Chronicles of Narnia – First Look
A short while ago I was invited, along with the rest of the gaming press, up to Manchester to have a look at The Chronicles of Narnia, a game by Traveller’s Tales being coded to tie in with the upcoming Disney release.
The film will closely follow the storyline of the books, kicking off with the Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and is being directed by Andrew Adamson of Shrek and Shrek 2 fame. Produced by Mark Johnson, (Rainman, Good Morning Vietnam) and with visual effects by WETA (The Lord of The Rings Trilogy), Chronicles promises to be a darker, more realistic portrayal of the Narnia envisioned by CS Lewis, author of the series.
In previous incarnations, Narnia has always been portrayed in a child-friendly, bunnies and flowers type of setting but if you actually read the books, this is not quite the case. As Adam Rubins, from Buena Vista Interactive was keen to point out, CS Lewis may not have been as descriptive in his writings as most other children’s authors, but his work certainly has a darker edge to it. Having watched a brief preview of the movie which is so secret we were forbidden from taking snaps or filming it, I have to say that if Disney were aiming for a more sinister film along the lines of the last Harry Potter film, then they’ve got the style of the film spot on.
But what does all this have to do with gaming? Well, Traveller’s Tales, the bods behind the inspired Lego Star Wars, are working on a game of the same name, hopefully being released shortly before the film. And, besides ogling at the movie preview, that was what I was up there to see.
Traveller’s Tales are lucky in that all through the development of the game they’ve had access to set notes, photos of the sets and characters and even direct input from Andrew Adamson as to the look and feel of the game. This has allowed them to create a very close film tie in that lets players experience and recognise key areas from the film. In some places TT have had to use a fair bit of artistic license as some locations that are suitable for a game only have a brief showing in the film, but everything they’ve created still follows the newly created universe’s theme and style as well as either following the film’s storyline closely or expanding on areas within it.
For example, the start of the film, set during the Second World War, sees the children narrowly escaping from their house as it crumbles around them during an air raid. TT have taken this short sequence and created a lavishly detailed level which acts as the training mission for the game, all the while keeping within the theme of the film and helping you discover what your characters can do.
One of the quirks of Chronicles of Narnia is it’s multiplayer aspect where you can, at times, have up to four characters to choose from at any given point. Given that the film’s director also brought us Shrek 1 and 2 and the Shrek 2 game had multiple playable characters, it’s inevitable that comparisons between Chronicles and Shrek 2 will be drawn.
However, TT have gone about things a little differently, with far more interaction between characters and lots of emphasis placed on using each character’s special abilities to progress through the game. As you work your way through the game, you will also work your way through the story, and as I said earlier, this is closely tied in with the film. Many areas of the game are expansions of the films sets and plotlines, though this has led to some minor problems. So far, straight conversions where you play through a film storyline have always been a disaster, because although films are fun to watch, they rarely make a fun game to play. If they did, our hard drives would be full of ‘Operation Wolf’ style on-the-rail shooters for every Arnie film ever released. So taking the plotline and expanding on it is always a risky business, especially when the film you’re basing your ideas on is unfinished itself.
At first look, Traveller’s Tales appear to have pulled it off with considerable aplomb. They’ve taken a rich universe which, from what I’ve seen of the film, has been faithfully reproduced for the big screen and in turn converted that into a game worthy of the film license. Looking more closely, TT have also superbly avoided the generic platform game with characters vaguely resembling their silver screen counterparts trap that so many licenses fall into.
