Should you step into this wardrobe?
Is it The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe or should it be The Chronicles of Narnia: The Book, The Film, The Game? Does this translation to the interactive medium do the original story and the film justice? Or does it fall flat on its face just as so many movie-based games before it have? Fortunately, like the film, the game delivers an overall outstanding and exciting package that any fan of the book is sure to enjoy.
Features
Story
Keeping close to the story as told by the film, the game centers around the adventures of four siblings, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, who stumble across a magic wardrobe that transports them to the land of Narnia. Frozen in an eternal winter cast upon the land by the evil queen White Witch, the creatures and sentient animals of Narnia cling to the hope of a prophesy that will return order to the land. The prophesy foretells the arrival of two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve who will defeat evil and return Aslan the lion to his rightful place as king of Narnia. Again, the game follows the story closely but infuses it with significantly more action, which is a good thing of course. This is a game after all.
The story is engaging and will have players pushing forward through the game to get more glimpses of it, which are provided by way of high-quality FMV clips taken directly from the film and mixed as seamlessly as possible with in-game cutscenes. Anyone who has played any of EA’s games for the last two Lord of the Rings will be familiar with this technique and appreciate how well done it is in Chronicles of Narnia. These scenes are many and help push the story along, but they will also serve as huge spoilers for anyone who plans to see the film and has not read the book. It is recommended that you hold off on the game until after you see the film unless you don’t mind having it spoiled for you.
Gameplay
At its heart Narnia is an action-adventure hack-n-slash game, a genre given a much needed facelift and gameplay boost by EA with the Lord of the Rings games. While very similar in style to what EA had previously done, Traveller’s Tales was not content to just repeat the same formula for a new movie. Instead, they take what worked for the earlier mentioned games and gives the formula a level of refinement and polish it so needed.
In Narnia players will take control of any combination of the children, depending on the stage. Once in a stage players can switch between characters on the play by the push of a button. This system for swapping works well for the most part, but in some frantic battles players will find themselves having to repeatedly cycle between children because they pushed the button too quickly. Mapping each of the four children to the four directions on the D-Pad would have served this child swapping mechanic better, but the single button gets the job done in the end. From the get-go players will learn that each of the four children has its own strengths and abilities that will have to be utilized throughout the game. Peter is the strongest of the siblings and is best for hand-to-hand combat. Susan can shoot arrows, throw snowballs, and use a flashlight in some levels. Edmund’s strengths lie in his ability to climb trees and poles in addition to weaker hand-to-hand combat. Lucy, the youngest of the siblings, has the ability to crawl into small caves and being the youngest, is the weakest fighter. Character abilities do not end with their individual attacks, but instead includes the ability for any two siblings to partner up to perform a greater attack. For example, Susan can grab onto Lucy and swing her into obstacles to clear a path and Lucy can climb onto Peter’s shoulders for safety.
Like other recent games of its type, Narnia also sports an upgrade system in which players may purchase advanced moves for each of the children. In order to buy these advanced moves, which you will wish you had purchased as you progress through the game, players will need to collect coins which are scattered and hidden in objects throughout the levels. Each character has additional moves and abilities specific to that character. For example players may purchase a large number of additional melee combo attacks for Peter and healing abilities for Lucy. All of these additional moves and abilities will come in handy throughout the game and help add a layer of depth to the overall experience.
Fully equipped with their moves and abilities, the children will advance from stage to stage pushed along by the storytelling FMV’s. As mentioned earlier, Narnia is a hack-n-slash action adventure game at its heart, so players can expect to do a significant amount of vanquishing evil. While the majority of the gameplay revolves around slashing through waves of enemies, the developer has spiced up the mix by including many obstacles along the way that will require the player to utilize various abilities of each character, such as using Susan’s arrows to trigger a rockslide or Edmund’s climbing ability to knock down a bedpost.
There is a lot of enjoyment to be found in this game, and despite its rather basic design, it will keep both kids and adults entertained. As noted in the features section the game does support up to two players, allowing the player to plug in a second control and take control of any of the children not being used by the first player. This addition comes in handy when facing large waves of enemies and helps add more replay value to the game.
Graphics
The wrapping on this package of gameplay goodness is just well done as its contents. The world of Narnia and the various locals from the film have been faithfully recreated by the talented artists at Travelers Tales. Environments are varied, large, and detailed featuring many objects that can be interacted with to find hidden treasures and bonus items. The most impressive aspect of the graphics engine is how many characters and effects the game can throw out at you at any given time, without causing the framerate to take a hit. For example, one of the later levels will have the four children fighting against hoards of enemies while launching graphic-heavy attacks at them, on top of the hundreds of polygon created and fully animated enemies marching from way in the distance, towards the screen. It is truly an impressive feat to see and really helps to make this one great looking game.
Aside from the environments, the majority of the characters are also well designed and animated, including the four children. The scale of some of the enemies is also impressive to see, such as the giants as they tower over smaller enemies and the children. Outside of the in-game graphics, Narnia also sports an impressive front-end complete with a large model of the wardrobe whose various panels serve as the portals to each level. From the moment you turn the game on until you complete it, you will be hard pressed to not be pleased by Narnia’s graphics.
Sound
Not to be outdone by the graphics, Narnia also sports top-notch sound. The voice work is all around well done, featuring the voices of the films actors. Accompany the voice work is an equally strong score mostly taken from the film. You will find yourself enjoying the music, though some tunes will start to ware on you a bit. That is not to say they are bad, but more variety could have been used. Sound effects are also well done and strong. From the growls of vicious enemies to the sound of Peter’s sword clashing against shields, all of the sound effects are powerful and impressive. Narnia is truly a feast for the ears.
Closing
To answer the question proposed at the beginning of this review as to whether or not you should step through the wardrobe, the answer is yes. If you enjoyed the movie and want to relive its excitement, then play this game. If you are just a fan of action-adventure titles, then again, play this game and you will not be disappointed. From its strong production values to its highly polished and refined gameplay, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe has enough to offer gamers both young and old. It is rare when a game based on a movie turns out this well, so feel confident in your decision to purchase this game and enjoy it.
