E3 2007: Hands-On The Golden Compass

E3 Disclaimer: AMN’s E3 previews are designed to inform you of what each game at E3 plays like, and what we think of what’s shown. These previews are not reviews, and we reserve final judgment of each game until it is finished and released. These previews offer an honest opinion of what a publisher chose to demo at E3. So, without further ado, read on.

What the Game’s About
Sega acquired the rights to produce a game based on the film adaptation of the 12 year old book trilogy of the same name. The game is being produced by well known developer Shiny Entertainment (Earthworm Jim, The Matrix games) and published by Sega. The movie and novels tell the story of heroine Lyra, a young girl who travels to the far north from England in search of a kidnapped friend. From the very beginning of the project Shiny has been in constant contact with the entire production team of the movie with Sega reps scouring the sets. Shiny has also been using actual assets, blueprints, concept art, and renders from New Line Cinema to ensure that the movie and game are the splitting image of each other. Members of Shiny even traveled to northern Canada to watch real Polar Bears to ensure the animations were true to the real thing.

The main gameplay mechanic draws directly from the plot of the movie in that Lyra’s spiritual daemons assist her and protect her. The demo put you in control of the main one Lorek, a polar bear, and Lyra herself. The other shape-shifting daemon Pan functions as different abilities that can be switched to on the fly. The mechanic works well, feeling like something out of Kameo, yet you don’t actually full transform. You shape shift to gain various attributes such as wall climbing, balance, swinging, climbing walls, ect. You’re main daemon though is Lorek who features powerful melee attacks.

What’s Hot
The game may be multiplatform, but it looks great. The game pulls most of its locations from the movie, but two of the stages are completely original, giving fans of the upcoming movie something to look forward to that they won’t be seeing on the big screen. There are 11 stages total planned. Lyra has an item called the alethiometer that sees the truth about people which she can use to solve optional puzzles to unlock tons of special content being packed in for fans of the series. The controls were tight and responsive, and the framerate was crisp. It was also mentioned that the game will feature multiple routes through each of the 11 levels. The developers stated that the assets they were building were meant for long-term use because they want this to be the start of a game franchise so they are working hard to make sure the experience is memorable. The camera never faltered, and lots of cut scenes from the movie are going to be included, so you can get a sneak peak of the movie since the game comes out first.

What’s Not
The animations seemed to be disjointed, going from each animation to the next in a stiff fashion. It was also a little difficult to turn on a dime when you were in a group of wolves from the tutorial that needed to be crunched. The game is multiplatform, so the graphics are not what they could have been as an exclusive, but it still looks great. Its being built on the 360 then ported up and down to the other two consoles, so the 360 version is looking to be the best at the moment. The demo was relatively short, and only featured the tutorial so there wasn’t a whole lot of content to base opinions on.

Outlook
The Golden Compass is a beautiful movie with otherworldly art direction and a deep story. Sega and Shiny look to be working tirelessly to preserve that atmosphere and style all the while delivering a solid game. Most of the concepts have been seen before, but they are being presented in a fresh enough context to warrant attention from non-fans. That said, fans of the movie or books are going to be in love with this game when it lands on all platforms December 4th.