LEGO City: Undercover (2013, remaster 2017 ), directed by Erin Roberts, designed by Tt Fusion Ltd., published by Warner Bros. Interactive EntertainmentI'm just going to start by stating, that in my humble opinion, LEGO City: Undercover is one of the best GTA inspired games ever made. It might sound like a surprising hyperbole, this is a LEGO game after all, but that doesn't make it less true. Undercover is a great sandbox game with a lot of laughs if you like the LEGO brand of comedy that is.
As a further iteration, I'd add, that if you'd ever wondered what a child-friendly GTA game could look like, then look no further. And play it yourself as well, as I stated, this is a fantastic game offering quite many activities to keep you busy even if you aren't aiming to gather 100% of all the possible secrets and collectables the game has hundreds of.
You are set in the square shoes of Chase McCain, a cop who is returning back home to LEGO City. He's been away for a couple of years in order for the dust to settle after his last case, where he placed Rex Fury behind the bars. Now he must return, as the Mayor of the City, Gleeson, has asked him to come back and stop a crime wave that the escape of Fury has started.
You begin the game in your civil clothes but soon get to the police uniform. The further in the game you get, the more different kinds of suits you unlock. These, in turn, will help in solving different kinds of quests as well as open up ways to new collectables.
At first, Chase has to get his bearing of the City again, so he solves up some minor crimes before he is tasked to infiltrate a criminal gang in order to get deeper into the mystery of Fury's escape. This leads him, through several criminal escapades, to the heels of Fury and his boss, who end up to the Moon, at where Chase finally manages to spoil their schemes.
As you'd imagine, LEGO City: Undercover gives a LEGO spin on several cliches from action movies to games. From Dirty Harry to James Bond, the game is full of references and jabs towards the crime and cop movies and games.
The gameplay is what you'd expect from any GTA-style game. LEGO City is an open-world map, filled with all kinds of stuff to explore. While you can just follow the main story, it is easy to get sidetracked by hunting the secrets, like these, in turn, do give out some bonuses for the gameplay, like extra studs (the game currency of most LEGO games). You can also unlock travel points by building metro booths and earning new vehicles and disguises by building superstructures. These structures, which require the collection of small single stud cube pieces, ranging from car and helicopter deploy stations to amusement rides, can be found scattered all around the city, waiting to be built.
Getting around LEGO City can be done in several ways. You have your cars and bikes, then the copters and boats and finally the mass transit system. Additional means of movement include the teleportation system, available only for the spacemen, just as is the jetpack propelled short-distance flight. It's also possible to ride horses and pigs. And take short flights with a chicken.
Puzzles are mostly based on the appearance of Chase. Each costume gives him different abilities, a feature that has been seen on other LEGO games as well. Even the early missions have puzzles in them that can be solved only with a specific suit, so if you want to unlock every secret of the game, you do have to return to the early missions. This is either annoying or adds to the game, depending on how you feel about it. The new runs can be done in a free play mode, so it's a bit faster than with story mode.
Some missions you can find only with the police scanner are only usable by the police persona of Chase's. This surveillance device allows him to eavesdrop, criminals or help in tracking footprints to secret caches that help up opening new locations and prices. If he does spot a crime, that usually means a little scuffle, during which the crooks have to be cuffed or chased down.
So, if you've ever wanted to play a GTA title, that is not offensive or just want to play a good LEGO either by yourself or get your kid one, LEGO City: Undercover is not a bad choice. Its game mechanics are, at times, better than in some GTA games, it's fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. In many ways, it's the kind of s spoof GTA games at times feel like despite not realising it themselves.
If something like Saints Row is GTA on steroids and tongue in cheek, LEGO City really is the more inoffensive version of both. While it is a spoof on the familiar tropes, it also is a well-made game that offers a lot in terms of gameplay and content. In a word, if you do like this type of games, it should be a no-brainer to pick up this one.
And if you couldn't tell, I liked LEGO City: Undercover quite a bit.
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