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By Keith B (25th Jul 2008)

I’m as shocked as the next man, believe me, but after struggling to enjoy the opening level of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on the PS3 I abandoned it to the play-when-I’ve-nothing-else-to-review basket. Lo and behold but the PR machine must have foreseen this because the very next Monday it arrived on the 360 through the office letterbox. And so I’ve played it on both, didn’t dig it on the PS3 (not the PS3’s fault) and then whacked it in the 360 when I went back to it.

Let me unravel the basic story – you play, depending on the particular level, as a group of chatacters from the Narnia movies, being either the group of kids themselves or as some of the magical creatures like the minotaur or centaur. You run through six specific locations, each with a variety of smaller quests to complete. Your adventure starts in the courtyard of a besieged castle, and by leading a motley crew of characters (a minotaur, a dwarf, a centaur and a human-like something else) must repel the invaders and turn the tide of battle.
Each character also has a unique ability which must be employed to allow progress, such as the dwarf’s ability to roll through little holes in the wall. The minotaur is strong (really?) and others can fire arrows. In the opening sequence you must fire a ballista offshore to sink ships, ride the back of a giant and walk the battlefield smashing war machines to pieces, and defeat generals in combat. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, let’s put it like this: it could have been much worse, but while it’s not perfect, it deserves to be given a proper look. Traveller’s Tales, the company who created it, have just released LEGO Indiana Jones so they’re able to make good material.

The first problems appear right from the outset – selecting between your group of characters for one in particular can be a trying process, because while it only takes a quick tap of the Y button to pull it off, you have to run around until the icon is above the head you want to control, because there’s no way to point it. I relaise that’s hardly the end of the world, but when you’re in combat against an enemy and changing character is essential to continue, and you only have a window of a few seconds to make the switch and complete the action, the frustration becomes more pronounced.

Combat, too, could have been improved. Each character has three moves they can do depending on their class. Where the plosh vanishes is in actually swinging your sword, because the enemies are so scripted. Firstly, you have to hit a soldier two or three times to kill him, and after each hit he staggers back a step. From the moment he’s hit to once he’s completed his scripted stagger, he can’t be hit again. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t moved and have been swinging the sword repeatedly in his face, when he kicks in he can hit you, stun you, and hit you again.

Thankfully though many of the characters are archers, so you can happily ping them from afar with your unlimited arrows.

It’s not all gloomy though because The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian also features a lot of puzzles, and many of them are pretty enjoyable to figure out. From using fire to making a model of the solar system or such, the grey matter manages to get a slight workout which, in a movie tie-in, is something indeed.
Most of the other gameplay elements that drag the experience down you will be familiar with, so there’s no need to pick holes in them all. To be thorough though, here’s a shortlist: poor navigation and objective following; respawning enemies, right before your eyes; redundant key systems (you use keys to open chests, but the keys respawn every time you enter a room, so you could just run in and out of the one room and over time, amass hundreds of keys); dodgy physics occasionally and in planning (Peter the kid and a minotaur are the same strength, because they’re both the ‘strong’ one in their respective party. Hard to believe, but apparently so).

But lets get back on track, because if this was some unknown game on an unknown subject, then this could possibly have been let go. But this is Narnia, and you’re not going to forget it from once the game start. Borrowing heavily from a Lord of the Rings game I played years ago, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is laden with clips from the movie, which means you should probably watch the movie before you play this. I haven’t seen the movie, and I skipped lots of scenes towards the end to get through it quick, but the way they’re put together, and giving some of them more screen time than you would expect, it really manages to capture the whole feel of the subject matter.

And this is the balance bar on which Narnia sits. It’s certainly not for hardcore gamers because it poses no lasting challenge, but it is for kids, and it is for people who enjoyed the movies. In fact, it’s such a good supporting tool for the movie that I would have no hesitation in recommending this for a younger audience and those with a healthy appetite for all things Narnia. The game maintains its quick pace, is visually impressive and features a long and developed storyline.

We’ve been lucky, two movie games that haven’t caused sudden deaths among the reviewing staff posted on the same day. Surely this couldn’t be a trend?