LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins clearly has high aspirations to deliver a similar experience to its Wii U predecessor, but the roadblocks of the 3DS's portable hardware ultimately prevent it from getting there. While it does hold the distinction of being 3DS’s first open-world adventure, countless concessions were made to get it here. What’s left is a story and characters that are charming, memorable and incredibly funny, but a game that is less than joyful to actually play. Despite plenty of compromises, there’s still a core essence to Chase Begins that retains appeal – particularly for younger gamers. This streamlined, 10-hour adventure follows rookie cop Chase McCain through a prequel to the Wii U story, where he fights gangs, engages in basic high-speed pursuits, tracks down collectibles, utilizes a variety of powers through different outfits, plus uses the tried-and-true smash-and-rebuild mechanic to navigate the world around him. All of this typically culminates in a boss fight for each region before moving on to a new area, new outfit and new gang.
Largely due to the stellar voice acting and ability to riff on a wide range of movies and television series, Travellers' Tales succeeds in creating its first original world and characters (previous LEGO games are all based around series like Star Wars and Batman). By and large, this formula works. Chase Begins paces itself well, never allowing any particular segment to outstay its welcome, and the addition of multiple bosses brings with it a sense of finality in each zone. Despite the fact that they are more of a cosmetic change than anything, the new outfits allow players to feel a small sense of accomplishment along the way. Each segment of the world effectively rinses and repeats what you’ve done before, but for a portable game (which almost demands brief, bite-sized play sessions) it works. Yet “sacrifice” seems to be the word that comes to mind again and again with Chase Begins. Everything in this 3DS version – from locations to characters to mission types – is ported over from the Wii U, albeit in a stripped-down, rearranged form.
A heavy dose of visibility-limiting fog and long loading times between zones make LEGO City harder and less fun to navigate, and take away much of the freedom and sense of discovery you get from most open-world games. And, unfortunately, that still doesn’t stop objects from popping into view or the framerate from swinging significantly even in modest settings. I just felt like I was wandering in some swampy, dismal harbor. More often than not, I just wanted to get out and move on to my next task. All of this is to emphasize one particular point: relative to the Wii U version, LEGO City Undercover loses much of its cleverness on the 3DS. Outside of a select few cutscenes, there's none of the voice acting which went a long, long way in allowing the Wii U version to effectively parody crime movies. In fact, this 3DS iteration seems to hope that you’ve played its predecessor, so that the witty characterization presented in that version will carry over here. There’s still some charm – a trace of what made the first Undercover such a success – but it’s so subdued that it just doesn’t work nearly as well.
It might seem unfair to directly measure the 3DS version of LEGO City Undercover against its Wii U counterpart. Yet by directly tying stories and gameplay, Traveller’s Tales has invited this comparison. Though not entirely unexpected, the 3DS simply can’t execute the same style of game on a technical level, which results in something that isn’t nearly as compelling or satisfying. Gameplay and characterization (and therefore humor) are compromised, leaving something that is just decent. However, even with those considerable sacrifices, there is a tolerable game here, one that will reasonably occupy your time for about 10 hours, and certainly could be a great stepping stone for younger gamers. Just be prepared for a lot of fog, a lot of loading, no voice acting and a jarring framerate.Mixed or average reviews Mixed or average reviews- based on 62 Ratings More Details and Credits » See all 44 Critic Reviews users found this helpful This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
See all 11 User Reviews LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins - Gameplay TrailerLEGO City Undercover for the Wii U, despite a heap of technical issues, brought a ton of charm to the platform. The fully voice acted experience was not without its camp and cheese factor, but ultimately it provided a fun open world experience for fans who were longing for a new Wii U game to play. Enter the portable version, titled The Chase Begins for the Nintendo 3DS. It tells the story of super-cop Chase McCain before he was, in fact, a super-cop. As a companion to the Wii U version, it had the opportunity to augment the console package, and possibly push the brand into new territory. Instead, it's a step down in nearly every way. You are logged out. LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins (3DS)Developer: TT FusionPublisher: NintendoReleased: April 21, 2013 (NA) / April 26, 2013 (EU)MSRP: $29.99 Set two years ahead of the Wii U experience, hero Chase McCain is still just a rookie cop, and is just getting started on the force.
You'll also notice a few other familiar faces, like Officer (not yet Chief) Dunby, and of course, Chase's arch-nemesis, Rex Fury. In this sense, it serves as a companion piece to the core game, and not simply a portable remake. The Chase Begins suffers from much slower initial pacing compared to its older Wii U brother, as the tutorial is roughly 30-60 minutes in length, and has Chase performing mundane tasks like rescuing animals or delivering donuts to demonstrate the game's controls. But it really doesn't need any sort of tutorial as gameplay is as simple as they come, considering all Chase can really do is run, jump, punch, and occasionally interact with the environment with his various costumes. Getting around is really easy too, as the 3DS substitutes the Wii U's GamePad map for the bottom screen, so the map is always readily available for easy objective identification. At first glance, everything seems normal. Missions now take place primarily in the city, and are less jarring of a transition than the Wii U version's structure, which constantly segments the narrative within tiny playgrounds.
Objectives themselves are extremely simple, and most of them provide a simple platforming frame to get from point A to B. Essentially, they're inoffensive at worst. But once you start getting into the thick of things, you'll start noticing the major compromises that were made to essentially push this round prequel peg through the square portable hole. The most notable sacrifice is the lack of full voice acting during the vast majority of the game. That's right -- outside of the occasional cutscene, there's no voice acting whatsoever -- instead, the dialog is presented in text form, which degrades the comical tone of the Wii U version in a major way. To add to the disappointment, the script is a lot less witty this time around, and looks extremely cheap when juxtaposed to the higher budget Wii U writing quality. During my playtime, I also noticed multiple disappearing NPCs and other graphical hiccups, alongside of a major disappointment: horrendous draw distance. To be blunt, your view of the otherwise beautiful LEGO City is pretty horrible, and full of grey clouds that block out pretty much anything that's not a few feet in front of you.
The 3D effect is fairly subtle, but The Chase Begins' colors are vibrant, despite the technical limitations within. The long load times from the Wii U version are also back, but with a vengeance! I'm talking load times that will trump even the earliest of PSOne Classics, sometimes dipping into the two minute mark. In addition to serving as an overall nuisance, it also makes going into buildings and loading new areas a chore -- and when load times impede exploration, you know it's really bad. Considering how other 3DS developers have done more visually with their titles, it's a bit odd to see a game like LEGO City suffer on the 3DS, especially given the aforementioned aesthetic sacrifices. If you're a diehard LEGO fan, odds are you'll get some form of enjoyment out of The Chase Begins. For everyone else, you're better off skipping it entirely, or picking up the superior Wii U version of the game. It's one thing to pare down an experience on a portable: it's another to sacrifice its integrity in the process.