Lego Batman 2

This week at work has been crazy. We finally are finishing the project of doom, but it's been crazy trying to complete it and Monday and Tuesdayjust left me exhausted and frustrated. My wonderful and awesome wife, who knows me, agreed that I could get Lego Batman 2. And so I did. :D

So far, I would honestly say I like this Lego Batman a great deal better than the last. The first Lego Batman was special. Unlike all the otherBatmans, it wasn't constrained by the plot of a specific movie or episode. Instead, it was a love letter to the Batman animated series (which Iwatched most of and loved. and PS Netflix, GET THIS AND I WILL REWATCH IT) 

But, I also kinda felt like the last Lego Batman had the wrong pace. Instead, at the end of each level, you ended up in a fight with one of the more(or less) popular Batman Villains. And the end of each.. set of levels, you had the BIG fight with two of the most popular Batman Villains. But...even for Batman, it felt rushed. If this were an episode, it would be bland. Everyone escaped ONCE AGAIN from Arkham and Batman has to roundthem up and put them all back behind Bars. There was no detecting work, no trying to figure out WHAT the Joker or the Riddler or the Penguinwas up to, just stumbling upon them and capturing them.

Lego Batman 2 has a PLOT. And what with the Lego Figures now talking, it's easy to follow. Oh, sure, in point of fact, everyone DOES escapefrom Arkham ONCE AGAIN (Seriously, is it me or is it too easy to escape from Arkham Asylum) and Batman DOES have to go and round them upand put them behind bars again (more on that later), but for the actual Missions, you'll follow Batman and Robin.. and a few other Heroes youlikely recognize as Lex Luthor and the Joker work together to.. well, I'm not gonna say. :) (Partly because I just don't know yet, though TakingOver The World does seem a logical guess.) 

In recent versions of the Lego Games, you've been able to explore a saveable central hub. For example, in Lego Harry Potter, you've exploredHogwarts as you went, unlocking areas as you go and as you learn new spells. They went with that idea here again, in a HUGE explorableArkham Area. And I mean HUGE. 

I joke, sometimes, that my favorite part of Grand Theft Auto 3 was stealing the cars and flying around the streets. And you can do this here too.Grab the Batmobile and go driving all around Arkham. There's much to see and lots of hidden secrets to explore. There's citizens to save, goldand red bricks to find and bad guys to put back in jail. Remember how I mentioned that the bad guys escaped Arkham Asylum? Once you get tothat point in the story, you'll find them all over the explorable Arkham. And WHEN you defeat them in battle, you can buy that character for freeplay. 

So while the story's smaller than it ever has been before, there's so much more content in Arkham itself. It's probably about equal to the contentin Lego Harry Potter or some such.

By the way, back there when I said you could drive around Arkham.. you can do more, because there's one other part I hitned at. Where in theoriginal Lego Batman, the vast majority of the unlockables were Batman and Batman Villains only, they've expanded the cast for this one. Thistime around Batman has the whole Justice League (without the stupid Wonder Twins, THANK GOD!) on his side. In short order, you'll unlockSuperman. Once you've done that, you don't want to just drive around Arkham. You want to FLY around Arkham with the John Williams themeblaring at you as you go. 

Get further in the story, and you may prefer zooming along Arkham as the Flash or flying along as the Green Lantern, or just playing as WonderWoman with her Magic Lasso. I'll admit, I haven't seen the Green Lantern yet, but I'm prepared to be disappointed. I'm a huge Green Lantern fanand I suspect all the ring will do is allow him to beat you with various green objects. Pity. 

I'm only a little bit way in, but this is a GREAT Lego Game. I TOTALLY want to go zooming around Arkham as Superman (humming along to John Williams, because that's just how I roll, yo.)

And if they go this approach with Lego LotR, that will be a great (better?) Lego Game as well! :D

Dammit, now I wanna go home and play Lego Batman 2 and I can't., I have to work. :/