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Warning! This page contains details about the game's plot. For those who have not completed the game, this page may contain spoilers regarding the plot. Discretion is advised. |
18 March 2013PAL: 28 March 2013
Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC (Steam), Playstation 4:
April 4, 2017PAL: April 7, 2017
LEGO City Undercover is a video game for Wii U, Nintendo Switch, and Steam, as well as the XBOX ONE/Series and Playstation 4. It is a sandbox-style action adventure game that follows the adventures of undercover cop Chase McCain as he attempts to capture the criminal Rex Fury and put an end to a new crime wave in LEGO City.
Background[]
This game was first mentioned in The Brick 2009, where it was said, "LEGO City Stories will have a more loose central story that will encourage the player to explore a wider variety of side stories and challenges". The game was then advertised at the back of LEGO set instructions from 2011 City sets.
Plot[]
After the events in LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, Chase is sent away for two years to Brick County after revealing Natalia, his girlfriend, was the one who testified against Rex Fury. The game begins on his way back to LEGO City and arrives by ship in Auburn Docks. He learns from Mayor Gleeson that Rex Fury has broken out of prison. Gleeson tasks McCain to find Rex and bring him to justice (again).
After arriving at the police station located in Cherry Tree Hills to restart his work as a police officer. He meets Frank Honey outside the station, who is in awe in the presence of a "Legend" being Chase McCain, and Ellie Phillips, the officer who works the Requisitions Desk in the basement of the department. Chase also learns that Marion Dunby has been made police chief recently. Dunby doesn't want anything to do with the Rex Fury Case, so he sends McCain on various other tasks including catching literal "Bank Robbing Clowns" after they robbed the Cherry Tree Bank, and clearing up a roadblock that was established for an unknown reason across Auburn Bay Bridge. After he dealt with the road block, he proceeded to chase after Natalia (who sped by after the road was cleared), and tries to talk to her. Their conservation doesn't last long, and ends with Natalia taking Chase's car to say goodbye to her father and to leave Lego City.
Chase proceeds North to Fort Meadows to build a "Vehicle Call-In Point" to summon a vehicle to get him around. However, Ellie calls Chase again to report Robbers Holding up on top of the LEGO City TV Building. McCain is directed to Ellie's Uncle (And standing sheriff) Duke Huckleberry in Bluebell National Park, and receives a grapple gun needed for the arrest of the Robbers.
After returning to Cherry Tree Hills, McCain chases the Criminals across the rooftops. While arresting the final criminal, he learns that the criminals were working for Rex Fury and tells McCain to seek out Blue Whittaker in Albatross prison to find out how Rex escaped. McCain proceeds to infiltrate Albatross Prison to look for Blue. At the prison, Blue tells McCain to check out Rex's cell, but first points him in the direction of his own cell for the gear needed to get to his cell. McCain works his way to Rex's cell, gaining the "Robber" Disguise in the Process, which allows him to Crack Safes and use a Crowbar. McCain figures out that Rex used a pickaxe and hammer obtained from the Bluebell Mines to dig his way out of the cell and the prison.
McCain learns from Ellie Phillips that some of Rex's thugs stole equipment from the mines a few months back and, despite Dunby's warning to stay away from the mines, infiltrates the Bluebell mines to speak with a witness. When he gets there, McCain finds that Rex's flunkies are still there. Fighting his way through mines to find the witness, Named Clarence "Stinky" Fletcher, he finds out that he has been kidnapped. However, the effort is not in vein, as he gains the "Miner" Disguise, allowing him to use Dynamite and break LEGO Rocks and Boulders.
Exiting the caves, McCain incidentally runs into Rex. Attempting to arrest Rex proves fruitless as Rex is much stronger than McCain and in a single punch, McCain is knocked out. When he wakes up, Sheriff Huckleberry and Natalia are at his side to aide him. Duke suggests to McCain to learn Kung Fu to stand up to Rex. During this scene, Natalia informs McCain is informed that her father has gone missing. When Chase offers to help, Natalia denies it. Because of McCain's blunder two years ago in which he reveals her name on national television, she does not want McCain's help in finding her father. Undaunted, McCain travels to the dojo of Barry Smith to learn advanced fighting techniques.
Once trained by Smith, McCain learns that Frank Honey was abducted trying to deliver a new truck to the department (As a favor for Ellie), and was being held in the back of the truck in Fort Meadows. After Fighting off red-clothed goons and regaining control of the truck, he learns from Frank that a criminal enterprise run by Chan Chuang wanted the truck. After losing Chan's men, Frank asks Chase if he can drive the truck to the police station to impress Ellie. Frank, however, loses control of the truck and crashes it into a party at the station where Gleeson and Chief Dunby are in attendance. Frank incidentally lets it slip to her that Dunby has taken McCain off the Rex Fury investigation. Attempting to cover his tracks, Dunby allows McCain to go undercover in Chan's gang (whom McCain suspects is working for Rex).
Later, Ellie adds an audio scanning ability to Chase's police communicator and gives him the Undercover Cop outfit for his duties. Chase uses the audio scanner in Pagoda to listen in on a phone call, which was one of Chan's men asking where a man named Bucky Butler is because he's late for his interview with Chan's father, Old Quiang. Deciding to take Butler's place, McCain tracks him down and arrests him for stealing a painting from an art gallery. Now posing as Bucky Butler, McCain meets Quiang who hires him as a limo driver to drive eccentric multi-billionaire, Forrest Blackwell to a theater in Bright Lights Plaza while out-running the paparazzi from Kings Court, where Blackwell Tower is located. This impresses Quiang enough for Chase to meet Chan Himself. In an alleyway, Chase meets Chan who hires him to steal a car from a rival.
After stealing the car to get in Chan's good graces, he is told to go to Quiang's Officer because someone had broken in. While spying on the thief who was dressed as a ninja, McCain sees empty money bags from Vinnie Pappalardo's ice cream shop. After chasing down the thief through the rooftops and onto a garbage barge, McCain finds out that the thief is none other than Natalia. She was looking in Quiang's office for evidence of where her dad disappeared to. Still rejecting Chase's offers to help, Natalia leaves Chase alone, depressed at not being able to help.
After letting it slip that McCain had observed the empty money bags from Pappalardo's, Chan reveals that Vinnie's right-hand man, Moe De Luca, is being sentenced to imprisonment (for 412 unpaid parking tickets) in Kings Court, and that Vinnie would be happy with anyone who could help keep Moe out of prison. Borrowing a prison transport truck from the police station, McCain picks up Moe from the courthouse and drives him to a hideout in Uptown after evading police. Thankful for the help, Moe mentions that a shipment of Color Guns have come into LEGO City and that Vinnie wants to get his hands on the shipment, so sends Chase on a mission to steal the truck and deliver it to Vinnie. Vinnie is happy with the shipment and gives McCain a color gun to help on a mission to steal a large emerald from the LEGO City Bank. The color gun is added to Chase's "Robber" Disguise, allowing him to use its color swapping abilities during missions and challenges.
When Dunby finds out all the things that McCain has been doing while undercover, he is initially angered but is soon swayed by the fact that McCain is not investigating Rex Fury and is instead, infiltrating the Chan Chuang/Vinnie Pappalardo criminal network in an attempt to bring it down. Dunby sends Chase to get photographic evidence of Chan's key gang members in the process of committing crimes in Pagoda. After doing so, these gang members are arrested, leaving Chan with only one person left that he trusts to help him: Chase McCain. He sends McCain to Apollo Island to steal a moon buggy from the Rocket Shuttle in testing phases, where he receives the "Astronaut" Disguise, allowing him to use Astro Crates and Teleport Pads, as well as fire a Ray Gun. Chase successfully evades the Apollo Island Security Team and returns to the Main island.
After stealing the moon buggy, McCain is called on again by Dunby to help save Forrest Blackwell from abductors in Downtown. Scaling the rooftops, McCain saves Blackwell from the abductors and drives Blackwell to the police station in Cherry Tree Hills. He then receives a call from Natalia who is captured in Chan's salvage yard. Infiltrating the salvage yard with the help of Studski and Clutch, he saves Natalia but Chan gets away. This angers Dunby who transfers McCain to Bluebell National Park's police station temporarily as a punishment for his failure. McCain is joined there by Frank Honey (Who is there after failing to fix Dunby's sink).
The first task there is to rescue Jethro Hayes's escaped "Mountain pigs". In order to attract the pigs, Jethro gives McCain the "Farmer" disguise, giving McCain the ability to Shoot Eggs, use the Chicken Glide ability, use the watering pot for flowers and other seed pots, and to of course; ride pigs. After rescuing the pigs around the farm (and on top of the Castle in Fort Meadows), he receives a call from Vinnie telling him to steal a Robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. Guessing that Rex Fury wants the T. Rex skeleton, he agrees and steals the skeleton for Vinnie.
During the process of evading Uptown and LEGO City Airport Police, Dunby calls Chase and decide to let Chase back on the Fury case after Chase told him about the T-Rex. Once that task is completed, Vinnie says that his "private buyer" (for whom he's having Chase steal all of these items) wants a fire boat from the fire station in Festival Square. Chase proceeds to infiltrate the fire station, and successfully steals the fireboat, gaining the "Fireman" Disguise in the process, giving McCain the ability to put out LEGO Fires, Break through boarded doors, and rescues stuck cats.
He then receives a call from Natalia accusing him of having police officers watch over her. As Chase did not set that up, he is confused and Natalia reveals that it isn't police officers watching her but men in black clothing who break into the hospital in Festival Square. Chase works his way through the hospital to save Natalia, arresting multiple baddies along the way. Calling in a helicopter that is built from saved super bricks, McCain flies Natalia to Ellie's apartment in Bright Lights Plaza, which acts as a safe house for her temporarily. Before they departed, Natalia then apologizes to Chase for being a pain to him and that she knew that he didn't mean to reveal her identity, Chase accepts her apology.
Moe calls Chase because he's worried about Vinnie meeting with the "private buyer", and informs him that their meeting is happening in a hotel in Paradise Sands. Scaling the rooftops and Using his Audio Scanner, he overhears the meeting between Vinnie and the "private buyer" who turns out to be Rex Fury. Vinnie is angered that Rex keeps asking for more and more things to be stolen and not getting paid for it. Undaunted, Rex tells Vinnie to steal more things. Furious at this, Vinnie calls McCain to do a job of their own. Taking the fireboat (Along with Moe) into the tunnel leading Blackwell's mansion, Moe tells Chase that a while back Blackwell had wanted to build an apartment complex and shopping mall in Bluebell National Park and, after spending millions on building a new bridge and other things, was stopped because a rare squirrel was found in the park. Scandalized, Blackwell had began to wall himself off from society. (Previously mentioned in LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins)
McCain infiltrates the mansion and attempts to steal a jade falcon for Vinnie, but is stopped by men in black clothing whose names include "Sentinel 1" and "Sentinel 2" (an allusion to the "Matrix" movies), Blackwell's private security force. After they both escape the Sentinels, Moe calls Chase to let him know that he hasn't heard from Vinnie in a while and he's worried. After breaking into Pappalardo's ice cream shop, he finds that Rex's thugs have locked Vinnie in a walk-in freezer and had blast frozen Vinnie. After rescuing Vinnie from the freezer, Vinnie sends McCain to find out why this happened. In the back factory room, McCain and Vinnie catch the person responsible. After getting him to reveal the next part of the plan by torturing him with ice cream, being to steal a crane from the construction yard in Paradise Sands.
McCain travels to the construction yard in place of the thug responsible for freezing Vinnie. During this, he gains the final disguise in the game; the "Construction Worker" disguise, allowing him to use a Pneumatic Drill on moving LEGO tiles, take Coffee Breaks, and fix fuse boxes. After stealing the crane, Chase finds himself going to an observatory not far from the site to steal a large telescope. The crane is used to place the telescope on the back of a truck and uses said truck to drive the telescope to a hidden base in Bluebell National Park. There, he finds Natalia's father, Henrik Kowalski, being interrogated and forced by Forrest Blackwell and Rex Fury to a password of a device of his. He also discovered that Blackwell kidnaps Natalia to get the password out of Henrik. During the infiltration, Chase obtains a Jetpack for his "Astronaut" Disguise, allowing him to jump higher and move farther in the air.
After saving Henrik from the hideout using a UFO that Henrik had designed, they travel to Blackwell's Mansion where they find a model of a moon colony Blackwell planned. They also discover that the office tower that Blackwell owns in Kings Court is actually a rocket ship in disguise. Its impending liftoff will destroy half of LEGO City, and the citizens at its feet. Chase speeds to Auburn to meet Frank Honey, who both drive Lab Trucks to Blackwell Tower, that contain force fields to stop the fiery inferno the tower will cause. Using the special forcefields that Henrik developed, Chase is able to protect LEGO City from the effects of the liftoff of the Blackwell Tower rocket ship. However, it is revealed that Natalia is with Blackwell in the rocket ship, so Chase travels to the Moon to save her, with the help of Henrik and Mayor Gleeson who is grateful for McCain's protection of LEGO City during the liftoff.
On the Moon, McCain infiltrates Blackwell's moon base and reprograms the navigation computer to send the rocket back to Earth. Blackwell then sends Rex to finish Chase off, but that fails to do so. Blackwell then promptly fires Rex, and causes the moon base to self destruct, only for Chase and Rex to survive the blast. On a piece of the wreckage, Rex Fury and Chase fight until Chase is able to arrest Rex. Although, Rex easily escapes the cuffs, they are interrupted by Blackwell in an escape pod. He shouts to Chase that he'll have his revenge on Chase before hilariously getting hit by a flying cow, which causes the escape pod to fly off into space.
McCain falls to Earth to get to the main deck of the separated part of the rocket and save Natalia by activating parachutes. The deck lands safely on earth in Crescent Park's Coffee Shop. The city then celebrates Chase's victory. Chase is initially dismayed that both Rex and Blackwell got away, but Dunby revealed that Rex crashed into a toilet and was put into custody (with the toilet still on his head). Dunby offers Chase to have the honor to arrest Rex. But Chase says that Dunby can have it because there are some things more important than his arrests, as he and Natalia are romantically holding hands, indicating that they're back together. Frank thought that Chase was talking about "video games" and everyone laughs. A Sentinel from earlier appears on a bridge nearby them, still attempting to catch up with Chase, is caught as the picture rises out and he falls off-screen with a "Sentinel out!"
Protagonists[]
- Chase McCain: A police officer and the main protagonist of the game.
- Ellie Phillips: A police officer who communicates with Chase via her police communicator.
- Frank Honey: A low ranking officer with little intelligence. He is a fan of Chase and has a crush on Ellie.
- Marion Dunby: A strict police chief who dislikes Chase. He also has a love for donuts.
- Natalia Kowalski: Chase's love interest who works in the medical field. She was forced to go under witness protection after Chase accidentally revealed her identity when she testified against Rex Fury.
- Mayor Gleeson: The mayor of LEGO City. She believes Chase can arrest Rex Fury as he did in the past.
- Henrik Kowalski: Natalia's father and a scientist. He is captured by Rex Fury.
Antagonists[]
- Rex Fury: A criminal who is first assumed as the game's main antagonist. He was suspected to be responsible for LEGO City's crime wave.
- Chan Chuang: A crime boss who owns a chop shop.
- Vinnie Pappalardo: A crime boss who owns an ice cream parlor.
- Forrest Blackwell: A villain genius billionaire.
Reception[]
- Metacritic score of 80 for the Wii U, reviews were largely positive, praising the humor and design, but generally criticizing lengthy loading times and a lack of co-operative multiplayer, which was a staple in previous Lego titles.
- Official Nintendo Magazine awarded the game 90%, making it the magazine's third highest rated Wii U game.
- IGN gave the game 8/10, praising its huge open world whilst criticizing its generic gameplay.
- Eurogamer gave the game a score of 9/10, saying the game features "a mixture of great writing, twinkling level design and laudable values that keep you coming back".
- GamesRadar gave the game 4 out of 5 stars, praising the inventive use of occupations and rewarding puzzles but criticizing the lack of co-operative multiplayer.
- GameTrailers gave the game a score of 8.4, calling it "the best game in the series so far."
- Nintendo Insider awarded the game a score of 85%, writing that it "signals a bold new direction for TT Fusion’s creativity."
- Metacritic scores of 78 on the Nintendo Switch, 77 on the Xbox One and Playstation 4, and 80 on PC (Steam).
Gallery[]
Notes[]
Development name
- In the stages of development this game was going to be called "LEGO City Stories". It was possibly renamed to avoid being paired with Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.
- There are many references to games, TV shows, and movies in LEGO City Undercover, such as The Shawshank Redemption, CSI: Miami, Super Mario in the Wii U and Switch versions, and many other games, TV shows, and movies.
- A Star from the Mario games can be seen as a balloon at a star-shaped balloon fair.
- Chase McCain uses a green warp pipe from the Mario games at one point (Nintendo platforms Only).
- In the fight scene with Barry, when Chase McCain is hit with an uppercut, red letters that say K.O. appear and a classic Legend of Zelda fanfare is heard.
- Many famous cops and detectives like Sherlock Holmes and Watson were seen in the Police Station's Briefing Room.
- To unlock the Fisherman, you need to fish at Crescent Park Wharf, when you fish up the fish it is a Cheep-Cheep from the Mario games. (Nintendo Platforms Only)
- To unlock Chan Chuang, you need to build a Bob-omb from the Mario games and throw it at a cage at the Pagoda. (Nintendo platforms Only)
- Horace Cone may be a parody of Horatio Caine from CSI: Miami.
- In Kings Court, there are cannons that fire LEGO Bullet Bills from the Mario series. (Nintendo platforms only)
- Above an Ivy-covered tunnel, a LEGO Wiggler from the Mario series is wandering back and forth. (Nintendo platforms only)
- There are five buildable Super Stars from the Mario series, which unlock the Pop Star. (Nintendo platforms only)
- There are five question mark blocks from the Mario series, which when all are hit, they unlock the Super Wrestler. (Nintendo Platforms only)
- There is a Red Brick that once activated, gives the player Mario's Hat. (Wii U only)
- There is another Warp Pipe behind the dojo that can be watered, and reveals the Piranha Plant from the Mario series. The fire from the Piranha Plant can be used to burn a large spider web blocking the character token, Trouslerless Barry. (Nintendo platforms only)
- In the Museum level, a giant dry bones from Mario can be built. (Nintendo platforms only)
- Some characters jump the same way Mario does. (Nintendo Platforms Only)
- On one of the towers on the castle has a flagpole from the Mario series. (Nintendo platforms only)
- This game is one of the few LEGO video games to be published by Nintendo and not to include a multiplayer function (besides split-screen function on PlayStation and XBOX platforms).
- People that worked on the game like Luke Cashmore and Ross Wilding have minifigures you can unlock.
- The poster with Chase McCain and Rex Fury may be referring to the special assignment when Chase goes to the mine and is ambushed by Rex's goons and dynamite.
- Before this game released, some of the minifigures from the game are made in physical forms such as Officer Park, Ranger Barber and Rod Stanchion.
- It is unknown what has happened to many characters, such as Vinnie Pappalardo, Clarence Fletcher and Chan Chuang.
- Some of the districts in this game were named after the real-life places and historical landmarks in the United States, such as Bright Lights Plaza, Crescent Park, and Lady Liberty Island.
- LEGO City Undercover is the second LEGO game to have the song Walking on Sunshine. The first LEGO game was LEGO Rock Band.
- Coincidentally, both games were developed by TT Fusion.
- A little after the game begins, when Bluffbeard maneuvers the ship away from the bridge, the infamous Wilhelm Scream can be heard, when a worker falls off the ship.