LEGO City Undercover

Everything from the tried and true LEGO gameplay sprinkled with some great new additions, a comedic script, and an entertaining storyline provides a gaming experience suitable for all ages which, in my eyes, makes LEGO City Undercover a must buy for fans of the LEGO franchise and Wii U owners alike.

This is a great approach to the GTA concept, with extremely fun and different missions, and a wise use of the GamePad functions. If you really like the genre, you shouldn't miss this opportunity.

This is the best Lego game so far, with TT Fusion pushing away from licensed franchise tomfoolery into completely new territory. Will we see more Chase McCain and other original ideas in the future? I hope so.

A very funny script is the basis for one of Wii U's most interesting games.

A lovingly crafted, laugh-a-minute, gem-packed open world LEGO game, the likes of which we've never seen before, but have always wanted. [Apr 2013, p.74]

It's been a while since I have laughed this hard at and with a game. From the light-hearted start to the furious finale, I spent 80 percent of LEGO City Undercover either with a smile on my lips or a big laugh in my throat. In many ways, there not being a second license on top of the LEGO brand seems to have freed up a lot of the humor that was previously untouched upon, in spite of the other LEGO games being pretty funny in their own right. But here, instead of taking on just one or a couple of films as a basis, TT Fusion just did whatever they felt like. Sometimes dryly humorous, sometimes more absurd, sometimes just incredible even – this is pure bliss on a disc.

Telltale delivers a great sandbox with a charming story. There is enough here to make adults giggle and kids run amok. It is truly amazing how much of a fan service this is to fans of LEGO. A lacking multiplayer is the worst omission, and even with this in mind, this is easily one of TT’s best LEGO games ever. There is tons of collectibles (with some great references and cross promotion of actual LEGO sets). A must have for Wii U owners and a great game on its own.

Simply put, LEGO City Undercover is a blast to play. It's funny, challenging, and features tons of extra content that'll keep you busy for hours. Sure, it's got a few minor quibbles here and there but it's hard to dwell on them when everything else is so enjoyable.

I’m having a hard time remembering the last time I had this much pure, unmitigated fun just playing, period.

Children deserve massive, explorable worlds just as much as adults. It’s wonderful that TT Fusion took that concept and made a fully functioning and largely non-violent world without sacrificing action. You won’t miss firing guns or swinging lightsabers in Lego City — not when you’re scouring the landscape for super builds and smashing everything in sight.

Lego City Undercover is a surprise you don't want to miss. Smart use of the GamePad, a colorful sandbox world teeming with things to do and a clever, humorous story make this one of the best reasons to own a Wii U.

Four months is a long time to wait for a game – especially when you’ve just picked up a new console with nothing else to play – but the wait was worth it. Just like the all-ages appeal of LEGO bricks and sets, LEGO City Undercover effortlessly rises above its station, representing the culmination of every LEGO game that came before it.

Despite the sheer volume of collecting in front of players, Lego City Undercover's genuine humor, open and expanded gameplay, and lovable characters immediately engage the player and never let go. Even after Rex Fury is behind bars, rebuilding LEGO City (and tearing it down again in your car) will never get old.

I’m glad I can still enjoy games like this. I love aggressive and gritty adventures as much the next guy, but being able to laugh at silly cartoon characters while figuring out addictive and clever puzzles assures me that I haven’t completely become a crotchety old cynic.

As one of the highlights in the Nintendo Wii U software library to date, LEGO City Undercover blends together a large, compelling open world to explore with fun, suitably cheesy action sequences that can appeal to both young and old.

Lego City Undercover nails the best aspects of open world games in its own way, and with the inclusion of Lego building mechanics, it feels enough like its own thing rather than a sanitized version of an existing thing.

Lego City Undercover isn't ceaselessly brilliant - open-world games seldom are - but it's a fantastic example of what makes Traveller's Tales and TT Fusion such special developers, and the worst I can say is that it's occasionally only fun. And you know what? I'll take that wherever I can find it.

Its humour may be slightly weak and unlocks spread far and wide, but LEGO City Undercover is a thoroughly enjoyable and refreshingly innocent open-world game.

The best Lego videogame ever made. This game isn't only a big evolution of the Traveller's Tales gameplay formula, it's also a great sandbox experience with more than 20 hours of gameplay. A must-have for Wii U owners.

Lego City: Undercover brings legos to GTA style open world. I just miss co-op from the previous lego games and my kids didn't understand long loading times. They thought game dowloaded something from the net. [May 2013]

If you were still waiting for a reason to buy a Wii U, this is it. LEGO City Undercover is an amazing game that fits perfectly on Nintendo's newest console.

It takes the traits of what made the Travellers' Tales LEGO games so well loved in the first place, such as the good-natured humor, and it does so without a license as a crutch. The story is good, but it is the multitude of activities that really makes this title shine and gives you plenty of reasons to explore every nook and cranny after Rex Fury is behind bars once again.

Under a cover of GTA free roam mechanics you can find a Wii U exclusive that tries its best to realize children’s dreams of a whole LEGO City to play with, guided by a lovely main story which slowly builds up all its hilarious parody lines and gameplay pieces. Some fits still need work, but the construction seems already quite solid.

At some point — I can’t say exactly when — my interactions with the GamePad screen became natural and intuitive, an organic part of the game that I didn’t find myself consciously thinking about. It just felt normal and fun. This is a crucial step forward in changing players’ perception of the GamePad from novel gizmo to worthwhile, game-enhancing peripheral.

It isn’t perfect, but I can’t think of another Wii U game that I’d recommend more than Lego City Undercover. It’s the most interesting and highly polished game in TT Games’ large repertoire, and it fills an important game gap. Now kids (and their parents) can tool around in a big town where people smile even as you almost run them over in an ice-cream truck.

While the omission of co-op play in this outing is an unexpected disappointment, Lego City Undercover is the best game in the series so far. It's consistently fun and surprising, offering the freedom of a great open-world game without all the guilt.

One of the funniest games ever, though it does have a couple of rough edges. [May 2013, p.74]

LEGO City: Undercover is a fascinating adventure that even though it stays close to the franchise roots, it also takes a different approach with its own identity and charming originality. Infused with clever jokes, brilliant puzzles and excellent narrative, it doesn't need far away galaxies nor Middle Earth myths in order to bring pure fun.

The Wii U needs more games like Lego City Undercover. Is far from being a revolution or be remembered as a classic, but is guaranteed to give many hours of fun to those who give it a chance.

GTA for a whole family. A perfect example of a game for children, it's entertaining, it's great, it's clever, and funny in almost every way.

A sandbox game made in Lego. There's a lot of humor in this game, coupled with tons of content and a smart use of costumes. Recommended for Lego fans, regardless of age.

The game’s technical problems notwithstanding, I found LEGO City Undercover to be an immensely enjoyable adventure that really made me laugh. It certainly has a lot going for it with a great story, funny script, creative originality and a design that makes no attempt to dumb anything down making it easily accessible for gamers young and old alike. LEGO City Undercover is also a lovely looking game that continues the trend of blending real world objects and geography with colorful and whimsical LEGO objects. For those still upset about the delay over Rayman Legends, I’m pleased to say there’s finally a game that makes Wii U worth owning.

A hugely enjoyable open-world adventure which shouldn't fail to raise a smile. It would be criminal to ignore it.

There's an astounding amount of things to do in Lego City Undercover. The story that can take player around ten hours to finish, is just the knob of the Lego-block. Afterwards there's much to build, wreck and collect. The biggest downside is that the city, that functions as a central hub to all of the content, is pretty boring.

To sum-up LEGO City Undercover to a simple GTA with bricks would be a shame. Full of satire fore previous Telltale LEGO games and rich without any franchise to support it, City Undercover is able to charm with extensive content, no violence, and several layers of subtext for all to enjoy. It's a trans-generational game, and a good one at that.

The all-new sandbox environment is a welcome addition, and it matches perfectly with the classic gameplay of the LEGO series: aside from some little missteps, LEGO City Undercover is a game everyone can have fun with.

It finally nails the spirit of LEGO, and does so with a great deal of panache.

Lego City Undercover is a joyous thing, filled with life and fun. It took me right back to my first go on the original Lego Star Wars – that pleasure of finding a favourite creative toy rendered so beautifully, faithfully and humorously into video game existence.

Great gameplay and a humorous, well-written plot are more than enough to help LEGO City Undercover overcome some of the franchise’s lingering technical flaws, making it one of the few worthwhile experiences on the Wii U.

LEGO City Undercover offers hours of gameplay in a sandbox-style game based on the LEGO franchise. Chase McCain lives in a rich world with lots of content, vehicles and missions. Using the Wii U GamePad you will explore this colorfur city made by pieces.

Ultimately, there are more reasons to praise and play LCU than not, especially for Wii U owners looking for something new and exclusive that doesn't involve a Nintendo icon.

The consistent delivery of these references complement the story's comedic dialogue and sight gags. You can tell the game's writers are fans of the Police Squad! TV show and movie series. None of the jokes feel forced or drawn out, which helps keep the cutscenes concise and well-paced.

On the whole, Undercover is the most polished LEGO game I’ve ever played. The humor, while often hokey, works alongside the gameplay in a manner that makes the game charming for its long campaign. LEGO City Undercover isn’t the game to save the Wii U from its recent dearth of games, but it is still a solid, fun romp for anyone who has an affinity for LEGO games.

There are bigger, more complex, more beautiful open-world games on the market. But none of them are this good at making you feel so young at heart.

Undercover’s story is an incredibly entertaining homage to countless movies and television shows, and manages to feature a very strong cast of characters – no small feat considering the game has no major license associated with it.

There are technical cracks in its brickwork, but in combining the familiar constructs of the LEGO video games with an original story, huge amounts of humour and a ridiculous number of things to collect or discover, LEGO City Undercover proves that LEGO titles can be blockbusters without a big licence.

Lego City: Undercover is, like most Lego-games, a perfectly good game for all ages. Especially the older gamer will appreciate the subtle references to many games and movies, although you’ll have to consider whether the kiddy style of the game is for you. If it is, you’ll have a game that you will enjoy longer than the time you spent playing with your Lego-city, which currently resides in your attic.

LEGO City is a great game - but I do wonder just how many limitations the hardware had on the final product. Perhaps it has nothing to do with the Wii U, but for Traveller's Tales to omit multiplayer altogether? That seems an unlikely choice, considering their previous work.

For the first time since Bionicle Heroes Traveller’s Tales didn’t have to stick to an external license, but could let their fantasy run wild in an open world. The result is a little shallow in terms of mechanics, but makes up for it with bucket loads of humor in the tradition of the early Zucker/Abrahams spoofs.

Lego City Undercover is the first true free-roaming videogame developed by TT Fusion, and this is evident from a number of technical issues (going from an unstable frame-rate to tedious aliasing). From a narrative point of view the story is entertaining and filled with references to the popular culture, and speaking of content, the ridiculous amount of extras hidden everywhere in the game world is undeniable. A good first step in the free-roaming genre, hoping that an eventual second episode will fix all the technical problems while innovating the gameplay.

The concept behind the product is still too close to the secure LEGO license to look really cool and bright. The combat system is just sketched, and the game also has an approach that reduces complexity.

LEGO City Undercover is a solid exclusive title for Nintendo’s machine; especially with the severe lack of software currently on the market. If you own a Wii U and can tolerate the shortcomings of the LEGO series it is easy to recommend. Those who have grown tired of the massive collect-a-thons though might find themselves rolling their eyes again at the tedium that ensues.

Lego City Undercover is a bold new direction for the Lego series. In many respects it is a successful first try, but there are quite a few technical mishaps. The open world concept needs some work, the load times are horrible and the lack of co-op is very disappointing. The game-play is still as simple and entertaining as ever though, and some of the missions and puzzles are among the greatest in the series.

Lego City Undercover borrows heavily from Grand Theft Auto IV, and mixes it with the fun gameplay we know from other Lego games. It's great fun to explore Lego City and the plot has some really clever twists that will keep you interested throughout the game. It's time for Traveller's Tales Games to come up with some new puzzles, though.

Lego City: Undercover is a good idea – it just hasn’t been built in quite the right way.

Ultimately, Undercover is basically another LEGO game. Although it could have done a lot to sway non-fans like LEGO Batman 2 did, it sticks to preset conventions far too often, and doesn’t take nearly enough risks.

LEGO City Undercover isn’t the Wii U savior everyone is waiting for, but anyway it’s a fresh, funny and LEGO-based game that requires lots of fantasy and humor to be appreciated. If you’re ready to unleash the enchanted player that is in you, it could be the one you’ll play for the coming weeks.

Ultimately, it’s kind of hard to judge Lego City Undercover as a typical open world effort, because in truth, Lego City Undercover isn’t actually that much of an open world game. Some missions do let you smash the place apart in a car chase or pootle about in a chopper, but outside of this there’s little to do.

Considering it has to avoid the salacious scenes and hyper-violence used to spice its genre brethren, Lego City Undercover is pretty darned impressive. But it's hard not to be a disappointed that Lego City Undercover doesn't play more to Lego's strengths, trading the carnal for the creative or the wanton for wonder.

For all its faults, charming is absolutely the word best describing LEGO City Undercover. While more could have been done to exploit the sandbox scenario, and while it sticks a bit too nervously to formula than it could have, Undercover is nonetheless a frequently pleasurable, occasionally hilarious little romp in a new LEGO world full of potential.

It’s a not a very good advert for the Wii U but this is still a hugely entertaining open world game, with one of the funniest video game scripts ever.

It's just slightly too bogged down in filler, slightly held back by some cumbersome and awkward systems, and just doesn't quite hit the mark all the time. When it does, though, it's a fun, hilarious experience, worth checking out if you own a Wii U, but not quite on par with the best TT has to offer.

The loading times and frequency that the game needs to load is immediately and consistently depressing too and for these reasons it all becomes hard to recommend. The thing is though does that really matter? Probably not because you know, it’s for kids.

Yes, the campaign is unexciting compared to the delights outside of it, but there's great promise too. It feels like developer TT Fusion is, quite appropriately, building towards something more with Undercover, something that really shows Lego games can stand on their own two leg blocks. It just isn't there yet.