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Did you know that The LEGO Group - the company behind the world's most beloved bricks - is officially the largest tyre manufacturer in the world? When you think about it, it's not all that surprising: how many LEGO vehicles are there? Well, there are a lot, and in 2011, The LEGO Group produced more than 380 million tyres; that's more than the second- and third-largest companies, Bridgestone and Michelin, managed to pump out between them. We're not kidding here. Now that you feel as though you've learnt something today, please feel free to spend the remainder of your day - and, indeed, your days - playing LEGO City Undercover, which is quite easily one of the most engrossing, addictive and enjoyable games to launch for the Wii U thus far.
LEGO City Undercover is set in the open world of LEGO City and the story is based on all-round good cop Chase McCain, seen in the game's opening sequence returning to the city for the first time in several years. Chase has been called back by the Mayor of LEGO City, Mayor Gleeson, who requires his help in recapturing the dangerous fugitive Rex Fury, who has recently escaped from prison. Aided by the LEGO City Police Department and his police communicator (a multipurpose GamePad-like device), Chase has to find out as much as he can about Rex Fury in order to get him behind bars once again - but with a backstory like Chase's, it won't all be a walk in the park.
Alongside the likes of Chase, Rex Fury and Mayor Gleeson is a cast of characters perfectly suited to the game's often light nature: the incompetent chief of the police department, Chief Dunby; the bumbling police officer Frank Honey, who must fall over quite a lot; and the always helpful Ellie Phillips back at police headquarters. Other characters include Chase's ex-girlfriend Natalia, whose story will become clear throughout the game, and the wealthy Forest Blackwell, who's always getting hounded by the press. LEGO City is full of funny, enjoyable characters whose witty and hilarious dialogue, coupled with some excellent voice acting, will rarely fail to bring a smile to your face.
Throughout the game, you'll traverse LEGO City, a massive area made up of multiple large districts. You'll initially only be able to access two or three of these, but the rest will open up to you early on in the game, giving you plenty of opportunity to explore the city. You can get around either on foot or by car, and being a police officer, you're able to commandeer any vehicle on the road whenever you need to. There are many areas you'll find are easier to reach by car, but at the same time much of the city can only really be seen on foot, so you'll need to get Chase doing a bit of exercise if you want to see everything there is to see. There's so much to see and do that it's no real surprise that the game's loading times can be lengthy; that said, they're few and far between, only being slightly longer than usual when booting up the game and entering or exiting the police station.
One of the key aspects of the game is Chase's ability to easily switch between different disguises. No matter his guise, Chase can always run, jump and attack, but each disguise gifts him a unique ability as well: as a police officer, he can use his grapple gun to latch onto items and ledges; as a criminal, he can pick locks and safes; as a miner, he can carry dynamite and use his pickaxe to destroy boulders. There are several other disguises to be found as well, each of which will offer up even more new abilities to be used throughout the game. If Chase can use an ability somewhere in LEGO City, there'll be an icon on the ground like a crowbar icon next to a door that can be broken open; many of these will be "locked" for much of the game since you'll only be able to do anything with them once you've unlocked the right ability, so it'd be a good idea to do some travelling each time you find a new disguise or gain access to a new ability.
Another main feature in LEGO City Undercover is Chase's police communicator, which is modelled on the Wii U GamePad and acts as another window into the world: it's easy to imagine that what you see on the GamePad is what Chase sees on the communicator. The GamePad's main feature is an interactive map of LEGO City, giving you an overview of the area - you can zoom in and out for a better viewpoint of each district - and letting you set travel points to guide you to your next destination. Just tap and hold any point on the map, and the next time you enter a vehicle, you'll be able to follow a green line to the endpoint. This will come in very handy throughout the game, especially at important points in the story when the green line will automatically be set for you.
The communicator also makes good use of the GamePad's speakers and motion sensors. At times, you'll be prompted to raise the GamePad to the main screen and move it around to use it as a data scanner, searching for items, criminals and even audio clues. A little way into the game, when the camera is added to the communicator, you'll also be able to capture in-game shots with the GamePad to post to Miiverse. Characters will also call Chase on the communicator, and you'll see and hear them on the GamePad as opposed to the main screen.
Many players will be pleased to hear how LEGO City Undercover makes extensive use of the GamePad, but for those who are concerned that it could all be a bit too much in practice, fear not: the game will always tell you if you need to look at the GamePad for whatever reason, such as to open the data scanner or to receive a call from someone, and in the case of the latter the GamePad will actually "ring" when a character calls you. You'll know when to look in many cases anyway - for example, you'll usually enter a scan point to open the scanner - and as far as looking at the map is concerned, there's no issue, because you only look at it when you want to look at it.
The GamePad's controls feel perfectly natural and are very easy to get used to from the off: the left stick is used to move around, while the right stick - which can be inverted in the settings menu - is used to control the camera. Chase's disguises are easily accessible, as they can be brought up by holding the X button or cycled through quickly by using the ZL and ZR buttons. The A button acts as the action button, letting Chase use various objects or abilities depending on the situation and his disguise, while the B button is used to jump and the Y button is used to punch or attack. Chase can commandeer any vehicle by blowing his police whistle with the L button, and the X button can be used to enter vehicles. Vehicles are also very easy to control and several different options are available, such as a choice between the A and ZR buttons to accelerate.
With LEGO City being as big as it is, it'll come as no surprise that there are a considerable amount of collectibles to be found throughout its many districts. Two of the main collectibles that have been discussed are disguises, of which there are 290 in the game, and vehicles, of which there are 110. These disguises are different to Chase's "main" disguises: the story-focused disguises like miner, police officer and criminal offer up new abilities as we've previously mentioned; the collectible disguises are more like costumes and are purely for customisation purposes. These disguises can be anything from a general occupation, like a doctor or a surgeon, to actual characters from the LEGO City universe. Similarly, the vehicles you can collect are all found around the city and can be commandeered, so technically you don't even need to collect them to drive them - but by collecting them, you can call one up at any time from a vehicle call-in point.
Before you get access to a disguise or vehicle you've collected, you need to purchase it in the LEGO City Police Station using LEGO studs. You'll find these studs all over LEGO City and you'll naturally collect quite a lot of them as you progress through the game; you'll more than likely end up with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, as you go on. There are three different denominations - silver is worth 10 studs, gold is worth 100 and blue is worth 1000 - and thankfully, since there are so many, you only need to move near most studs to pick them up. You'll also use studs to purchase very special extras unlocked by collecting Red Bricks: there are only 40 of these in the entire game, and collecting them unlocks purchasable bonuses including ringtones and higher-value studs.
As well as Red Bricks, you can also collect Gold Bricks by completing challenges throughout the game. There are 450 Gold Bricks to collect in total, so you should be kept very busy if you're aiming to complete the game; fortunately, each district has its own list of challenges accessible via the GamePad. For example, there are numerous ATMs in LEGO City which, when disguised as a criminal, you can break into; that would nab you a Gold Brick for completing a challenge. There are also standard bricks which you'll collect by smashing up objects around the city; you'll use these bricks to create Super Builds, which can be anything from stunt ramps to call-in points, where you can pick up vehicles you've purchased.
The game's storyline takes place in and around LEGO City, with a suitable amount of leeway being given to let you go and do your own thing whenever you feel like it. For the most part, the story is split into missions, including some which take place at locations outside LEGO City and others which take place in the city itself. Once you've started a mission, you'll have to complete it before returning to open gameplay or you'll lose your progress within that mission. That's not a particularly big issue - missions aren't overly long, and a fair few story quests can just be done as and when - though sometimes it isn't completely clear when a mission is started, so if you try to jump out of it, you could be met with a warning about potentially losing your progress.
One of the more interesting aspects of story missions is that they're impossible to hundred-percent on your first playthrough of them. There will always be some items that you can't collect first time around, more than likely because you don't have the right disguise or ability. This is where Free Runs come into play: once you've returned to LEGO City after beating a mission for the first time, you'll find a new Free Run icon close to the area where you started it, which you can return to in order to replay it. Once you've collected some more disguises and abilities later in the game, you can return to these Free Runs and attempt to complete them, which will nab you more unlockables, including disguises, vehicles and Gold Bricks. It's a little trickier than before as Free Runs have time limits, though you can extend these by collecting clocks found throughout the mission.
It's clear there's a lot to do in LEGO City Undercover. There are so many different challenges to beat and collectibles to find, not to mention all the other cool little extras to hunt out around the city, like hidden areas you can't see on the map. The game is heaven on earth for completionists, but even for those who aren't interested in picking up all the extras, there's still so much to be done that it doesn't really detract from the experience if you're the sort to ignore the 'collection' aspect of a game. You're still going to do plenty of travelling and investigating, so perhaps you'll get the urge to do a bit of collecting somewhere down the line. The game is likely to take quite a long time to beat - depending on how side-tracked you get, it could take anywhere up to 30 hours or more as an educated guess - and if you want to collect everything there is to collect, you can double that and then some.
LEGO City Undercover is a huge boost to the Wii U this early in its life. Regardless of how you choose to play it, you'll soon notice the hours flying by as you find out more and more about the game, the city and its brilliant characters. From the outside, you could be forgiven for thinking LEGO City Undercover was mostly or entirely story-based; you simply wouldn't expect such a vast open-world area, and one with so many collectibles, from a game like this. Neither aspect of the game really disappoints: the story progression is just as satisfying as exploring the city, and a healthy mix of both is undoubtedly the best way to enjoy the game. As one of the Wii U's top titles and a great way to round off what's been a busy month for the new console, this is one game that deserves your full attention.
