The Golden Compass

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Game Information

Developed by Shiny Entertainment
Published by Sega
Platform : PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, DS and Microsoft Windows
Genre : Action & Adventure and Family
Age Rating : 12+
Players : 1
Additional Contents Provided : None
Release Date - All Platforms : (EU) 30 November 2007, (NA) 4 December 2007, (AUS) 13 December 2007

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Synopsis

Young Lyra Belacqua, seeking to uncover the mysteries behind a string of child kidnappings, finds herself plunged into a conflict which shakes the very foundations of her world. With the help of her shape-shifting animal daemon Pan, and armored polar bear companion Iorek, her adventures take her from the rooftops of Oxford to the frozen wastes of the North.

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Gameplay

The video game doesn't live up to the film that was released in all cinemas worldwide. The gameplay requires you to be intelligent to complete certain quests in the campaign and some players may not have this intelligence. The campaign is quite long as well as it runs along exactly the way the film does. Some of the missions have a high fail rate where you will keep failing a certain level even though you think you are doing it correctly, the bosses in the game are somewhat strong and take quite a while to defeat them. There are also unlockables in the game that you can find and when you find a certain amount you will unlock some featurettes. Once unlocked you can find out certain secrets that wouldn't be available in the campaign to aid you in your quest however these unlockables don't need to be found to complete the campaign. An issue I had in the game is that when I was playing the campaign I got stuck on a mission and I did not know what to do as the instructions weren't clear enough. I was running around for a good 20mins talking to people and trying to find out what to do next. I then had to go on YouTube and go to a walkthrough video to find out what to do next. This was annoying and wasted quite a bit of time just to find out one sequence. This does happen several times in the game so some missions you may not be able to pass unless you look at some walkthrough or have played the campaign a while back. The campaign has no real excitement factor and certain things in the game aren't crystal clear to follow. I bought this game as soon as it came out and thought it would live up to the big blockbuster film but I was terribly wrong. In game, you can play as Lyra the main character, you can play as her pet Pan and you can play as Iorek the polar bear who is the main character in the film and game. It's good that they gave the player a variety of characters to play with instead of playing with one character which gets boring . Both Iorek and Pan use environmental aspects to aid them to complete their missions which are fun to use. Swinging from poles and knocking down barriers are always fun. Gameplay is responsive but is quite difficult if you miss out on your objective.

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Graphics

Graphics in this game seem quite underdeveloped, way too cartoony and effects in the game don't blend that well. I looked up in the sky and noticed that it was snowing when the sun was blazing in the middle of the sky. The sun looked really fake and the snow was a brownish/white colour when I looked closely at it. Some detail on Iorek's armor was undeveloped as well as most parts of the armor were blurry. On Lyra her clothing was perfectly fine and seemed really detailed when I inspected it. The environments that I played in looked so realistic as I was on the rooftops of Oxford the river below looked real and the rooftops seemed as if a lot of work went into it. Later on when I was in the Asylum everything was well detailed from the food to the walls. They did a great job on the environment around the character but not on the character itself which is a pity.

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Controls

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Overall this game is quite decent but it doesn't leave you coming back for more. It's a play once, never again kind of game. If you loved the film then you may be disappointed in the game because it doesn't live up to it's expectations. I only wish that they could have put more work into the game and maybe it could have been better and more exciting to play.

Game Rating: 5/10 (Gameplay is somewhat mediocre, graphics are decent in areas and you play as different character perspectives is good)