Chronicles of Narnia – First look
Traveller’s Tales are based in sunny Cheshire, the only county I’ve been to where I became seriously worried of drowning whilst standing up. However, once kitted out in dry clothes, I was treated to a tour of their studios and a nice long ‘hands on’ session with their latest game, The Chronicles of Narnia.
Settling down with the game’s Producer, Paul Flanagan, and Associate Producer, Andy Burrows, they talked me through some of the key aspects of the game.
The game follows the action in the and plot of the film very closely, which in turn follows the story of the CS Lewis’ first Narnia book, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Throughout the game you will be able to control at least two separate characters, switching between them as needed to take advantage of each character’s abilities.
The four main characters you play are the children about whom the whole series of books revolves. It’s interesting to note that the books span several years in Narnia and the children eventually grow up into young adults, returning to their original ages when they finally leave Narnia and return to the real world. So though the game only covers the first book, as does the film, there’s plenty of scope for sequels should either be a success.
Each character, Lucy, Peter, Edmond and Susan have different abilities, drawn from the roles they play in the story. Lucy, for example, can fit into small spaces and give you access to hidden areas or out of reach items. Edmond is strong and the best fighter, Peter is good at climbing and Susan can use ranged attacks. Traveller’s Tales have monopolised these abilities to provide us with something more than the standard film tie-in fare, using each characters abilities to create puzzles making the best use of those abilities.
In addition to this, each character can interact with the others to give different results. One amusing pairing is Lucy and Edmond, where their combined attack sees Edmond whirling Lucy around while she kicks the hell out of anything nearby. The TT team were worried that they might get people moaning about how shocking it is to see children being flung around so it might not make it into the final game… but it’s a right laugh and should at least be left in as a special unlock, perhaps?
As players progress through the game they’ll be able to collect coins to then upgrade their abilities. This part of the game hasn’t been fully fleshed out yet, but you can expect to see armour for Edmund and a bow for Susan as well as abilities for the others as the game progresses. Here, as with the rest of the game, upgrades will remain faithful to the story, something which TT are very keen on doing.
One area that has seen a lot of work was in expanding the film environment to create an enjoyable game to play. Obviously there are key moments in any film that could be converted into a game but TT have been working hard on expanding other areas to give a more fulfilling playing experience as well as embellishing what players will see in the movie.
A good example of this is the house seen at the beginning of the film which players have to escape from. This is in essence a training level, teaching players how to use each character and what their abilities are. Though in the film the house sequence lasts only a short time, TT have made sure that the layout is a similar as possible to the film set, and where there is no footage of a particular room, TT have created something in keeping with the feel and look of the rest of the house and film.
This becomes more evident in the mansion the children are sent to when they’re evacuated. Whilst the Professor’s house is a large and rambling affair in the film, you see little of it other than a few rooms. TT have expanded this into a large, sprawling level, all geared to coax players into using each character rather than just settling on a personal favourite. A little artistic license has been taken with some characters for the sake of gameplay. In the Professor’s house, Mrs Macready is the enemy… make too much noise and she comes looking for you. And this is where TT have really gone to town with a wide range of context sensitive options for the players to take advantage of which also add a puzzle element to many sections of the game.
If you’re being hunted by Mrs Macready, your only option is to hide before she finds you. A countdown timer appears so you know how long you’ve got to do whatever it is you’re up to and then find somewhere to hide, sharpish. The puzzle element comes into play in figuring out where to hide and which child to hide where. This is made easier by some helpful on-screen icons, but given the age group this is aimed at, a little help here and there is fine.
Speaking of age groups, TT have designed Chronicles Of Narnia to be playable either as a solo game or with another player. Working your way through some sections certainly becomes a lot easier when there’s two of you to do the work, but the game is still playable if you’re on your tod. One feature TT have built into the game is a ‘drop in, drop out’ system whereby you can add yourself in a second player, do a bit and then scarper again leaving the original player to their devices. The idea here is to let children play the game and then, if need be, give Mum or Dad a shout to help them past a tricky bit. Knowing my skills with the joypad, it’ll more likely be the other way around, but at least I’ll get some help somewhere.
Being a console game, TT have created a very respectable looking game which looks great on the PS2, GC and X-Box. All the characters are nicely detailed and move fluently whether they’re running, climbing, crawling or fighting. The environments are likewise nicely detailed with plenty of variety between levels. Bearing in mind the game I was playing was pre-alpha, what’s on show already was looking very good indeed. Later on in the game, as with the story, there are some huge battles and skipping through the levels to see these I was greeted with lots of green and brown blocks from a level in the very early design stages. I’ve been assured that the finished level will have hundreds of characters running around with a basic independent AI for each character giving a realistic backdrop for the game.
All in all, Chronicles Of Narnia is shaping up very nicely and TT look to have worked the magic of there Lego Star Wars game on CS Lewis’ classic story. Of course, playing a pre-alpha gives only a rough idea of how the finished game is going to be, but from what I’ve seen so far, Chronicles is going to be one I’ll get the kids to keep them quiet.
