The Golden Compass on Xbox 360 - Trailer (2007)

The only thing going for it are the achievements...

Vivacia from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 06/10/2008

Movie tie-in games are renowned for not being very good. With a limited development time, and a set path to follow they normally turn out to be monotonous, irritating piles of brown stuff. And 'The Golden Compass' is no exception to this rule, though there are moments that show how much better the game could have been. The game follows the film exactly, and in fact carries on past the point the film ended (the bit they cut from the film, when they lost faith in there being a sequel). The levels can be split into two types, Lara levels and Iorik the Bear levels, which each have their problems.

Lara levels feature a lot of platform action, jumping from one place to another, and walking tight-rope style over conveniently placed pipes. There are also many conversations to be had with other characters, which allow you to gain extra items as well as progress through the story. These conversations involve mini-games when you're asked a question and, depending on whether you succeed at the game or not, you will give a convincing, or not convincing answer. These mini-games are generally easy (the game was intended for children after all) though some are randomly unfair. Then there are the abilities you have thanks to your Daemon Pan. Anyone who's seen the film will know that a Daemon is the spirit of the human and in the game Lyra's Daemon allows her to climb walls, glide, swing and look for clues. You can also look for symbols that appear on the Alethiometer, the Golden Compass of the title. By finding these symbols you can better answer questions you collect in each level, and actually provides one of the genuinely enjoyable moments of the game. It's a shame more wasn't made of this, as it's one of the more challenging and interesting parts of the game to try to collect the symbols and answer the questions. But alas instead we are condemned to play a sub-standard platform game, where you will, for no apparent reason, fall to your death from time to time. Then there's the 'combat'. The term is a loose one as it doesn't involve any fighting, instead you and your enemy face each other and a sign will appear above your character's head to tell you what button to press to avoid the attack. Even for children, this is insulting, and results in some very pointless and repetitive fight scenes. Despite this though the Lyra levels are reasonably interesting.

Iorik levels are another kettle of fish altogether. The mighty bear has essentially been turned into a horse, for Lyra to ride around the ice ridden lands. Now, for a warrior bear Iorik turns out to be incredibly slow, unresponsive and difficult to control. Battles with him are generally easy, as are the boss battles once you work out the tactics (clue: run in circles) but some enemies are almost impossible to deal with when there are more than a few of them at once, particularly the ones that are fast, as Iorik is about as maneuverable as a garbage truck. This makes it very difficult to get through these levels without the urge to turn off your machine in disgust, and combined with the other problems adds up to a frustrating experience.

'The Golden Compass' was clearly a rush job, with poor gameplay, voice-over errors (there are times when the voice of the character you're speaking to suddenly changes to someone else's voice) and poorly thought out controls. Children and adults who loved the film will enjoy moments of it but let's be honest - the only real reason you'll play this is for the achievements. It's easy to get over 600 points and, if you're willing to look around a bit, to get over 700. And with a whopping 250 points just for completing the game (along with another 50 for beating the last boss) it can definitely keep you going to the end. But be warned, as of time of writing, there are no FAQs or guides for this game. No one has yet had the masochistic urge to make one yet which probably says more than any review ever could.

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oh DEAR

Mark Edwards from Midlands England , 12/12/2007

THIS has to be the worst game in the history of games! i thought give it a chance after a while and get the acheivements as they will be easy but i pulled it out of my xbox after about half an hour its just a joke! storyline is terrible. i wouldnt reccomend this full stop

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Great Book, Great Movie but bad game

ScottC2105 from East Midlands, England [Highly rated reviewer] , 22/12/2007

What to say but what a let down. I rented this game on request of my Mrs only to find ourselves disappointed. She is a big fan of the book and liked the movie (to some extent) but the game, boy, what a rushed job it was. For starters you cannot move the camera at all that makes this game seem more like a chore. The gameplay soon gets boring with a lot of running and talking. The only thing going for this game is the story itself, which, is taken from the book/movie. To say all 360 games are in High-Def this game really takes the biscuit with most textures and icons being blurry and just horrible. Wasn't expecting much but the game was still disappointing.

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Rubbish game, but good for gamerscore

A customer from Scunthorpe , 19/04/2008

This game was absolutely rubbish and i was constantly finding glitches in the game and getting stuck in allsorts of stupid places including other characters. But if like me you are addicted to gamerscore then this game is worth a rent and in about 4 hours you can easily get 750 gamerscore maybe even the full 1000 with a guide or something. Definately not a game you should buy though.

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Hideous

Puressence from Sheffield [Highly rated reviewer] , 17/04/2008

There are some amazing games on the 360 families can enjoy - Viva Pinata, Bee Movie Game, Lego Star Wars and Harry Potter to name but a few.

Then the developers at Shiny Entertainment have the cheek to release this pile of excrement on the 360. Last gen graphics, boring (almost non-existant in fact) gameplay and a punishing camera which makes even simple tasks like jumping on a ledge an exercise in frustration.

If you want some great family games, or just some fun achievement points then please rent one of the games I referred to earlier and avoid this one like the plague.

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Rubbish game, but good for gamerscore

A customer from Scunthorpe , 19/04/2008

This game was absolutely rubbish and i was constantly finding glitches in the game and getting stuck in allsorts of stupid places including other characters. But if like me you are addicted to gamerscore then this game is worth a rent and in about 4 hours you can easily get 750 gamerscore maybe even the full 1000 with a guide or something. Definately not a game you should buy though.

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