Gotham Rebuilt Brick by Brick: First Impressions of 'Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight' at MCM London
- Joanne Baranga
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 6 minutes ago
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight had already been sitting near the top of my most-anticipated games list since its announcement at Gamescom in August. A new Lego Batman instalment on modern hardware with open-world exploration and Arkham style gameplay had me hooked. It was no surprise then, that the demo at MCM Comic Con London ended up being one of the busiest stations on the show floor.
As I joined the line, I overheard someone walking past mutter to their friend, "What's the point of waiting an hour to play 10 minutes of a game I'm gonna get anyway?" For many people, they probably had a point, this is absolutely a game fans will buy sight unseen. But for me (and many others, judging by the queue wrapping around the booth), playing the first demo available to the public was the biggest priority of the weekend. And after getting to play this open-world exploration demo, I walked away knowing the wait had been worth it.
What immediately stood out to me as I began playing was how familiar the gameplay felt. A lot of my notes compare the game to the Arkham series, which is unsurprising, as they set the standard for modern Batman games, but it still feel like its own distinct experience. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight looks and plays like the Lego-brick successor to Arkham Knight, in the best way.
That familiarity becomes even more interesting when you place it next to the older Lego Batman games. Those were great in their own right, but they were much more classically Lego in their structure, with linear levels and basic combat. Even in a short demo, it is clear the series is aiming much higher with Legacy of the Dark Knight.
The MCM demo focused on free-roam exploration across one of the game's four islands: Tricorner Island. It played similarly to Arkham City or Knight, where flying over rooftops triggers radio pop-ups for nearby missions. Here, the game updates a side mission log and displays closest mission you can engage with on-screen, making it easy to move between side missions.
A small note: I played the demo on Xbox, and as someone who primarily plays on PlayStation, it took me a moment to adjust. Still, once the controls clicked, they felt intuitive and easy to pick up, which matters for a game that is designed to be approachable for a wide audience.
From the start of the demo you are dropped into the city and can immediately make your way into a combat encounter. Like the earlier Lego Batman titles, you have access to two playable characters, though this time you are paired with Commissioner Gordon instead of Robin. Batman can strike, dodge and use gadgets; he has a grapnel gun and Batarangs at his disposal, while Gordon has a glue grenade and a ricochet gun. Gadgets can be aimed manually or quick-fired using the right trigger, keeping combat moving and switching between characters is done with the D-pad.
The inclusion of drop attacks and glide attacks is what elevated the demo from 'just a Lego game' into a game that felt a spiritual successor to the Arkham combat style for me. Seeing the moves translated into Lego-brick animations is incredibly charming, and it is a welcome upgrade when past Lego Batman entries had more limited combat options. In this way, the demo adopts the freeflow combat system really well and it immediately comes across as a step up from previous Lego instalments.
The same applies to encounter variety. While gliding around Gotham, you run into both traditional combat encounters and predator style sections. In this particular demo I didn't get to explore the stealth mechanics in depth, but it was encouraging to see silent takedowns and vantage-based takedowns included. One unique combat feature is the change to double takedowns: instead of Batman taking out two enemies on his own, Batman handles one while Gordon handles the other, giving the mechanic a more co-operative feel.
Detective Mode also makes a return, functioning similarly to its implementation in previous Lego Batman titles. It is activated by pressing the right thumb stick and it scans the immediate area around Batman before fading out. The combo system, meanwhile, deviates from both the Lego and Arkham games. Your combo meter sits above the character icon rather than as a number on the screen, which can be a bit harder to track mid-fight, but the game helpfully prompts you when a takedown becomes available. Interestingly, the combo meter does not disappear the moment a fight ends, so you can save it and use it later for point launches or takedowns.
Being an open-world game is already a major departure from the previous Lego entries, but the most impressive part is how convincingly Gotham is brought to life. The city has a perfect balance between looking like a real city and being clearly made of Lego bricks. Little details scattered around the map, like posters referencing classic rogues and familiar landmarks built entirely from bricks, give the island personality and shows how true the game is staying to its name. You really get to explore the Legacy of the Dark Knight.
Traversal across the map plays a large role in this open-world Lego Batman game. For fast movement around Gotham you have gliding and the Batmobile. Gliding was the mechanic that took me the longest to adapt to: you no longer need to tap and hold the jump button, pressing it once while Batman is in the air immediately toggles gliding. Pressing the evade button (O/B) again ends the glide and holding the button triggers a dive-bomb.
The Batmobile, on the other hand, felt much more familiar. You accelerate with the right trigger (and brake/reverse with the left trigger) and you can eject straight out of it into the air. Driving will be easy or difficult depending on the player, but having the option of both gliding and driving feels great. Each character also has their own unique vehicles — Batman with the Batmobile and Batcycle, Gordon with police vehicles and even a glider of his own. I didn’t spend much time testing Gordon’s glider, but having distinct traversal options for each character adds variety to free-roam.
A highlight for me was the collectibles. Riddler trophies make a triumphant return, and I may be one of the few people genuinely thrilled about this. Seeing them rendered in Lego form was amazing, and the addition of other collectibles with their own puzzles and challenges made the world feel authentically Lego in spirit.
Because this was a free-roam demo, I cannot comment on story missions yet. What I can say is that the world already feels populated, thanks to how encounters are scattered across the island and how quickly something new appears when you glide around. So right now, my biggest takeaway is that the foundations are strong. The open-world structure, Arkham-inspired movement and combat and the promise of a Gotham that is full of action all left me excited to see more. I am especially excited to see the story content, since the demo was mostly about letting you roam and get a feel for the city.
As a thug once joked in Arkham City, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight might end up being the 'Arkham World' of the Batman games, only this time built brick by brick.
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight releases on May 29, 2026. Pre-orders are available now.
