LEGO City: Undercover

I have a soft spot for games that know exactly what they are and commit to the bit completely, and LEGO City Undercover commits hard. You play as Chase McCain, an undercover cop hunting escaped crime boss Rex Fury across a sprawling open-world city made entirely of LEGO bricks. The GTA comparison gets thrown around constantly and it fits: vehicle chases, foot pursuits, hijackable cars, and a big sandbox city to tear around in. But where GTA trades in moral ambiguity, this game trades in clown-robber heists and slapstick police-drama parody. The tone is cheerful and the writing is sharper than you'd expect, stuffed with pop-culture nods ranging from cop-show clichés to references that will fly comfortably over younger heads. The core loop is familiar LEGO fare: run, build, collect, repeat. What genuinely sets Undercover apart from the franchise's licensed entries is the disguise system. Chase progressively unlocks a collection of costumes, each tied to a specific skill set. The police officer investigates crime scenes, the robber cracks safes, the miner uses dynamite to clear obstacles, and so on. Rather than handing you a roster of characters at the start, the game doles out these abilities as story rewards, which gives the progression real momentum. Missions mix platforming, light combat, vehicle chases, and quick puzzle-solving in ways that keep things from feeling stale, at least for the first two thirds of the campaign. The back half leans harder on costume-swapping busywork and the pace noticeably slackens, but the opening hours are genuinely energetic. The PC port arrived in 2017 with one major addition the original Wii U version notably lacked: local split-screen co-op. That single feature transforms the experience for families or couch-gaming duos. Playing through with a second controller is a blast, though be aware the PC version really does need two gamepads to make co-op work properly since keyboard-and-mouse controls were clearly an afterthought. There are also some legacy port roughness to flag: the game is capped at 60fps, there have been reported resolution setting quirks, and occasional crashes appear in Steam reviews. None of it is catastrophic, but it is worth knowing the PC version has never been as polished as the console releases. As a collectathon, LEGO City Undercover is genuinely enormous. The story runs roughly 10 to 15 hours, but chasing 100% completion balloons that figure dramatically, with the open city constantly surfacing new secrets and side activities the further you explore it. The world holds up well just to drive around in without any particular objective. That said, completionists who find stud-farming tedious will hit a wall. The city districts share a lot of visual assets, and the sheer density of collectibles can tip from rewarding into grinding depending on your patience. If 100% completion is not your goal, the campaign-only experience is tight and consistently enjoyable. This is a game for people who want something genuinely low-stress, funny, and large enough to keep kids occupied across multiple sessions, or for anyone burned out on grimdark open-world games who wants to spend a weekend driving plastic cars into plastic walls. Adults playing solo will get a good run out of it; adults playing with a kid will probably get two runs.

Alex · Scout Team

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