My exposure to the world of Narnia is quite limited. Outside of seeing the movie's trailer a few times on TV and in the theater I
don't know much about C.S. Lewis' popular book series. I looked forward to seeing what I was
missing, after all this is a beloved series of books that a lot of people seem
excited about, perhaps it's about
time I journeyed into the world of Narnia and saw what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately, like so many movie games that
came before it, Narnia is probably best experienced in another venue than the
Xbox.
Despite the game's epic tone, the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe tells a
pretty standard story set in a fantasy world governed by good (a lion) and evil
(a witch). However, before even getting
a glimpse of the world of Narnia the game features you helping four kids escape
sure-death from bomb dropping war planes, avoiding adults in a London home, and
generally exploring traditional (and very non-fantasy) hallways for coins and
special items. Before too long the
children discover a mysterious wardrobe that, much to their surprise, sends
them into the snowy world of Narnia.
Much of this game is spent on your adventure going through
the snow covered forest, generally making you battle (and avoid) ogres, wolves,
minotaurs, and other traditional fantasy enemies. You'll meet up with some friendly talking
animals who eventually reveal that there's a prophecy that four children will
help good overcome evil. Could these
kids be those young warriors the faithful are talking about? Of course they are, if they weren't what
would the point of the game be?
Since the story centers on the four kids you will have a
chance to switch between them at just about any time. Each child has a different skill that is used
throughout the game to solve puzzles, outsmart enemies, and so on so
forth. For example, Peter, the oldest
boy, is strong and wields everything from a stick to a sword (perfect for
killing whatever gets in his way). Lucy,
the youngest girl, is a terrible fighter, but excels when it comes to healing
the rest of the party and fitting into small areas the other characters are
unable to reach. The oldest girl, Susan,
is strong at throwing and using a bow and arrow. And then there's Edmund, who acts like his
older brother and can also climb up poles and other objects to avoid trouble.
The puzzles put each child's skills to work making even the
youngest and most vulnerable character useful.
As you progress through the game you'll find that the children's skills
improve, allowing you to perform bigger moves and solve more elaborate
puzzles. Susan, for instance, starts by
throwing tennis balls and snowballs. She
eventually upgrades to a magic set of arrows and is even able to put enemies to
sleep by playing her flute. Each character
has this kind of evolution, ultimately giving you enough strength and moves to
defeat even the most evil enemies.
Outside of the puzzles, the game itself is really nothing
more than your standard hack-n-slash adventure game, the type where you're
basically doing the same moves over and over from one level to the next. Each character has an attack button and a
special ability button, so there aren't all that many moves to burn through in
the game. Actually, I found myself
spending 90% of the time just mashing the X button to get rid of any attacker,
even the larger characters. Scattered
through the levels are a number of coins that you can turn around and use to
buy special moves and abilities. This is
all well and good but most of these moves are performed using the same button
combination and are fairly unspectacular … if not downright useless most of the
time.
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