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It
has got to be annoying at the very least, you get back from MFI with
your new cupboard unit, spend three days trying to put the damn
thing together, only to find that the sodding thing has a gateway to
another world in the back. Bloody M.D.F. OK, perhaps that is not
exactly the plot of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch
and the Wardrobe, the newest blockbuster film from Disney, but,
goddammit, it would make a great movie!
Being
yet another film tie-in, expectations here at Electronic Articles
are not exactly high, but it is always nice to be pleasantly
surprised. The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
for the PlayStation2 has launched as a home console 2005 exclusive
releases, thanks to a deal between SONY and
Buena Vista
games. The title closely follows the plot of the aforementioned film
and allows you to control the four children from the motion-picture;
Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, as they attempt to free the magical
land of Narnia from the icy grip of the White Witch. Cue talking
animals, mythological creatures and the very definition of an Ice
Queen. So how does it play?
Most
of the Levels give the player between two and four of the children
to control. The boys, Peter and Edmund, work as the close-combat
characters utilising a variety of swords and sticks, Susan attacks
with a variety of projectiles and Lucy acts as the group healer.
Each child also has a selection of different skills which are used
to solve the games puzzles and all children can “team-up” with
one other child for  access to another set of skills. For instance;
Susan has a variety of projectile attacks available on her own but
“teaming-up” with Edmund, her little brother, allows her to
swing him round while he violently kicks any enemies nearby.
Probably not something the NSPCC recommends for unruly children.
Throughout the game there are dozens of opportunities for the player
to use the four children’s unique skills in order to solve the
games many puzzles and generally the puzzles seem well thought-out
and logical. However, unfortunately the AI of the children not being
controlled by the player is ropey to say the least; one minute they
will be doing almost all the work for you but the next they are
aimlessly walking around in circles leaving you to fight off the
entirety of the enemy forces single-handedly. However there is a way
of getting round this, plug another controller in and a friend can
take control of one of the children - a nice touch, and one that
would definitely make the game a lot less frustrating.
Throughout
the game you will find Coins. These Coins can be used to buy extra
abilities as they become available for the four children. These
include extra damage, extra health,  increased effectiveness of
skills and special combo attacks. This system seems a little tacked
on at the start as you can easily buy all of the skills with the
Coins, however, later in the game it becomes apparent that unless
you go searching through every random piece of scenery, you will not
find every one and as such will only be able to buy a couple of the
later skills on your first trek through. This method not only allows
a little specialisation in this fairly basic RPG, it also adds a few
hours to it as all Levels can be replayed after you have finished
the story.
There
are also to other collectables available. The first are Red Shields,
hidden in each Level, finding them allows a higher-percentage of
game completion which in turn unlocks Bonus Content; such as a film
of the characters recording their voices for the game and Bonus
Levels. Unfortunately the Bonus Levels are simply previous Levels
with differing objectives - usually survival for a  certain amount of
time. The other collectables are the statues of Narnia’s creatures
which need to be hit to be activated and, although it seems the
creatures are for little more than unlockables, they are in fact
also used to buy re-enforcements in the penultimate Level.
Graphically
this game it quite pretty. The characters are rendered to a good
standard for the PlayStation2 and are animated well. The backgrounds
are really what steal the show though. They translate the world of
Narnia very well, especially in the later levels when there are
literally hundreds of creatures in the background - an effect that
seems woefully underused on this generation. The game also features
a lot of footage from the film which is seamlessly faded into in
game graphics in a similar way that was featured in the Lord of
the Rings games. Needless to say, if you do not want to spoil
the viewing of the film, you should not play this game till
afterwards. The sound and voice acting is also top notch, although
that was to be expected as most of it is borrowed from the widely
appreciated movie.
All-in-all,
The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
performs well for a movie tie-in, but what  about as a stand alone
game? Well although it does most of its features pretty well it just
is not particularly groundbreaking or original. It features a
limited combat system that works reasonably well, but not as well as
Spartan: Total Warrior or God of War. The different
skill system of the different team members has also been used
countless times and in all honesty does not feel like an RPG. It
also has a crazy difficulty curve; which is more of a series of
spikes than a curve as some Levels seem to jump radically up in
difficultly, before coming down for the next. Perhaps this is due to
it trying to be a faithful recreation of the movie but regardless
does disrupt the flow of the game somewhat. If you are a fan of the
movie or are looking for a game for children this Christmas, you
will not feel guilty if you buy this beacon-of-hope in the endless
sea of shoddy film tie-in filth.
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