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It’s a LEGO game alright.

LEGO games are great for kids, but also generally good for people who just like to chill and collect stuff. There’s many characters, vehicles and blocks to gather. This one is no exception. It’s a sequel of the first LEGO Batman game and although it’s as great as a LEGO game can be, there are some things that don’t exactly work.
You don’t really think about the story in those games. For licensed ones it’s just scenes from the movie they are based upon in a more “blocky” form. However, Batman series doesn’t touch any existing movies or TV series as far as I know. I mean here that, yes it does use existing characters and universe, but it has a unique timeline and does its own thing. And it’s interesting.
The previous game was just kind of about villains breaking out of prison and Batman and Robin catching them in various settings. It didn’t have voice acting, just grunts and yells. Batman 2 on the other hand does have voice acting and a little more engaging story. It also features characters from Justice League. Superman is pretty much the second main character.
Basically election candidate Lex Luthor decides to team up with Joker to win the election (great idea I have to say) by gassing people with... I guess some kind of “Persuasion Gas” (TM). Batman will try to stop him with the aid of the Justice League members. And Robin.
Simple as a LEGO story can be, but there were things that were cool to me. The whole “Batman learns to trust other people and ask for help” narrative or the moment when they switched costumes. I actually didn’t expect that. It’s an improvement over the previous game, but again it’s just a LEGO game.
You use several costumes for Batman or Robin and abilities of other characters to solve puzzles for the entire game. Like in every other game of this type. What they added though is the open world, which has its problems unfortunately. LEGO version of Gotham City looks cool and is very atmospheric, but the content of it is just bad. You fly around with Superman, which is the best way to move around, you see a golden block at the top of a building. You want to get it? TOO BAD! It’s locked behind a costume puzzle. Now get down on the street level looking for a costume to change into and climb the whole building back up to get this 1 golden block. This is because they changed that costumes aren’t separate “characters” you can switch to on the fly in free play. You need to switch to Robin for example, get the costume and then go to the puzzle. The costume resets if you switch into someone else.
I can understand the reason behind it. This is an actual puzzle you must solve now instead of flying up to the block, breaking the barrier with a specific character and it’s done. The thing is there is too many “towers” like that. The open world gets repetitive way too quickly and the rewards are very unbalanced. You can get a golden block for destroying 5 bushes in 6 seconds. And then another golden block by climbing the tower for 5 minutes.
Some characters can fly. In levels this is just another ability you must use to collect stuff. In the main hub world, it functions differently. It offers a very fast way of moving around. Unfortunately, it is very imprecise and frustrating to control at the same time.
Aesthetically game is fitting. Gotham City is always stormy and atmospheric. It would be better if the rendering distance wasn't so short.
The title reuses a lot of musical tracks from the first game, adding maybe a few new ones. Sound effects are mostly the same too, but they’re ok so they get the job done.
It’s a LEGO game alright. You’ll enjoy it if you like collecting things or playing couch co-op with a friend. The thing is you could pick any other and get a pretty similar experience. Unless you’re a very big Batman fan.