Playing Lego City Undercover on the WiiU has left me spoilt: a massive city with so much to see and do, humour and charm pooling at every intersection. Chase Begins is a diluted version of this game, missing all the finer details that made the WiiU version an enjoyable, memorable and immersive experience.

I found myself plodding through inane, unimaginative fetch quests time after time, feeling like I had done so much of this before. The emotive, one-liner plagued Chase that we came to love is demoted to a grinning mute for most of the game, bar the occasional cinematic (which look very much like the WiiU version). There are too few of these precious moments in the game and they do little to tide you over between quests and exploration, which feel like chores instead of goals.

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The disguises are all the same, bar a few twists and the order in which they are unlocked. This, coupled with us knowing pretty much how the story is going to end, makes for a rather uninspired second visit to Lego City. Load times are even worse than the WiiU version (which is saying a lot), making travelling around the city a lengthy process.

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Minigames like safe unlocking, while simplistic, make for a welcome change from just mashing A to get the job done. Chase Begins opted for lots of boss fights, something that was almost completely missing from Lego City Undercover. While boss fights have always been the low-point of almost every Lego experience, Chase spends a lot of time just throwing people again and again and again, with variations like the boss jumping away until you wipe out his henchmen.

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Wash, rinse, repeat, fall asleep. I’m not kidding, as it happened a few times, which shows just how monotonous things can be. Despite being an avid fan of Lego games, I was unable to force myself to go hunting for collectibles, to build everything and find those hidden secrets. Maybe this is because I had just built and destroyed the exact same objects in Lego City Undercover? I’m not sure, I will go ask Doorlock Holmes.

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Which brings me back to being spoilt as a gamer, because I have a 3D GTA styled game on my 3DS, which I am giving a lot of grief. This game is too similar, too soon after the WiiU version. The main story can be completed in 5.5 hours and doesn’t provide any information that wasn’t implied or mentioned in Lego City Undercover.

As much as I wanted to visit Chase and Lego City again, this isn’t what I had in mind. There isn’t more to say really, this is a Lego game, but in a barebones, minimalist style.

Last Updated: May 30, 2013

LEGO City Undercover: Chase Begins
While technically impressive that so much can be done on the 3DS, Chase Begins covers familiar territory far too soon, the missing touches from the Wii U glaringly obvious.
6.5
LEGO City Undercover: Chase Begins was reviewed on 3DS

2 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief Commander

    May 30, 2013 at 15:32

    raaaaawwwr

    Reply

  2. LordCaptainAwesomeness

    May 30, 2013 at 15:35

    The Wookie has Growled… And you NEVER argue with a wookie…

    Reply

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