Can I recommend this game? Yes, I can. But, and this is honestly a big ass but. It has problems that I would want you to be aware of. Writing: The writing is fine, it's funny when it's funny, but man when it's annoying it's annoying. Certain characters bothered the hell out of me whenever they were on screen and I just wanted the missions with them to end, I would constantly swap them out whenever they were not needed in the open world. Gameplay: If you're like me and loved the Lego Starwars game of ye' olden day, this game will not scratch the same itch those do. Levels are linear with little to no replay value. I missed two collectables when I played through the story, there is no secret nooks that requires a specific character, hell, there rarely is a secret nook. I got a bunch of collectables from just spamming attacks and accidentally hitting them. Which in my opinion, is lame. Extremely lame. Lego games used to be fun exploration collectathons. Where when you were done with a level in story mode, you'd be itching to jump back in for another go to find all the secrets, the hidden areas and the funny jokes the developers would hide. I don't find the same charm anymore, the game looks amazing, but it feels like in the trade for beauty, we lost the soul. Annoying traits: Characters will blabber [B] CONSTANTLY [/B] whether it be in missions, telling you how to do baby puzzles for babies ( But seemingly shuts up if you're actually stuck for a solid second lol ), or in the open world with jokes or jabs or directions or input for side content or taunts or- get it yet? There have been times where I just wanted to mute the game because of how annoying the constant input from characters is. This game would drastically benefit from silence, as the ambiance they put on, is genuinely really, really good! Characters: There is, not much to be said, I just really wish this game had more playable characters... After finishing the story I have [Spoiler] 7 . Yeah, they have a bunch of outfits, I just really thought that we'd get some more characters... Collectibles: While we're speaking of characters, so much fun in older Lego games were collecting characters, you'd save up a ton of money and spend it on the coolest character there is ( Looooved darth maul as a kid! ) It was a moment to remember when you found them and bought them. But here, eh, it just doesn't do it as characters unlock with the story, and every now and then you get a costume. You can buy additional costumes but... They rarely beat the ones you have, it's fun for the batman loving nerd to see all of his suits of course! ( and the sidekicks ofc ) But as for moments where you unlock a character... yeah, there isn't much [Spoiler] Like I would've loved to unlock the rogues' gallery, being able to run around as the penguin or the joker would be fun, but as far as things look now, nada, just the batfamily As for other collectibles, golden bricks, or skill points as they are in this game, are unlocked after missions are played through, that's it, no bonus for collecting enough studs, no bonus for getting all the minikits, just finish the level and you're done. And it removes so much of the reward and fun. There are no "True batman" stud meter, there are no minikits in the levels, so exploring feels more, lame. There are things to collect, don't get me wrong! It's just, not scratching that itch. Instead of minikits, each level has 5 objects to break, at first I had no idea what that actually gave you, but it turns out it ( mild spoiler ) Gives you a little memoir to place in your base, different references to villains and batman moments and that's ok. I prefer the minikit system that gave you vehicles and characters but, this is. Fine. They're just not hidden in very fun or creative places, which make them incredibly lame in my book. But the WORST one. The red bricks. It was SO fun to unlock these quirky blocks in the past, it felt like unlocking cheats, hidden features, and you never knew what you'd get. From making animals poop to 10x stud multipliers to invisibility, it was exciting, it was fun! Here? Colour swap for your characters and vehicles. They don't even look that good or unique. All of them, one colour each. I swear, this would've been one red block in the past, that unlocked colour changes for all your characters and vehicles combined. But nah, you got the one that makes you red and the one that makes you pink. It becomes collecting for the sake of collecting, it's no longer [B]FUN[/B] to get the things you get. And I find that sad. The world: It's neat, it's an open world, Gotham looks great, it's fun to explore and do the stereotypical open world missions like race there, fight there, puzzle there, it's neat, it's fun. But I will say, the game pissed me off, multiple times, by having a character entice my to do a side thing, only for me to get completely stuck, because I had not unlocked the skill to do said side thing yet... Which you can only see on the map. So, I ended up ignoring everything in the world till I had all characters and will revisit side content now that the story is over. But man, so frustrating to have content dangled before your eyes, only to be told ah ah aah, not before you do this thing. Some of you might read this and think "Yeah but that's exactly what you wanted for levels in free play?" and yes, it is, but in free play you know what you're getting into. You're told upfront "This requires this character" Or you see evidently that the blocks you want to do something with requires something specific like explosives or dark force ( lots of lego star wars stuff here, can you guess what game I grew up with yet? ) But in this game, you can start the puzzle, get 80% done, before the game goes, oops, didn't tell you that you need this specific skill to end it, oooh well! bye! To wrap up, the game is fun, it plays amazingly, it looks amazing, but it's not a good lego game compared to what we had before. Underneath all the beautiful design, animation, graphics and all its pizzazz is an ok game with boring collectables, some annoying, a somewhat rushed story ( chapter 4 is like barely 1 level lol ) some incredibly babying dialogue, and a lot of room for more fun. I really stand by it when I say that in the trade for beauty, we lost the soul. I'm in between at 7/10 or a 6/10, it all depends on how the post game is now. But it's far from the 10/10's and 9/10's I've seen online... It's fun, but it's not fantastic ✅ - This review was approved by Thomas Elliot Update after 100%ing the game and getting all the achievements - It's a 7/10, it's a very decent and fun game, everything I mentioned above still very much stands, but driving around Gotham doing little tasks and stopping crime is really fun. My biggest reason for this being a 7 and not a 6 is that I muted dialogue in the audio menu LOL. Driving around with dialogue audio on, I found stressful and aggravating, to the point I would give the game a 5/10. But the option is there. I can see the love that's put into the game, the references to all sorts of Batman media, the little secrets in the world, it's nice! But I can not give the game more than a 7, and I even feel like it's generous to do so. Anyways, that's it! Hope this review guides you in the right way of wanting the game or nah