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Lego City Undercover Review Thread

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
It seems the embargo just dropped, and it's pretty positive as a whole.

Reviews:

Canadian Online Gamers: 9.5
Cubed3: 9
Toronto Sun: 9
Eurogamer: 9
VentureBeat: 90
Game Informer: 8.5
IGN: 8
GameSpot: 8
Nintendo Life: 8
NintendoWorldReport: 8
Polygon: 7
Destructoid: 7
Metro GameCentral: 7
TheSixthAxis: 7
Edge: 5

Kotaku: Yes

Excerpts:

Eurogamer said:
It may not have a big-name sci-fi or fantasy licence to hang its hat on, then, but it turns out Traveller's Tales has itself been working undercover for a while on that front, lurking behind the smokescreens of Gotham City and the galaxy far away as it evolved into an accomplished developer capable of charming players with a mixture of great writing, twinkling level design and laudable values that keep you coming back regardless. 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.
Click to expand...

IGN said:
A few other problems work against LEGO City Undercover. Loading times are not only too frequent but too long. It is not uncommon to endure several half-minute or minute loading screens within a very short timeframe. And nothing to mask this, whether through pre-loading or basically anything other than a horrifically dull white progression bar on the GamePad. Undercover isn’t exactly pushing cutting edge graphics, in fact it suffers from a somewhat inconsistent framerate, so the presence of this recurring issue is more than bothersome.

...

LEGO City Undercover is the best iteration of a very familiar experience, which is as reassuring or problematic as that might seem. The sheer scope of the overworld is impressive, as is the way Traveller’s Tales layered in its wide range of collectible goodies, which ensures hours upon hours of activity after the campaign ends, which should take the average player about 10 hours, accounting for some collectible fetching. 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. Of course, rampant loading times, no co-op and a variety of other problems (loading times, routine gameplay) hold Undercover back from truly taking the next step for the larger LEGO franchise.
Click to expand...

GameSpot said:
By the time Lego City Undercover's story comes to an end, you have guided Chase through every action-movie circumstance imaginable, and have probably seen the "twists" coming a mile away. And that's perfectly OK. The game knows you know where it's going, and it has fun at its own expense. You can imagine the winks and nods of the voice actors as they deliver their lines; the comic relief is broad, Chase's line readings are beautifully, achingly sincere, and an Arnold Schwarzenegger soundalike sounds more like Arnie than Arnie ever did. 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.
Click to expand...

Polygon said:
Maintaining interest and consistency over the course of a massive, sprawling game like Lego City Undercover would be a challenge no matter what the target audience was. 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. Capturing the look of Lego is an impressive feat that didn't quite hold my attention. But capturing the feel of Lego? That would have been impossible to put down.
Click to expand...

Edge said:
A number of Undercover’s flaws won’t matter, however, to its target audience. For kids, this gigantic, gently challenging game offers the familiar stud collecting, furniture smashing and rudimentary puzzling of the Lego games writ large and sprinkled across a toy town of an open-world game. Only the more irritating driving missions will require the temporary recruitment of mum or dad. But for parents and adults, Undercover is a less inviting prospect, even with its satirical undertone. It’s a plastic facsimile of GTA – a game that was hardly humourless to begin with, and one that has already spawned a genre’s worth of more sophisticated rivals and clones.
Click to expand...
 
C

Celegus

Member
I was about to say something about how surprising it was to see a good Wii U game. But it's equally surprising to see a Wii U game.
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Sounds good. Based on what I saw, I only had two real concerns: longevity of the game and mechanics, and the loading times. Sounds like the game does run a little thin at points, which isn't surprising given the basis for the game and recent LEGO software history, but is still fun to play. Damn shame they couldn't get those loading times ironed out.
 
Smiles and Cries

Smiles and Cries

Member
please patch that load time
LLShC.gif


midnight!
 
D

darkressurection

Banned
Hopefully the eShop version is a little faster on the load times, glad to see the game turned out well though. It definitely looks a lot better performance wise than the first few times they were showing it.
 
P

Pociask

Member
Game journalists... from the IGN excerpt "Of course, rampant loading times, no co-op and a variety of other problems (loading times, routine gameplay)"

Excited to see it reviewing well! When I eventually get a Wii U, I can see this becoming a Lego machine, between Marvel, the DC re-release, and this. Now where's my Micro Machines racing?
 
V

Vexxan

Member
I wonder if they could solve the load time issue with patches...up to one minute loading screens sound pretty bad :/
 
R

RumblingRosco

Member
This was asked in the other, main thread, but is there any indication that the non-physical version of the game has reduced load times? As opposed to streaming from the disc. Furthermore, is there a difference between loading it from the internal storage vs an external HDD?
 
G

Gonzo The Great

Banned
So basically the only universal complaint is the poor load times. Pretty lame, considering this isn't exactly pushing the Wii U hardware to its limits, but at least the gameplay is sound.
 
E

Effect

Member
Gonzo The Great said:
So basically the only universal complaint is the poor load times. Pretty lame, considering this isn't exactly pushing the Wii U hardware to its limits, but at least the gameplay is sound.
Click to expand...

I wonder if it might be a case where everything in a given area is being loaded into memory and not being streamed off the disc.

Hmm.. I think I said that right.
 
B

Beelzebub

Member
is that a street fighter reference I spot in the ign review? that is awesome!!! too bad about the load times, it still looks really fun
 
R

Rootbeer

Banned
was mulling over cancelling my pre-order to focus on MonHun and picking it up later at a lower price. But fuck it. I'm still all in.

Wii U gonna get some real play time this month.
 
L

Like the hat?

Banned
I keep going back and forth with this one. On the one hand, yeah, I'm sure the retail version will be cheap in six mons. On the other hand, I doubt the eshop version price will go down for a while, and I have every other game other than nintendo land digitally.

I'll probably just do it, having the digital one will be good for my kids when they get old enough to play it (any time now, probably)
 
N

Nibel

Member
Coolwhip said:
Damnit, excessive handholding. Something like that can really ruin a game. Why don't developers add a handholding-free mode?
Click to expand...

Because this game is aimed at kids - basically the most important aspect of the game and one that many hardcore gamers tend to forget
 
R

Rootbeer

Banned
frankie_baby said:
b...b....but, you'll miss out on your chase mccain figure
Click to expand...

nope! I already got mine. At target. They had these $1 pre-order packets with the minifigure inside. Bought one months ago. :D get to keep the figure even if you don't buy the game from them.

so for $1 you get the minifig and a place in the pre-order line. you pay nothing down other than the $1, but if you redeem the pre-order slip you also get a $5 gift card along with your purchase
 
F

frankie_baby

Member
Zulithe said:
nope! I already got mine. At target. They had these $1 pre-order packets with the minifigure inside. Bought one months ago. :D get to keep the figure even if you don't buy the game from them.
Click to expand...

oh ok then, thats a pretty ass backwards way of doing a preorder bonus lol
 
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