Co-op With The Caped Crusader In LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

The LEGO games have been popular for quite some time now, taking major franchises such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Lord Of The Rings and giving them a makeover. One of the other big LEGO game franchises from Traveller’s Tales is Batman, and it has proven popular enough to warrant a third entry in the series. This time we see the Caped Crusader fully team up with the wider Justice League to face off against Brainiac and the Legion Of Doom. The premise is that Brainiac is using the Lantern rings to shrink planets and cities for his own collection, so Batman and co have to go into space to fight back.

http://youtu.be/3324iSnGVnM

At EGX this year myself and One Hit Pixel’s Dave Irwin decided to have a go with LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham’s co-op mode. Before we jumped on for our go we watched other people play the game in pairs, and it was interesting to watch the way people played together. There was one pair that didn’t seem to be working together at all, and that meant a rather simple task that should have taken about a minute dragged on for ages. It became clear before we even sat down that communication would be needed to get past the challenges ahead.

We sat down and began journey before us starting in the Batcave looking for Batman’s suit, and the top of his rocket. This was a longer section that I anticipated with a few puzzles dotted around the place to find the suits. Going through each area both Batman and Robin were required to solve different problems, using various suits which had their own gadgets. The system was pretty easy to navigate as you could scroll through suits by pressing the shoulder buttons on the DS4.

The various suits between the two characters allowed things such as destroying silver objects, or to latch on to hooks and drag down a door. Both characters had their fair share of tasks to complete and all through it both Dave and I spoke about what we had to do next. Occasionally one of us would have to go to a different area to help, and the way the screen reacted was well implemented. When divided the display naturally splits, and when united the split just disappeared without being detrimental to the gameplay at all.

While the suit searching was a regular platforming affair there were other sections that changed the things up a bit. One such area personally reminded me of something from Tron, with a maze to navigate and a digital wave to run across. This was where being in communication with another player was needed, because if the first jump was timed wrong then you would both lose. I had watched another couple earlier on the same section keep jumping on the wave at different times, and after the fourth or fifth time they got up and left. There was no teamwork going on so failure was not surprising.

One of the most fun sections though was the Resogun-esque mission when infiltrating The Watchtower. Again here was a section where working together really helped. Here there were two things to worry about, one being the small enemies intent on killing you quickly, and the bigger enemy that had to be hit with missiles that had to be collected. During this phase I concentrated on picking up and firing the missiles while the smaller enemies were taken care of by my partner in crime. Of course all of this could be done solo but it was much more fun working with someone else.

Traveller’s Tales LEGO games have always had a focus on co-operative multiplayer, and being approachable for a wide ranging audience to enjoy. From what I played at EGX of LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham you can expect more of the same here, which is a good co-op experience, set in a very popular universe. The puzzles appear simple but require a bit of thinking and there appears to be enough comedic content, both from the script and from your own actions in game. LEGO Batman 3 doesn’t look like it will reinvent everything, but it doesn’t need to.

2 Comments

  1. I own every one of the Lego games and the co-op plays a huge part i have 4 young children all boys and we go through the games together really looking forward to this but hopefully they go back to the Marvel universe again still the best Lego game out there.

  2. Seriously hope the PS4 version supports 2 player trophies this time *glares at LEGO Marvel* If the Xbox 360 could do it and other PS4 games can do it, I see no reason at all why the LEGO games on PS4 can’t…

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