LEGO City Undercover

My interest in the LEGO games had begun and ended with the first LEGO Star Wars (the one for the prequel trilogy) -- I dismissed the concept as simple, silly, and dumb. And years of sequels iterating on the same formula, cashing in on other popular franchises, did nothing to dissuade me from this impression. Nevertheless, LEGO City Undercover caught my eye - and not just because of the desolate landscape that is the Wii U's current software library - for appearing to eschew the flimsy smash-em-up premise of other LEGO games, and instead taking a kids' toy approach to Grand Theft Auto. As it turns out, that's sort of a half-truth.

For a studio which tends to crib from an established license, Traveller's Tales (here via its TT Fusion studio) has managed to insert a fairly serviceable plot into LEGO City Undercover. You play as a hero cop, responsible for a high-profile arrest, who left LEGO City in disgrace after revealing the identity of a key witness; but when the crime boss escapes, you must return to the city and track him down again. But don't be fooled by the gravitas of the premise -- although the story takes some legtimately interesting turns, the whole thing is told in a lighthearded, jokey style. Not only is the game's writing a triumph for kid-friendly humor, but it also squeezes in a treasure trove of parodic send-ups, from Dirty Harry and James Bond to Starsky & Hutch and My Cousin Vinny. Yeah, it can feel corny, but I dare you to listen to this game's script without laughing out loud at least a few times.

LEGO City itself is somewhat inspired by San Francisco, with a prison island and a big suspension bridge, but incorporates a diverse arrangement of environments. There's a skyscraper-filled financial district, and a Chinatown area, along with residential zones, parks, beaches, docks, even farmland and a castle. There are subway stations and taxicabs for fast travel, and you can steal or call-in cars, boats, and helicopters to get around -- but in my experience, you'll cover plenty of ground just by finding a secret and following its trail. The city is dense with activities, from tiny collectibles and platforming puzzles, to time trial courses and full-blown criminal chases.

The dark side of all this is that so many of these activities are blocked by progress in the campaign missions. Some collectibles require specific "undercover" jobs, like cats you can only rescue as a Fireman; some obstacles require specific abilties, like doors that need a Robber's crowbar, or teleport pads only an Astronaut can use. And because much of the city's content requires combinations of abilities to fully exploit, it's difficult to justify even starting to scour the city for collectibles, until you've fully completed the story and unlocked all your undercover aliases.

As for those story missions? Well, they're alright, and the aforementioned humorous script helps it along. But the gameplay itself can get tedious. There's physical combat, and early in the game you'll "learn" some martial arts, but there are only three kinds of enemy -- one you can take out with any move, one you can only take out with counters, and one (in the last level!) you can only take out with throws. There are puzzles, but they're the definition of basic, never with any more depth than matching colors. As in the city, there are situations where you'll need the right outfit, but it's just a matter of switching costumes to match the obstacle. And there's still a heavy emphasis on smashing the bricks out of LEGO scenery around you, to uncover a key or re-assemble into a door or something. There is a simple joy to these missions, but - especially early on - they can't conceal their shallowness.

Contrary to other LEGO games, Undercover also lacks any kind of multiplayer -- this isn't something you can literally play along with a child. But me and my other technically-adult friends had a great time with a pass-and-play routine; as long as your playing companions are any good at sharing, this should work fine.

So the missions can drag on a bit, but you're rewarded for your efforts with a big, active city you can explore and commit vehicular LEGO-cide in. It helps that the game is a beauty to look at, too, and with appropriate scene music and sound effects for its cartoon-cop theme. (Although to be fair, I have to mention that the game's framerate takes a dive in scenes with a lot of background detail, and this can lead to some frustrating input latency.)

Anyway. If you're looking for a different take on open-world hijinks, and don't mind having to do some semi-mindless missions to get there, LEGO City Undercover is a pretty safe bet.

EDIT: Hey, so I forgot to mention one of the game's other significant flaws, loading times. There's a lengthy loading screen when you start the game, then another when you actually load a save file; there are loading screens when you enter and exit Police HQ, when you begin and end missions, and sometimes just for cutscenes. Luckily this doesn't come up often when you're just sandboxing around, but the PlayStation 1-length loads are a real pain to endure.

Better than: Prototype
Not as good as: Sleeping Dogs (but, for what it's worth, LEGO City has way more content in it)
I didn't realize: that some other recent LEGO games have open-world aspects too, namely LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes and LEGO The Lord of the Rings. Now I'm interested.

Progress: Finished the campaign, plenty of collectibles left