LEGO® Batman™: The Videogame

Even after reassigning the keys the controls are just bad. On the first screen I tried to climb a ladder which became almost impossible because of the angle Batman tries to climb up. I fell a lot. If you have a controller maybe it's all right, but with Mouse and Keyboard it's a nightmare. Dropped.

My 6 year old daughter is so keen of the game, all the gamepads are so well supported out of the box, the tutorial embedded in the first level is so intuitive, the levels to go through are so diverse and colourful. So why scoring the game by a modest two stars mark ? I only slightly overstate when saying that its enough to press "B" button (the one which slams everything/everybody) to go ahead with no main problem. Try it, this is the way it works : keeping "B" pushed, Batman or Robin will turn by themselves to the next waves of foes and crush them all, automatically. You don't have to touch the d-pad. Well, basically, a monkey could go through the levels nearly as efficiently as a regular player. Smashing everything up which goes under your punches, this is your line ; a flower ? smash it ! ; a street light ? smash it ! ; a bench ? ; smash it ! Whatever might stand along your way, you'd better to do the maximum damage, without such a rampage, do not expect to get enough Lego© bricks to complete the level. It's all like the Vilains are more peaceful in the city and respectful of its infrastructure than the Heros ! For an adult, such a gameplay is quite boring : it takes half an hour to understand that accuracy of your actions won't get rewarded, it's enough to wreck everything and go ahead. For a child, the game acts more like a long beautiful kinematics where he/she drives a character than a game where managing the gameplay is the key to win. All in all, I do not wish I would not have bought it, as the game is perfect for my daughter to have fun with. But it fails to make her progress through a learning curve.

If, like me, you haven't played a recent LEGO game before, but were looking for a fun Batman experience, be warned of the following: - No characters ever speak. This robs the game of any interesting storyline or character development, and turns the villains into just different skins on the same character. A major disappointment in a Batman game. - This game is really designed for 2-player coop, with all the puzzles designed to test how well Batman and Robin cooperate (e.g. one holds a switch while the other crosses). In single player mode, the AI takes control of the other character, which basically means you only get to solve half of each puzzle, the other half is solved automatically. It also means in many cases you will get frustrated at the inept AI (in one case it got me permanently stuck in a level and forced me to restart). - The game is designed for gamepad. Mouse is not an option, and keyboard is very poorly integrated, with some puzzles (as early as level 2) being next to impossible to complete with a keyboard. This means if you want a proper coop experience, you need two gamepads. - Combat is pretty bad. The best strategy is just to run up to an enemy and press the attack button, after which the enemy will instantly disintegrate. Using the Batarang in combat is ill-advised, since it is so cumbersome to control. - It's impossible to lose and are no stakes. After dying, the game will instantly resurrect you in the exact same spot an unlimited number of times. This leads to some of the most unsatisfying "victories" ever. Overall, a bad game that doesn't in any way feel like Batman. Avoid.

Was free on Epic Games