The game, unsurprisingly, follows the events of the movie, but also includes a lot of events that did not happen in the film in order to stretch the game out. Players primarily control Lyra, an orphan girl. They will also take control of her allies; shape-shifting daemon Pan and polar bear Iorek. Players must travel north to try and rescue Lyra’s friend, the incredibly odd looking Roger, while also trying to work out how to use the Alethiometer – a device that will give the answer to any question, should the user know what they are doing. Cryptic. The story is presented through brief ‘cut scenes’ – if you can call them that. Some of the most poorly drawn character cut outs ever seen in a videogame appear on the bottom screen and provide stiff and uninteresting dialogue through text boxes to keep players up to speed.
She isn't afraid of insane heights, but birds are another story.
The Golden Compass is incredibly basic in design, with the vast majority of the game being made up by endless linear platforming sections – along with the odd slice of stealth along the way. Level design is not a strong point, with platforms and ropes simply thrown together without much indication of thought – it is even possible to get completely stuck down a hole in a few parts of the game. While Lyra is relatively okay to control, responding to button presses quite well and able to pull herself up off ledges, she is quite unfit, being able to sprint for further than twenty metres. Making things more interesting is the ability to switch to other characters. While players will generally control Lyra, players can switch to Pan with the quick press of a button. Pan can take several different forms – that of an insect, a hawk, a sloth and a cat. Each animal form has its own abilities. For instance, the insect is invisible to enemies, the hawk can lift boxes, the sloth can dig, and the cat is an aggressive little thing, capable of fighting off enemies. Since Lyra can’t punch her way out of a paper bag (well, she can throw rocks – just not very well), Pan becomes an essential ally for fending off enemies. Iorek is also available to use at times, and, being an oversized polar bear, is generally able to beat the snot out of whatever fiends might be in Lyra’s way.
Given that Lyra would have trouble defending herself against a small kitten vomiting flowers, stealth occasionally comes into play. However, we just have to ask one thing - why? It is simply too forgiving to even bother having it in the game. Should Lyra be spotted, turning around and running in the opposite direction until the baddie is out of screen will cause them to forget about Lyra and continue with their busy schedule of pacing. Even a children’s game should not be so unforgiving.
Helping break up the monotony of the jumping and rope climbing are puzzles. They aren’t particularly difficult by any stretch of the imagination, but will challenge younger players to an extent, giving them a good feeling of satisfaction when they solve it. Puzzles can range from something as simple as pulling switches, to the slightly more complicated putting weight on a platform to hold a door open, by either dragging boxers or using Pan’s cat form to hold down a switch.
Colonel Sanders makes an appearance.
It’s understandable that padding was needed when bringing the film to the DS in order to make a game of reasonable length, but A2M have gone overboard here. The game is simply too long. For example, the first chapter of the game features three parts, all of which lead to racing Roger to the roof of one of the buildings in Lyra’s college. For such a simple task, it takes an almighty long time to do it. Because of this, any fun the game was hoping to deliver is simply blown away by the mind numbing repetition.
Bland is one way to describe The Golden Compass. Levels are dull, bland and repetitive. Expect to see lots and lots and lots of snow. The earlier levels of Lyra’s college are a highpoint. They are somewhat interesting, but lack variation, and soon become incredibly familiar. Characters themselves are quite small and blocky, too - not what you could call exquisitely designed. Animation is solid, but there are minor frame rate problems from time to time. We’ve already touched on the hideous character cut outs during cut scenes – but we’re mentioning it again anyway because they are awful. The in game music is highly, highly repetitive, which is somewhat disappointing. But, on the plus side, it isn’t terrible, so it is forgivable. The effects, on the other hand, are not so good. They are muffled, unrealistic, and generally painful to listen to.
It is incredibly difficult to give The Golden Compass a positive recommendation, simply because there are so many platform games on the DS that leave it redundant. The visuals and audio are unappealing and repetitive. The gameplay is simplistic, boring and lacking any sort of depth. Considering this, the fact the game so long borders on cruelty. Perhaps young absolute die hard fans of the movie or original novel will find something of interest here, but even then, it seems more likely that would rather play through New Super Mario Bros. for the hundredth time, or see the actual film, or watch paint dry. Avoid.
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