GTA 5 has three playable characters. Good one. Lego City Undercover has over 300. Look, my tongue is firmly inside my cheek right here; I don’t truly imagine that Rockstar’s much-heralded efforts had been surpassed by this as soon as Wii U unique Lego recreation that got here out simply months earlier than Michael, Franklin, and Trevor’s story. However whereas Undercover is on no account a masterpiece, there are some areas the place it genuinely reveals ambition past Rockstar’s. Please keep on with me. I haven’t gone mad.
Sure, we’re all clinging on by way of this multifaceted apocalyptic current to make it to GTA 6, and also you’ll little question have a number of suggestions about what to play as a substitute over the months previous its launch. Purple Useless 2 is my favorite recreation ever, however that’s an apparent one. The Saints Row video games are enjoyable, however we’ve already obtained a new Scary Film coming this 12 months if you wish to revisit that puerile place in time. Sleeping Canines will perpetually be the hipster choose because of its trendy Hong Kong motion, however have you ever performed it just lately? It’s advantageous. That’s why I come right here bearing the reward of Lego City Undercover — a good, if not fairly nice, tackle the open-world metropolis style, however one which was forgotten all too rapidly.
GTA 4’s 4 Leaf Clover, you aren’t going to get right here, with Rockstar’s trademark sprawling, cinematic missions not a part of Undercover’s providing. Missions as an alternative are restricted in scope, with chases brief and barely benefiting from the scope of the bigger metropolis map, as an alternative happening in small puzzle-filled pocketed environments exterior of the free-roam space. The identical limits will be seen in fight, which nearly completely consists of hammering down the assault button and placing plastic fist to face. In that regard, although, it is similar to a Rockstar recreation; Let’s face it, you’re not taking part in GTA for its rudimentary cover-based gunplay, however for these high-stakes set-piece occasions that you just not often discover elsewhere.
Whether or not it’s Grand Theft Auto or Purple Useless, the very first gunfight or automobile chase will in the end really feel virtually similar to its first, albeit with barely extra unique weaponry. What you’ll uncover in Lego City, although, is bigger systemic development in relation to problem-solving than that present in any Rockstar recreation. Talents unlocked all through the story mode can then be taken benefit of when exploring the open world, offering the important thing to unlock its many secrets and techniques. This strategy provides you a real motive to change up which minifig you’re taking part in as, since every harbours its personal distinctive ability.
GTA 5 might have had three protagonists, however exterior of every having their very own story missions, there was little motive to change between them. Certain, they every had particular skills, akin to Franklin slowing down time whereas driving, however these expertise weren’t successfully built-in into the gameplay. Lego City Undercover, in the meantime, makes nice use of characterful, distinctive skills that are instantly tied to issues and aims. There are some genuinely nifty detective-like quirks, akin to scanning warmth signatures in a surrounding space when looking for suspects. Could the bank-robbing clown be the orange silhouette sporting an outsized curly wig hiding in a shed? Most likely. In that sense, its crime-stopping borrows as a lot from L.A. Noire because it does GTA, simply with out the usually unintentionally hilarious interrogation sequences the place you’ll be able to falsely accuse overseas diplomats of main offences involving minors. That wouldn’t fairly match the happy-go-lucky Lego mould, I guess.
Undercover, identical to each different entry in TT Video games’ library, is made for the entire household to take pleasure in, and so takes that rock-solid Rockstar open world base and tweaks it with all ages of participant in thoughts. There’s a attraction to each interplay, akin to a movie noir-ish, jazzy double bass being plucked when you sweep an space for footprints utilizing a UV gentle. Close by chattering NPCs, in the meantime, present a PG model of what you might hear on a Los Santos avenue nook. In nice Lego trend, every merchandise you collide with alongside the town’s roads is packed stuffed with studs, identical to the backstage space of a Magic Mike present.
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With a whole bunch of golden bricks, disguises, and automobiles to unlock throughout its map, the amassing in Lego City Undercover seemingly by no means ends. It’s one thing GTA has by no means fairly cracked. Sure, a few of Rockstar’s video games have had their checklist of collectibles, akin to Liberty City’s horde of misplaced pigeons, however they all the time really feel like stumbled-upon surprises, moderately than rewards hidden behind puzzles within the fashion that the Batman Arkham video games kicked off with their Riddler trophies. Maybe this makes the town really feel a little too synthetic for Rockstar’s tastes, however Lego City’s embracing of all issues plastic means its metropolis is stacked stuffed with issues for its 300 minifigs to search out.
I’ve all the time had a mushy spot for the Lego Video games. Certainly, Undercover’s precursor, the Lego Island collection, shaped a lot of my earliest gaming recollections, as pizza boy Pepper Roni tussled with The Brickster in very restricted open worlds. Lego City Undercover feels just like the pure evolution of these turn-of-the-century adventures; a grown-up model of that concept — not essentially tone-wise, however definitely mechanically. It was additionally a possibility for developer TT Video games to inform a story and construct a world exterior of established licenses, like Star Wars, Marvel, or Harry Potter, and whereas I’m not going to fake Undercover is a crime opus akin to GTA’s best, its strong unique story does assist make it a genuinely respectable GTA clone for all ages. Even its titular metropolis is a mishmash of American cities akin to New York and San Francisco — one thing Rockstar has been doing for many years with Grand Theft Auto.
Past the truth that that is a Lego recreation we’re speaking about, there are the reason why Undercover isn’t sometimes mentioned alongside extra enduring open-world crime video games. Lego City Undercover got here out within the Spring previous to GTA 5’s launch, and it reveals. 13 years on, it is maybe straightforward to overlook simply how far ahead Rockstar’s masterpiece pushed the open-world style. As a substitute, it might be far fairer to check this plastic metropolis to earlier Grand Theft Autos such because the PS2’s Vice City and San Andreas, and 2008’s GTA 4. In reality, it commits most of the similar crimes as these now considerably dated cities do. Maybe probably the most egregious is the truth that the entire of its map isn’t open from the get-go, gated off till sure occasions in its story happen in an effort to stop you from seeing all of its many places immediately. It’s considerably irritating, particularly, I can think about, for those who’ve obtained a youthful little one who simply desires to drive round all of it with out worrying about story. Fortunately, this strategy is one thing open-world video games have virtually completely put behind them within the years since.
One thing extra optimistic Undercover takes from the 2000s “3D universe” period of GTA video games is their larger-than-life tone, which, whereas remaining considerably intact throughout 4 and 5, was a lot much less nuanced again within the day, ensuing of their caricature-led tales. Its crime story crucially places you on the opposite aspect of the legislation, however is equally cartoonish, taking part in out like a Lord and Miller tackle The Departed as carried out by the forged of Anchorman. It goes huge on laughs whereas probably not making an attempt to tug some other emotion out of you, which is not any dangerous factor in any respect. Whereas Rockstar opts for sophisticated homage, TT Video games go for whole-hearted plastic parody: much less satire, extra spoof. That distinction in comedic values maybe most emphasises the distinction within the video games, with GTA the memorable cinematic expertise you’d sit down to look at with popcorn, and Undercover feeling extra just like the snackable popcorn itself: candy and enjoyable, however with no actual dietary profit exterior of the second.
Undercover first got here out simply six months previous to Marvel Tremendous Heroes, which I’d argue approaches its open-world even higher, however in any other case doesn’t relate to GTA wherever close to as a lot, so we’ll park it to at least one aspect right here. It was a actual golden age for Lego Video games, although, and one the place it actually felt like TT Video games had cracked the formulation as to learn how to pack open worlds with collectibles and alternative, whereas additionally making getting round them a pleasure in itself, whether or not or not it’s by way of police-issued grapple hooks or superheroic flight. It’s one thing I’m hoping the approaching Lego Batman: Legacy of the Darkish Knight can recapture in its Gotham setting. Would I be so courageous and daring as to counsel that it might eclipse GTA 6 this 12 months? No, the one manner that would realistically occur is that if the latter doesn’t truly hit its November date.
Do I truthfully assume Lego City Undercover is best than any fashionable GTA recreation? No — there’s a pure, plain, blockbuster sense of cinema to Rockstar’s creations that’s laborious to withstand, particularly in the best way they inform their tales. Would I truly want to play it in 2026 over Vice City? Possibly. It’s definitely extra bold in relation to mission design. So, might GTA 6 be taught from Lego City Undercover’s strategy to packing every playable character with distinctive expertise that unlock totally different features of its world, bettering the standard of its collectibles, or possibly even introducing co-op? I’d be stunned, however that doesn’t imply I wouldn’t prefer to see it. Think about if Lucia had been an explosives professional, however Jason specialises in safecracking, and relying on who you choose to play as on a sure mission, it dictates the occasions of every.
Greater than something, I simply need to let you realize about this recreation that didn’t get fairly the quantity of adore it deserved when it first arrived 13 years in the past. When you want any extra convincing, you’ll be able to try our totally deserved 8/10 assessment it obtained at launch. It’s now in your radar in case it handed you by. Embrace the brick. Thank me later.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Observe him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.