This is, by far, the best LEGO game ever made. As for a Batman game...? A very worthy spiritual successor to the Arkham titles. It does some things differently from previous LEGO games but it absolutely delivers with its mechanics, systems, story, humour, and gameplay. Before buying this, I saw people saying that this is the best Batman game ever made, and I thought to myself - how - it's LEGO? Well... now that I've beaten the game, let me tell you: it is the most intense love-letter to the fans. It is absolute fan-service. This is Batman.

The Good:
- Arkham-style combat, stealth, and traversal. Think Arkham Knight lite. Very fun and responsive.
- Awesome original story that covers all the Batman films. The last 2 chapters were nuts, if not a little predictable. A very faithful (albeit PG) take on Batman's story across various media.
- Packed to the brim full of Batman references and jokes, even the obscure ones. Not just in dialogue, either! For example, Ra's al Ghul says he has a "very particular set of skills". Why? Because Liam Neeson (who says this in Taken) played Ra's in Batman Begins. The Penguin says "so anyway, I started blasting". Why? Because Danny DeVito, who played Penguin in Batman Returns, says this in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Insane ball knowledge, TT Games.
- The world is extremely rich and detailed. The dark and gloomy spirit of Gotham is mixed in with the light-heartedness of LEGO, making for an almost oxymoronic playthrough that feels both immersive and fun, especially when the graphics look this good, too.
- An extreme amount of side content and loads of activities to discover. Like seriously. There's so much packed into the map and levels.
- Secrets and challenges everywhere. 50 Bat symbols scattered across the map, with no markers. Think of the feathers from Assassin's Creed II. There's also literal easter eggs in some of the missions. Nobody knows what they're for yet!
- Riddler puzzles that made me use my BRAIN!
- Huge variety of characters and gadgets, who all feel unique to play, with the slight exception of Robin/Nightwing: once I unlocked Nightwing, Robin was never used again. Sorry, ♥♥♥♥.
- Suits, vehicles, and character customization are in abundance in this game, and it actually feels fun and rewarding to try and unlock them.
- The driving is very fun and high-octane, although I wish the cars handled a little better for turning.
- The Batcave is HUGE. There's so many areas you can unlock, and you can also customize how it looks with props (found in levels/bought from the shop).

The Bad:
- Performance is very erratic. I had many instances where my FPS dropped from over 200 to around 40 (mostly while driving/exploring the city). It's more stable in missions but definitely needs more optimization.
- I crashed to desktop around 5 times in 45 hours. Luckily my progress wasn't lost.
- The game is quite buggy. I got stuck in a few missions because the game soft-locked. For example, I spent about an hour trying to figure out a Riddler puzzle; turns out I DID do the puzzle correctly but the frame-rate was too high to trigger the win. In the Jim Gordon Goo Gun tutorial, I used the gun on the target before the game told me to and couldn't do anything to continue (or even leave the mission).
- The 100% reward was extremely disappointing and lacklustre (IMO).

Despite the cons, I'm giving this game a 9 out of 10 purely because of how much fun I had and how much of a love-letter it is to both Batman and LEGO fans. I can't remember the last time a game made me laugh out loud. I can't remember the last time I was excited to play a game. Expect to do the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme every 5 minutes. Yes, there's that many references.

I played for about 45 hours and beat the game 100%, including all of the achievements. Worth the money? Maaaybe not £60 (my CD Key was £42 - at that price, I'd say it's absolutely worth it) but definitely wait for a sale and some much-needed optimization/patches.

At the end of the day, if you love Batman and you love LEGO games, this is for you.

Thank you, TT Games.

What can I say... This game was great. In my opinion, one of the greatest Lego games and one of the greatest Batman games ever made. The game blends the stories from different Batman shows and movies together so well and it just works, while putting their own unique spin on everything.
You get the exploration and combat from the Arkham games, and the charm and sense of humour of the Lego brand. And visually, it just looks so good!

The Batcave is also perfect. It opens up more and more as you play, and you can customise it so much. I'm amazed that we never had a Batcave this good before in any game.

The only negatives I can think of:
1. The grapple sometimes doesn't aim where you want it to, and there is no real manual way to aim it.
2. Some performance issues. I got some really bad stuttering at random times.
3. Limited characters: there are just 7 characters (but loads of cool skins for each!). Unlocking everyone in Lego games can be a chore, but 7 is just not enough.
4. The last levels felt a bit more rushed and less polished compared to the earlier levels.

5?. This last one can be good or bad, depending on whether you like this from other Lego games or not: There is no need to replay levels. You can unlock everything on your first go. the exploration and changing characters to unlock stuff is limited to the open world.

Overall, I was happy to get it on release. If you're in doubt, just wait for a sale, but this is a must play.

This has been the best of the Arkham games and the Lego Batman games all meshed into one. The story elements that I have experienced so far have been hilariously put together and I can't wait to see what other whacky mixups from the comics, movies, and games they have in store.