Lego City: Undercover (Switch)

[Dcubed]

 

That's a much bigger upgrade over the Wii U version than I thought! Very impressive! Switch is almost on par with the PS4 here (and even has some minor advantages in docked mode!) and well ahead of Wii U. Good to see

 

Also it's interesting to see that the Switch version actually runs in a higher resolution than the Xbone version.

[darksnowman]

Had sort of planned to get to this around a year ago when I was hoping to develop some open-world chops for TotK. Didn't happen so I'm on it now for something different.

Enjoying it a lot. It's great fun. Brimming with personality. It's like Police Academy, Hot Shots and plenty more rolled in. I like that it drops you in whether you have knowledge or not of what transpired previously and has the confidence to unabashedly bring you up to speed and make sure you get on board with what's going down. 

As an open-world game, it's going well for me. It tells you clearly where to head next and makes sure to nudge you in that direction every so often. I find myself poking around and going on little detours (mostly to find I don't have the required ability yet) but it's still fun to nosey around and doesn't take you too far out of your way. Probably helps that you're always getting blocks so it never feels like time wasted going on these little excursions. I'll admit I've been getting a sinking feeling in my stomach each time I've been sent to a new part of the map because I don't really want to comb through the length and breadth of all these areas as it's becoming a lot to hold in my head, but so far it seems grand if you just hit the story objectives and ignore the rest as you please. As long as it stays like this without becoming overwhelming or so big it's a chore to get from one spot to the next, I think I'm in for a good time. In fact, it's already in the "have I really been on this an hour already?" category so it must be doing plenty right.

Reminds me of Burnout Paradise at times. Which I don't know if that says more about the game than it does about what I know about this genre.

Minor gripe is the initial load time and the camera control is back to front for my tastes. Yes, I've driven the train. And loved it.

[darksnowman]

Finished this off over the weekend with 37.3% completion. Do I need 100% for a "thanks for playing!" message? Very much enjoyed my time with it—maybe because I was never at a loss for where to go next. Tbh, it was actually a bit naggy with beavering you onto the next mission. Cool too that missions were like self-contained levels once you started into one. I thought the ending chapter was fun to be part of and well done. The music during the final section fit it really well. The humour never dropped off either. They went above and beyond with the guy on the construction site!

Kind of weird that there is no save and quit option? I was never really sure what hadn't been autosaved every time I switched it off. It always picked up the story where I left off but no idea if I lost any unsaved collectables. 

Would be nice if the steam train from the museum is an unlockable.

Even though the story is done, I'm not against going back to it in the future to mooch around for some more disguises, rescue some cats, launch (return) pigs. In hindsight, I should have just prioritised doing the missions since you need your abilities for a lot of the side stuff you come across. E.g. just before getting the cat-rescuing ability, I was jumping up around the roof of the airport (as you do) and thought I heard a cat meowing. Cue the next chapter where I got the ability. And the entire game I was wondering what those wobbly ground bits were so now I've the drill I can go around and interact with them. Same with barricaded doorways. But I had a good time following my curiosity and doing some exploring as I went, even if it only took me to a dead end of sorts. Biggest annoyance I'd say is the paint gun since you can only have it loaded with one colour at a time. Overall though: great fun. Am I an open-word gamer yet?

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

 

Even though the story is done, I'm not against going back to it in the future to mooch around for some more disguises, rescue some cats, launch (return) pigs. In hindsight, I should have just prioritised doing the missions since you need your abilities for a lot of the side stuff you come across. 

That's pretty much how to go about playing all the Lego games. Concentrate on the story and then go through Freeplay mode to unlock everything once you have all the abilities. You can never get it all done in a single run.

[darksnowman]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

That's pretty much how to go about playing all the Lego games. Concentrate on the story and then go through Freeplay mode to unlock everything once you have all the abilities. You can never get it all done in a single run.

That's a fair enough observation. Don't those lend themselves pretty handily to replaying stages since they're just doors off a small central hub? I can only think of having played Lego Star Wars back in the day and City Undercover is a different set-up due to the open-world nature of it.

[Hero-of-Time]

59 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

That's a fair enough observation. Don't those lend themselves pretty handily to replaying stages since they're just doors off a small central hub? I can only think of having played Lego Star Wars back in the day and City Undercover is a different set-up due to the open-world nature of it.

Some of the Lego games allow you to just teleport over to the main stages again, without needing to trapse all the way back. I can't remember in Undercover allows for this though.

[Helmsly]

Nice write up @darksnowman i agree with everything you said there. I picked this game up a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. The humour works really well and its one of the few games to make me laugh out loud. I keep meaning to go back and finish it. Also a suggestion, if you ever want to play another Lego game, Lego Marvel Superheroes (the first one) is very good and also features a hub world of New York city. Normally it's on sale for a few quid on the eshop

Edited April 29 by Helmsly

[BowserBasher]

5 hours ago, darksnowman said:

I thought the ending chapter was fun to be part of and well done. The music during the final section fit it really well.

First great write up, I double dipped this game when I saw it on sale on Switch, never regretted it. Second, that music on that final level, I can hear it now, it was just perfect the way it built up the way it did. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah, the music has no business being that epic. 

It's still one of my fav Lego games, at least when it comes to the open world ones. 

[darksnowman]

17 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Some of the Lego games allow you to just teleport over to the main stages again, without needing to trapse all the way back. I can't remember in Undercover allows for this though.

Fairly certain it puts an icon on the map but (provided that's right) I didn't try to hop back to any. I thought the train was your fast travel option however I meandered around on foot a lot of the time. I reckon the missions wouldn't be too bad to replay with all the abilities since they're straight shots from start to finish—it's the collectables around the city I'm thinking about. I wonder if there's optional minor crimes to fight in the postgame or if you're just in the city and that's it.

I never seemed to get the "strength ability" so maybe that's something that'd need unlocking still. Thought "Arnie" on the construction site was going to put some muscle on me.

17 hours ago, Helmsly said:

Nice write up @darksnowman i agree with everything you said there. I picked this game up a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. The humour works really well and its one of the few games to make me laugh out loud. I keep meaning to go back and finish it. Also a suggestion, if you ever want to play another Lego game, Lego Marvel Superheroes (the first one) is very good and also features a hub world of New York city. Normally it's on sale for a few quid on the eshop

Totally. I expected the humour would wear thin or I'd just get used to it but that wasn't the case—found myself chuckling throughout. The wordplay and references were great. The way they worked in, for example, "...commando, oh..." (Commando) drew a smirk and a nod from me.  The slapstick visual gags didn't have me rolling my eyes either; it was all part of the charm and well done.

I figured all the Lego games boiled down to the same thing reskinned to fit a license. So if you played one you'd pretty much played them all. I've seen a few of them on sale over the years so I'll keep an eye out for Marvel Superheroes (1). City Undercover must have been around a tenner when I weeded it out from among the licensed titles and it was a steal. 

15 hours ago, BowserBasher said:

First great write up, I double dipped this game when I saw it on sale on Switch, never regretted it. Second, that music on that final level, I can hear it now, it was just perfect the way it built up the way it did. 

What a grand way to conclude it. It probably wasn't against the clock but I held down the B button and went for it. The scale of the situation coupled with the visuals and music capped the story off on such a high note. Then of course, after that last bit of gameplay, it ends with some goofy scenes while still giving some closure. Perfect.

15 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, the music has no business being that epic.

It really didn't. Just relistening to it now while formulating this post.  

[MindFreak]

I bought this for my son a while ago when it was cheap. He hasn't really played it as he prefers the franchise Lego games like Marvel and Ninjago but I have tried to convince him that this could be fun too. Might even want to play it myself of I had the time. 

[BowserBasher]

If you ever go for 100% or just want to work on getting stuff, I strongly suggest going for that one red brick ‘cheat’ that will make it 100x easier. It’s the one that makes your weapon shoot the colour that is needed for what you shoot it at. Normally you have to find colour swap stations, but this makes it so you don’t need them. I think it was in downtown somewhere but can’t remember off top of my head. 

[darksnowman]

On 30/04/2024 at 12:49 PM, MindFreak said:

I bought this for my son a while ago when it was cheap. He hasn't really played it as he prefers the franchise Lego games like Marvel and Ninjago but I have tried to convince him that this could be fun too. Might even want to play it myself of I had the time. 

Well one of you should play it and post about it.  

On 30/04/2024 at 1:59 PM, BowserBasher said:

If you ever go for 100% or just want to work on getting stuff, I strongly suggest going for that one red brick ‘cheat’ that will make it 100x easier. It’s the one that makes your weapon shoot the colour that is needed for what you shoot it at. Normally you have to find colour swap stations, but this makes it so you don’t need them. I think it was in downtown somewhere but can’t remember off top of my head. 

I collected bricks as I came across them (and had the prerequisite ability to get them) but I don't remember any "cheats". That'd be amazing if there's a built-in way to streamline having the right colour as it's something I was often contending with!

[BowserBasher]

3 hours ago, darksnowman said:

I collected bricks as I came across them (and had the prerequisite ability to get them) but I don't remember any "cheats". That'd be amazing if there's a built-in way to streamline having the right colour as it's something I was often contending with!

When I say cheat I mean the Red Bricks that you can turn on in one of the menus. All Lego games have them and usually are things like stud multipliers (so funny when you have them all enabled at the same time and rack up so many just from a few studs), invincibility, quick build, stuff like that. 5is game has one of those red bricks enables the colour shooting gun thing that fires the right colour needed for the puzzle/thing you shoot. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah, the stud multipliers are the best thing to nab first. Even the x2 one makes all the difference when farming for studs. It will initially cost a lot but you will make your cash back in no time. As BowserBasher said, once you start stacking them you will be hitting stupid numbers even by picking up a single stud.

[darksnowman]

Hopped back on it over the weekend and discovered I have several cheats unlocked. Fairly certain I didn't check that menu since I perused the options when I first started into the game to see what's what. Activated everything I have though sadly that didn't include the colour shooter cheat @BowserBasher mentioned. One of them disabled headwear which made Chase McCain look weird going around with his yellow dome on show. Otherwise, just some multipliers and block attracters. Still very welcome as I went into the police station and got up to 9/10 blocks in there now I have all the abilities, then enjoyed scooping up blocks outside from far and wide with the attract bonus before summoning an aircraft for a bit of general flight around the map. A lot of the public seemed to be in costumes—I'm not sure if that was also down to a cheat or just the way they happened to generate.