LEGO® Batman™ 3: Beyond Gotham

If you're into the LEGO gameplay loop, this is one of the best. It takes the ideas from the previous 2 games and brings them to their peak. Some might see it as fan service but I appreciate that it pays respects to Batman and DC as a whole. It took me ~36 hours to 100% the game and get all of the Steam achievements, but there's plenty of content just in the main story missions if you don't want to take it that far. I will say I found the Lantern planets a little repetitive and bland. I think it would've been way more interesting to explore Gotham, Metropolis, Star City, etc. as big hubs instead, kinda like the map in Lego Batman 2. The story feels like something you'd read as a cross-over event in the comics and I love it. Can't wait for Legacy of the Dark Knight later this year.

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is the most confused mess in gaming I have ever experienced. while lego games are great as they introduce to you a wide range of characters to use to solve puzzles, this game feels cheap as it gives you a wheel of suits that you can immediately access by holding Y. the issue that comes of this is that this turns the action of swapping characters (which is already on the line of being tedious in lego games) into a massive chore. I think I spend half of my time in every level waiting for animations to be over. while we're talking about levels, they are formulaic and boring as every story beat is followed by 2-3 levels that all fit a "theme". the reason I say "theme" in quotations is that each "group" of levels plays like playing one level over and over. the best level in this game is the first one and even that is alright at best. the puzzles in this game are often really difficult to solve and the gameplay devolves into you running around like a monkey on a typewriter hoping to write shakespear. the hub worlds suck, they're boring and segmented. anyone reading this who is considering the game, ignore the good reviews. this game is awful