In a move that surprised no one, Disney has released a game based upon the recently released movie: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Many gamers had high hopes for this game since they choose Traveller’s Tales to develop the game. This is the same development team that made the fantastic LEGO Star Wars games. Unfortunately, the developers didn’t maintain the high standards for Prince Caspian that are present in their other games.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is based off the second book by C.S. Lewis. It takes place 1,300 years after the Pevensie children left the land, and since that time the malicious Telmarines have taken over. Players will take control of numerous characters from the movie and the book to defeat the evil King Miraz and put the correct ruler on the throne: Caspian.

Time to rock and roll

While the story is straightforward, the narrative is really confusing and will be frustrating to players. All throughout the game players will get various animated cut scenes that progress the story, but it will be extremely confusing to the players, especially if they haven’t seen the movie. This is really evident in the first few missions because players are thrown into combat, shown a few discombobulated cut scenes and they are suppose to “know” what to do and where to go from there. While players will manage to figure out what to do, many times they are not sure why they have to do it or even why they are in control of certain characters. It is a shame that this is the case as the story is supposed to draw the players into the game, instead this game makes it more distant for them.

This is an action/adventure game that will have players going through a variety of different landscapes in order to place the rightful ruler on the throne. One of the biggest problems with this game is the lack of variety in gameplay. Here is the basic breakout of each mission. Players get dropped into a level to fight mindless drones. They can switch between a couple of different characters in real time and also partner up with “special characters.” Soon they will stumble upon puzzles involving buttons, weights, and levers to solve before moving on. Pretty soon players will accomplish their main objective such as clearing out all enemies or destroy certain items on the field. They are then whisked away to start this whole process over again on a new level.

As players will soon notice, this game is chalked full of mindless repetition. This might be fine for the younger gaming audience, since this game is marketed toward them, but adding in some new features or even having the ability to upgrade player’s moves and equipment would have made a huge difference. Another puzzling thing the developers did is making a button-mashing mini-game each time players interact with an object such as opening a treasure chest or pulling a lever. This gets annoying and is really unnecessary.

Bombs away

The controls for this game are very easy to get the hang of. First of all players will move around the world with the left thumb stick. Pressing the back button will allow players to view the map. To aim at enemies press the LB or RB button. To defend against enemy attacks players need to press the left or right trigger. The Y button allows players to switch between characters, and sometimes they can team up with other characters. The X button is for light attacks. The B button picks up items or throws them. The A button is for special or heavy attacks.

One of the better things about The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is that it allows for co-op play at anytime. All players have to do is pick up a controller and press the start button and help the main player defeat any enemy that they will encounter. To get out of the game press the Y button and select the drop out option. Players will enjoy having this ability in the game as playing with friends is always better than playing with the computer any day of the week.

To be perfectly blunt, gamers will think they are playing a first or second generation PlayStation 2 game instead of an Xbox 360 game. Unlike all other games on the market this one doesn’t include an option to change the gamma tweaking, and this is unfortunate as this game is really “dark” and hard to distinguish certain things. The character models are decent, but the animations seem to be jerky. The environments look nice but it is hard to make out all of the detail on them due to how dark the game is. The sound for this game doesn’t bode much better. While the soundtrack is nice and full of emotion to drive players, the sound effects are not up to par. They are very generic and boring to listen to.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is rated Teen.

Gameplay: 6.1
The main problem is the lack of depth. The only good thing is the large-scale battles with little slowdown. The camera also insists on showing the most useless positions.

Graphics: 5.1
The graphics are very bland and could used a major facelift. Almost looks like a first generation PlayStation 2 game.

Sound: 6.1
The soundtrack is decent, but the sound effects need a major overhaul.

Difficulty: Easy
This game is definitely made with younger audiences in mind as it will be a cake walk for older/veteran gamers.

Concept: 5.3
This game doesn’t bring anything new to the table. It has a very “been there done that” feeling to it.

Multiplayer: 7.0
Having the ability to jump in with a friend at anytime is always a great addition to any game.

Overall: 5.8
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a decent game that doesn’t go above and beyond anything. The developers were content in getting the game shipped to coincide with the movie release but didn’t try to expand upon anything. Fans of C.S. Lewis will enjoy the interactivity that this game provides, but it is really mediocre at best.