LEGO casts a spell,
LEGO City: Undercover 1/2
Available on: Wii U Rating: E for Everyone
After years of producing entertaining renditions of other people’s stories, it turns out the gifted minds at Traveller’s Tales Games just needed a little creative freedom to make a game that really stands out.
LEGO City: Undercover has to be the best LEGO-themed game Traveller’s Tales has ever released.
Wacky police chases, crazy cartoon characters, head-scratching puzzles and wickedly addictive gameplay come together in LEGO City: Undercover. This might well be the equivalent of a plastic-building block version of Grand Theft Auto, although there are no prostitutes or drug dealers in LEGO City.
There are criminals. Catching an escaped convict named Rex Fury, a seasoned and buff evildoer with Elvis hair and a handlebar moustache, is the premise the game is based on. Rex has escaped from prison and has resumed his crosscity crime spree. To catch Rex, a former LEGO policeman named Chase McCain, who was responsible for putting Rex in prison after a heated chase on a lawn tractor, is called back to LEGO City by the mayor.
Chase must go undercover, find Rex and bring him in, again. During his quest, Chase will hunt down bank robbers dressed as clowns, drive hundreds of vehicles, including helicopters, solve puzzles, unlock dozens of different disguises and, of course, build all sorts of devices and tools from LEGO blocks to help him in his quest. There is more than 60 hours of gameplay in this title, according to developers.
The cartoonish-action sequences are coupled with a wide open city that players can explore. The city is beautifully crafted out of LEGO blocks and populated by lovable if not juvenile supporting characters, including officer Frank Honey who “knows everything about compupers” and insists on fixing them with a “hammer.” The humour needs to be taken lightly, after all these are character’s based on plastic building blocks for kids. So, a police chief who hordes doughnuts is right at home in this title.
Play control is easy to pickup for gamers at any skill level. The WiiU’s touch pad controller adds more depth by allowing players to just glance down to check their position on a map, answer incoming phone calls from other characters or hold the pad up to the TV screen and scan a room for hidden objects.
The only flaw with the game is the massively long load times that occur in between levels, which is a real pain for younger players who simply don’t have the patience for such things.
But, if you overlook the loading issues, LEGO City: Undercover is a masterpiece and a real must-have game for Nintendo’s fledgling WiiU game console. It’s funny, upbeat, captivating and challenging, and will keep players glued to their TV sets for hours.