlock as you progress, cutting that run back time down quite a bit. You just have to keep checking where you are on the map and ensure you're unlocking them.

I feel like this is more of me yapping instead of properly reviewing this, but I think when I am recommending this to someone, I feel like I'm talking to one who plays metroidvanias and understands what I'm saying. If you don't play metroidvanias, I would NOT recommend this be your first. Again, there are some assist settings, but they can only get you so far.

The story is pretty alright. I like the lore of the world more than I do the story that drove it forward. Take that as you will.

I had an overall positive experience with this game, particularly carried by a phenomenal soundtrack and beautiful visuals. I hope the devs make another game similar to this; I would like to see what else they're capable of cooking up.

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Post "True Ending" Update

Some of the bosses get more difficult. The actual final boss is easily the best fight in the game. The attacks are still readable but the amount of attacks the devs gave them added a suitable amount of challenge for that last fight. Still, the environment proves to be a more difficult challenge than the enemies themselves.

There's still more for me to hunt down, and I'll probably do it. I like this alt ending a lot more; wraps up the story better imo. I love the lore of this game. I still think the lore is better than the story moving it forward, but I don't really think that's a bad thing anymore.

My recommendation stays the same. If you like metroidvanias, this is worth your time. But do not make this your first; come into this with experience from others, and you'll appreciate how different and unique this feels (and you'll be ready for the challenge ahead).