50
The Chase Begins makes an effort of being like the Lego City game for the Wii U. Sadly it is quite obvious that the 3DS can’t realise the LEGO universe as well. The city is in itself nice but empty and desolate. Discovering secrets is still as fun as always but the lack of personality and humour halts the Lego games otherwise great sense of immersion.
70
There's plenty to do in LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, but a lot of it feels like padding for a somewhat disappointing story that will really only appeal to kids.
65
While technically impressive that so much can be done on the 3DS, Chase Begins covers familiar territory far too soon, the missing touches from the Wii U glaringly obvious.
7
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
8
esta bueno pero hay veces en los que no encuentras los coleccionables y la verdad es que eso me desespera mucho
6
Ah lego city undercover, whether you played the original on wii u or the remasters you cannot deny that that games was a masterpiece. The charm that that game exuded was immeasurable and they used the console to it's fullest. On the 3ds though, it barely works. I played through the game and found myself unable to fo back for months all because of long loading times, that on the original 3ds, are over a minute long and there are major pop in, slowdown and fog effects that greatly affect immersion. Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins is an open world game (I know, on the 3ds, impressive) where you take on the role of rookie police officer Chase McCain where you detain all the trouble making crooks terrorizing Lego City including the big boss Rex Fury, all the while figuring out how to best get Natalia Kowalski, Chase's love interest. However the most egregious thing that the chase begins doesn't do well is the traditional lego charm, there are less than 10 fully voice-acted cutscenes and and that takes away from the jokes that aren't voice acted, along with no new major reoccurring characters leads to a recipe for a worse game than the original. I've ripped on this game long enough, time to sing it's praises, the graphics in this game can be INCREDIBLE at times, specifically the building scenes, those look almost HD. The 3d effect is used pretty well in most cases (apart from when you have something too close to the foreground) and the animated cutscenes are no joke either. I mentioned the long loading times earlier but the main story is structured in a way that they never get in the way during story missions. Each area has its own criminal gang wreaking havoc on an area of lego city and its up to you to stop them. The game also does a great job at sprucing up the side missions. You know those binoculars you would drive into or smash in the home console version, that's now a mission to take a postcard. While I miss the car chase quests the loading times would make me hate them. Some streets and iconic buildings have more to them now like the car garage and the red brick road from the console one, those now have missions and cars driving through them. The worst problem is the fact that once you beat the game, there is no way to replay levels, you have to restart the game which is just kinda bad design. Also there are builds that don't give you anything other than a completion percentage that doesn't give you anything at 100% either. This game is an odd one with the freedom it gives you along with the restraints, the costume ones and the car graphics are understandable but the absurd loading times and fog really throw me off. Couple that with a lackluster final boss that feels like all the others and an ending that i did not feel like was over until the credits rolled and all you have me with is disappointed. All in all it is an interesting and impressive for the system. If you love Lego games than you should definitely give it a try, if not than stay FAR AWAY.
LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins
3DS
Released On:
Apr 21, 2013
Metascore
Mixed or Average
62
User score
Mixed or Average
6.9
My Score
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All Platforms
Metascore
Mixed or Average
14% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
82% Mixed
36 Reviews
36 Reviews
5% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Apr 29, 2013
80
Not without its faults, The Chase Begins is a worthy addition to the Nintendo 3DS roster.
Jun 10, 2013
70
There's plenty to do in LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, but a lot of it feels like padding for a somewhat disappointing story that will really only appeal to kids.
User score
Mixed or Average
54% Positive
54 Ratings
54 Ratings
28% Mixed
28 Ratings
28 Ratings
18% Negative
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
Apr 21, 2013
10
Wow this game is so awesome. It is portable lego on the go. I really recommend you to buy this game. GOTY 2013 for me. I've already played it for like 12 hours and wow and I'm not even close to bored
Aug 20, 2021
9
Don’t listen to these bad reviews, I played the first game and wanted to play the prequel. The game is different from the original but still has a great open world, great graphics, and somehow runs at around 30fps still, I would definitely recommend this game if you liked the original game. The devs did a good job on this game :)
Apr 22, 2013
70
An interesting game by itself, but loses some points when compared with its Wii U version. This version fits in Nintendo 3DS and can offer you some fun hours of LEGO platforming, fighting and collecting extras.
May 1, 2013
65
LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins is an overly ambitious game that isn't as good as the home console edition.
Apr 21, 2013
60
The Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins experience is like asking for a complex Lego set for your birthday and finding a box of Duplo under the wrapping paper instead. It’s technically similar, but the differences are critically important.
May 20, 2013
50
It's the epitome of an average game and one of the most disappointing 3DS releases of recent times. [Issue#135, p.121]
Apr 24, 2013
30
The Wii U game was just a few flaws short of a minor classic, but this joyless companion piece is only a couple more problems shy of a complete disaster.
May 3, 2013
9
Okay so the draw distance isn't that great and most dialogue is in text, but the game is fun. I have the wii u version and while that game is indeed better I ask this, what do you expect? This game has a lot of charm and fun to be had if you can get over its minor shortcomings. Plus it was released at a cheaper price than most other 3ds games when first released, although I don't know why because IMO it would have been a worthy purchase even at full price.
Sep 16, 2022
7
it is a good lego game for 3ds, but it has really bad graphics, small fps and you can't see far. it has strange car gameplay. but company is tipical lego game
Apr 28, 2013
4
Once again the 3DS gets yet another mediocre Lego game. Granted no one expects it to be the same as the Wii U version but the 3DS can do better than this shallow game. This game has a lot of fog much like the N64 games but its over 15 years late and such technical issues should have been dealt with.
Jan 11, 2015
3
I'm honestly not sure why I was expecting much when it came to The Chase Begins. Maybe it was because LEGO City Undercover on the Wii U was fantastic or something? I have no idea. There's many problems with the game. First problem: the open world. I would rather the game not even try to recreate the vast city in the Wii U version because this one just...fails. The loading times are much longer here than they were in Undercover and the fog is pretty distracting. Because of the 3DS' capabilities, almost everything is either "under construction" or blocked off. Second problem: the story. There are so many things in the Wii U version that are completely trashed here. Rex Fury using a lawn mower as his escape vehicle? He jumps onto a moving car here. Rex Fury getting arrested on a bridge? He gets arrested in front of a bank. Chase not knowing how to use a Color Gun? He knows how to here (keep in mind this is a prequel). There's just so much wrong with the story. Third problem: dialogue. LEGO City Undercover had talking, why can't this one? The 3DS can handle it, just look at Kid Icarus: Uprising! It's a shame dialogue boxes had to even be put in here. Fourth problem: emotion. This is a problem every single handheld LEGO game has. You can never get emotionally involved. Apparently, the characters aren't getting emotionally involved either as their mouths never move outside of the cutscenes and they just use the same voice clips over and over. Fifth problem: fun factor. LEGO City Undercover on the Wii U was a fun game. It was one of the most fun games I've played in years. Chase Begins take it all out, buries it in a hole somewhere, and makes it boring. Driving around the city is no longer fun. It is a series of loading times and fog in the distance. Sixth problem: music. All of the music is ripped from the console version and placed into this one. Also, there is no music unless you're fighting or driving. Overall, LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins is only a game for gamers that are in denial that the Wii U version is better. Can we get the console LEGO team at TT Games working on handheld games, please?
