The Golden Compass

IGNS rating & reviews (www.ign.com)

Rating 3.5

The Golden Compass Review
Not as magical as you might hope.
by Ryan Clements
December 13, 2007 - Games that are "direct" translations of movies generally don't turn out very well, and The Golden Compass game is a perfect example of a title that suffers from this tragic tradition. Developed by Shiny Entertainment and published by SEGA, this quasi-adventure/platformer is all over the place and pretty much does nothing well. Even its rare positive elements can't brighten the infinitely dull experience that the game provides.

The Golden Compass is based on the film and follows the story of Lyra Belacqua and her journey to... well, that's the first big problem, really. This title does an absolutely horrendous job in telling a story, even when it's already been told in film and novel form. In fact, we can only assume that the game was designed with the pure and unbridled assumption that the player has already read the book or, more probably, seen the movie. We were flabbergasted at how convoluted the game narrative was, because so much dramatic potential is utterly lost in the transition.

Roughly speaking, the game is poorly attempting to recreate the story of Lyra's journey as she seeks out a bunch of missing children, including her dear friend Roger. Although there are clips from the movie featured throughout the game's narrative, they seem to be thrown in rather haphazardly and are often spliced together with a hasty narration dubbed on top. It's almost laughable at how cluttered the end result feels while playing.
The Golden Compass mixes (about) four main elements together to create gameplay, but only one of those elements is remotely interesting. A good portion of the game involves you controlling Lyra as she runs, jumps and hides in a variety of bland, usually linear environments. It ends up being typical platforming/adventure fare, but it controls poorly and fails to satisfy. The only notable aspect of playing as Lyra is the presence of Pan, the embodiment of her soul, who can transform into four different animals and supplement her abilities. For example, turn Pan into his Hawk form and help Lyra glide from one platform to the other.