Missions are shorter and broken down into bite-sized chunks, but still consist of car chases, gang fights and exploration, which sees Chase make use of various disguises.Though shorter than LEGO City Undercover, it still clocks in at around 12 hours, and is incredibly well paced and very much suited to the handheld format.Missions typically involve a combination of driving, platforming and fighting gangs, while diverse and entertaining boss fights are frequently used to bring a chapter to its conclusion.The mission structure is a little formulaic, but with so much variety, the game never becomes stale. The combat remains incredibly basic, however, which means that players looking for a challenge are better off searching elsewhere.Instead, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins is much more geared towards entertainment and simply enjoying the environment, looking for secret bricks, disguises and keys to unlock brand new areas.Much like its Wii U counterpart, there's a hell of a lot to discover within the city itself, although exploration is hampered by long loading times between sections, something which makes driving around the city for no particular reason much less enjoyable.
Similarly, hardware limitations also have an adverse effect on the game's visuals, with heavily reduced draw distances and the occasional dip in the frame rate causing difficulties when driving the game's plentiful supply of vehicles.For the most part, however, the graphics are on par with the Wii U version, which is impressive considering the differences in power between the two devices. The game is cute and colourful, and features a generous supply of famous landmarks, which, when viewed in specific locations, unlocks postcards.Surprisingly, the camera also performs satisfactorily, something which is very difficult to achieve on a system with only one analogue stick.Players have the option to move the camera with the right button, but it's largely robust and flexible enough to follow the action by itself, barring a few high-speed chase sequences.We were also impressed with the way the developers have utilised the system's additional functions.The gyroscopic sensors, for example, are used to wiretap buildings and listen in on conversations, while the touchscreen can be used to enter safe combinations.
We remain disappointed with the lack of online functionality, because the game would certainly benefit from the same co-operative play present in most other LEGO releases. It's a surprising omission considering the number of additional characters and disguises.Despite its flaws, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins is a charming release, packed with diverse missions, mostly impressive visuals and a great cast of characters.It's not as laugh-out-loud funny as its predecessor, and hardware limitations do have an adverse effect on the experience, which means that while LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins is a great game for youngsters, it doesn't have the same widespread appeal. 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.