With the recent surge of interest in literary properties, due in large part to the success of both the Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter books, it has become increasingly common to see various properties, both old and new, turned into movies--and in some cases video games.  Certainly where a book gets turned into a movie, particularly a children’s book, a video game adaptation is sure to follow.

When Clive Staples Lewis, C.S. Lewis to most readers, published The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe back in 1949, he could never have believed that well over fifty years later, his books would once again become very popular, sold by the millions, and introduce entirely new generations to the wonderful land of Narnia.  Unknown to many, was the fact that C.S. Lewis and J R.R. Tolkien were in fact not only contemporaries, but also friends. I think it very fitting that just as Tolkien’s novels returned to the mainstream culture of America, that Lewis’ works followed his old friend’s.

I am certain that many have heard conflicting reports regarding the content of C.S. Lewis’ work, particularly The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, by this I refer to the so called “Christian content” of the story.  Certainly in reading this story last week, I saw some parallels to the Bible, but it was done from a symbolic style, immersive, fast-paced, and filled with action and fantastical imagery, never coming off as “preachy”.  Ultimately it’s a story of fantasy and an entertaining one at that and I certainly recommend it to all gamers who have yet to read Lewis’ distinctive style. Now--notwithstanding Lewis’ story--whenever a movie spawns a licensed game, we don’t always see quality, much less fun.  In fact we are often bitterly disappointed by wasted opportunities.   Who can forget such Disney gems as Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Incredibles or even Treasure Planet?  All of these games had a few things in common, they were all licensed from Disney and they all stunk very badly.

Still, for all of these games, a few licensed properties were still good: The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, The Two Towers and Return of the King, three very addictive 3rd person action games which were fun across all platforms. The question is which type of movie game would this be?

Amidst the backdrop of World War II, you join the children Peter, Edmund, Wendy and Lucy as they are whisked away to a remote mansion for their own safety.  Amidst the numerous empty rooms, a large wooden wardrobe is found and through this wardrobe lies a magical gateway to a far-away land called Narnia. You join the children and rush to fulfill a prophecy and deliver the land from an evil queen--or watch as the land is doomed to an eternity of winter without Christmas.

Gameplay

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Which I will from here on out refer to as Narnia) marks the seventh game I have reviewed here at 2404.org that would be considered a multi-platform game.  These games are always judged on how well they compare to the console versions, particularly in the area of gameplay. Oftentimes, we see poorly converted titles which often contain fewer features than the console version and no graphical or sound improvements.

Using my trusty wireless Logitech Rumblepad 2, I was pleasantly surprised to play a game which felt identical to the console version I had played.  In fact, I couldn’t really discern any major differences aside from the cooperative play which I will discuss later.

In essence, Narnia is a 3rd person action game, the type best compared to the recent EA Two Towers and Return of the King games, or even compared to Activision’s Fantastic Four.  In fact, this game appears to borrow from all of the above mentioned games in terms of executing the gameplay.   For starters, in Narnia, you will need to utilize each of the four children, each of whom has specific skills and abilities as well as unlockable abilities.  Peter is the eldest and is certainly the best fighter of the group, utilizing swords and tree branches for melee attacks and combination strikes.  Edmund is also a melee fighter who has access to all of Peter’s abilities, but he just never seems to be a strong as Peter.  Wendy is the ranged fighter of the group, using a bow and arrows to attack enemies from afar, as well as using her horn in certain sequences to aid your party.

The combat of the Narnia is certainly one of the most prevalent and important parts to the game.  The boys both utilize the same melee attacks; a standard attack and a more powerful attack which drains an energy bar. In addition, there are a number of combination moves which can be bought and range from a spinning attack to a series of attacks which kill an enemy in one strike. There are also teamwork abilities which require assistance from one of the other children and some of these abilities are actually required to advance in the game and range from powerful combat moves, to destructive throws that remove obstacles from your path.  Although you will likely do most of your fighting with Peter, I did find that Lucy’s ability to jump on and control an enemy was often the fastest way to clear out your opponents.

Narnia is definitely a game which requires you to pay attention to your surroundings.  From the various destructible barrels or statues, to the icons which appear indicating you need to use a certain character, this is a game which relies on fast timing and some decent reflexes. In one sense, this game can feel a bit of a throwback, requiring multiple replays as you die again and again on many of the levels.  The learning curve gets steep rather quickly and some of the levels will require ridiculously good timing in order to advance.  In fact, the difficulty swings back and forth so often that it almost feels like two separate games.  There is really only one standard difficulty setting and while I was able to make it through every level, it was not always a sure thing and required a lot of patience on my part.

Still, the combat mixed with the problem-solving made for an enjoyable experience.  With the controller, the game was very responsive and I never felt like I was fighting the controls or the camera for supremacy.

Graphics

Typically with these types of multi-platform games, you find that the PC version gets the least amount of attention in terms of optimizing the game for the hardware it contains,  having said that, Narnia was a good looking game on my PC.

Via the options I was able to select a 1280 resolution with anti aliasing which created a very tight, high resolution picture for me to play on.  The graphical effects in-game were also very bright and rather well done.  Small details such as tracks in the snow from dragging objects were also a very nice touch.  Narnia also featured some very beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds, the kind you would expect to see in a PC adventure game. 

The character and enemy models in the game were decent, however the monster models were rather repetitive and you couldn’t really tell the difference between one monster and another.   Perhaps my biggest complaint with the cut scenes is a common one involving games which make use of movie footage and that is that the footage simply looks washed out and certainly doesn’t look polished.  Still, it’s clear enough from viewing so much of the movie that the movie itself is rather beautiful and certainly the game does a great job of recreating the environments you see acted out in the cut scenes.

Narnia is one of those fortunate movie games which also makes use of both the likenesses and the actual voices of the characters from the movie. For those who wait to see the movie before playing the game, this will help lend continuity to your experience.  For those like myself who read the book before you see the movie, it’s still nice to know that the voices match up the scenes from the movie.

Despite being a video game and using mostly dialogue from the movie itself, the voice acting used in Narnia is still fairly top notch.  Certainly there appears to be real acting going on, versus the rather dry read back a-la Jessica Alba from Fantastic Four.  Certainly the Harry Potter games would have been better had they used the actor’s voices for all of the games.

Narnia does feature a very beautiful soundtrack and score (likely the one used in the movie, but don’t quote me on it).  The music truly captures both the majesty of your surroundings, as well as the urgency and danger that certain levels set out to induce in the player.  The sound effects are all fairly standard, but certainly appropriate and not distracting from the overall experience.  All in all, the sound helps make this game a more cinematic experience and tends to go very well with the visuals.

Multiplayer

While Narnia does allow for cooperative play on one PC, this has always been something which is often less then fun for PC gamers.  Given the difficult nature of many of the levels, having a second player with you would certainly go a long way towards making this game easier for the player.  Still, the lack of an online cooperative component hurts the multiplayer potential for this game.

Replay Value

When I first beat Narnia, I was told by the computer that I had only completed about 60% of the game.  I soon found that there were various levels that I had unlocked--outside of the main campaign--which I had yet to complete.  In addition, each level contains various coins, hidden shields and statues which need to be freed and collected in order to fully complete each level.  Even now, I cannot seem to get much past 84% complete and doubt if I have the ability to unlock everything. 

In addition to bonus levels, you are also able to unlock special storyboards, voice acting videos and other videos which all lend themselves to immersing you further in the wonders of Narnia and the forthcoming movie.   While none of these extras levels or video clips shows you anything new in Narnia, the perfectionist gamer will likely spend weeks plowing through the levels on their quest for 100%.  The game logs in at around 10-12 hours and will vary greatly upon your individual skill levels for this type of hack and slash/problem solving game.

Conclusion

While this game falls a bit short of the high mark that Escape from Butcher Bay set, it certainly more than tops the offerings from the Harry Potter universe.  The Chronicles of Narnia is a much cherished story and series of books.  It is more than a pleasant surprise to find the video game translation not only fairly faithful to the story but also fun on its own merits.  From watching the cut-scenes, I can tell that a certain amount of artistic liberty was used in making this film; still it appears that Disney has a new major franchise on its hands, although whether Narnia has the staying power of Harry Potter remains to be seen.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is one of the best stories in the Chronicles of Narnia and the ability to control the characters and take part in their adventures is certainly a lot of fun.  Most of the action takes place around the main parts of the movie, i.e. getting attacked when traveling to the various movie locations.  Still, the complex boss battles--which require not only timing, but speed--are actually quite a bit of fun and when you complete the game you are likely to sigh in relief that you managed to finally finish the game.  Traveler’s Tales has done a great job in crafting a solid game, especially given that it’s a licensed game.

This game, assuming you have a solid gamepad is recommended to all fans of the Narnia setting, as well as fans of action/adventure games.

Key High Points

- Faithful translation of C.S. Lewis’ work

- Solid Combat interface

- Good use of graphics and textures

Key Low Points

- An erratic difficulty level which spikes from easy to impossible without warning

- The Companion A.I. in the single player mode is next to no help in battle

- Game is a bit on the short side at 10-12 hours