Video Game Vintage Title: The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass is a 2007 action-adventure game developed for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360 and PC by Shiny Entertainment, and for the Nintendo DS by A2M. The game was published on all platforms by Sega. Released in Europe in November 2007, and in North America and Australia in December, the game is based on both the film of the same name, and the novel upon which the film is based, Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. The game was released prior to the film and features a slightly different sequence of events towards the end of the story, as well as additional footage at the end of the game not seen in the film. This was due to a last minute re-edit of the last half hour of the film by New Line Cinema that couldn't be incorporated into the game, which was based on the shooting script. The Golden Compass was the last game developed by Shiny before Foundation 9 Entertainment merged them with The Collective. The game received negative reviews across every platform, although it sold well.

The Golden Compass Plot

The game begins with Serafina Pekkala (voiced by Hellena Taylor) narrating the story of Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards), the Panserbj�rne Iorek Byrnison (Nonso Anozie in UK version/Fred Tatasciore in US version) and Lyra's d�mon Pan (Freddie Highmore), who are in an icy landscape being pursued by wolves. Iorek defeats the wolves and they head to a nearby Samoyed Camp to rescue a boy. Iorek attacks the camp, and rescues the boy.

The game then cuts to two months previously, to Jordan College in Oxford. In her room, Lyra and Pan discuss the immanent return of her uncle, Lord Asriel, when the housekeeper, Mrs. Lonsdale (Susanne Blakeslee), arrives to give Lyra a bath. Unwilling to bathe, Lyra escapes out the window with Pan. Crossing the roofs of the college, she meets her friend and fellow student Roger Parslow (Cameron Covell). After talking with him for a while, Lyra decides to try to get into the Master's Retiring Room so she can watch the presentation which Asriel will be giving to the scholars later on. Lyra manages to get into the Retiring Room, and hides in a wardrobe to watch Asriel's (Chris Edgerly) lecture. In it, he presents a picture from his travels in Svalbard showing Dust falling from the sky, although Lyra doesn't understand what this "Dust" is. Asriel subsequently finds her in the wardrobe and tells her that he is leaving soon on a very difficult journey.

Meanwhile, Lyra meets Marisa Coulter (Erin Matthews) and, before leaving Jordan, is given an Alethiometer by the Master (Michael Ensign), who tells her that Coulter must not know she possesses it. Lyra initially enjoys her time with Coulter but soon begins to feel that something sinister is happening. Whilst exploring Coulter's apartment, Lyra finds a document with the names of numerous children, including Roger's. The document is headed "General Oblation Board," and Lyra realizes that Coulter is the leader of the Board, nicknamed the "Gobblers"; an organization that abducts children, supposedly to prevent them turning into "bad" adults. Taking the Alethiometer, Lyra and Pan flee from Coulter's.

Coulter sends men to get Lyra back, but she is saved by Gyptians. She soon meets Farder Coram (Stephen Foulard) and John Faa (Michael Gough), and begins living with the Gyptians on their ship, the Noorderlicht, which is on its way to Trollesund. She learns how to use the Alethiometer, in a manner far more skilled than any adult. At night, Serafina visits Lyra, telling her to tell Coram where the General Oblation Board has taken the kidnapped children. The next day, the Noorderlicht docks at Trollesund.

At the same time, in a Trollesund alley, a sleeping Iorek dreams of being banished from his tribe by his rival Ragnar Sturlusson (JB Blanc). He awakes to find his armor has been removed by the villagers, and he is subsequently shot with a tranquilizer dart. Meanwhile, Lyra and Pan set out to explore the town. They soon meet Lee Scoresby (James Horan), an aeronaut, who says he would like to help her find Roger and the other missing children. Meanwhile, Coram learns from the Witches' Consul, Dr. Lanselius (James Horan) that the children have been taken north. Lanselius tells Coram that the Witches have a prophecy about the chosen one, who will save the world, and he believes that Lyra is the one spoken of in the prophecy. He also advises Coram to hire Iorek for the journey to rescue the children. Coram and Lyra go to see Iorek, who is being forced to work at a local bar, and he says he will join them if Lyra can return his stolen armor. Lyra sneaks into the Magisterium basement and gets the armor back. Then, both Iorek and Scoresby join the quest.

They hike north towards Bolvangar, where the children are being held. While consulting the Alethiometer, Lyra gets a strange message about a cabin on a lake and a child. Lord Faa says they cannot worry about that now, but Lyra sneaks out of the camp with Iorek and they find the cabin. Inside is a frightened and psychologically damaged child who has been severed from his d�mon (an experiment called "Intercision" which is being carried out by the Magisterium). Lyra learns from the Alethiometer that another child is nearby in a Samoyed camp, and she and Iorek head to save him. The opening scenes of the game are then shown again, as Iorek attacks the camp and rescues the child. Lyra, Iorek and the two children then head back to the Gyptian camp where the two boys are reunited with their families. However, the Samoyeds launch an attack on the camp, which is successfully defended, although Lyra is captured.

She is taken to Bolvangar, where she is reunited with Roger. She hatches a plan to escape, but is caught and brought to the recently arrived Coulter. Lyra lies to Coulter, saying she was forcibly taken from the apartment, and Coulter asks Lyra if the Master of Jordan College gave her something he told her not to mention. Lyra pretends she was unable to understand the Alethiometer, and then flees from Coulter, sets off a fire alarm and destroys the Intercision machine. With the facility in chaos, the children escape outside. Meanwhile, Iorek and an army of witches led by Serafina attack. The children successfully meet up with the Gyptians and Bolvangar is destroyed.

Lyra, Scoresby and Serafina then travel on to Svalbard to try to find Lord Asriel. However, in a snowsquall, Lyra falls overboard and is captured by two panserbj�rne. In a Svalbard prison, Lyra meets Professor Jonathan Santelia (Paul Eiding) from the University of Gloucester, who tells her that Asriel is also a prisoner of King Ragnar, but is being allowed to carry on his experiments at the special request of Coulter. Lyra learns from the Alethiometer that Iorek is on his way to rescue her but she realizes that she will have to help him from inside if he is to penetrate Svalbard's defenses. She tricks her way in to see Ragnar and claims she is Iorek's d�mon, created in an experiment at Bolvangar. As bears don't have d�mons, Ragnar is furious the Iorek should have something he cannot possess, and so she tells him that for her to become his d�mon, he must kill Iorek in single combat. As such, Ragnar orders the guards to allow Iorek to approach. Iorek and Ragnar fight, and Iorek kills Ragnar, becoming King of the Panserbj�rne.

Lyra and Roger then head to see Asriel. At first, Asriel is furious that Lyra has come, exclaiming "I didn't send for you. Anyone but you," but upon seeing Roger, he calms. Lyra gives him the Alethiometer, and she and Roger go to bed. The next morning, Lyra awakens to find Asriel and Roger have disappeared. Using the Alethiometer, Lyra learns that Asriel plans to perform an Intercision on Roger so as to generate enough energy to open a portal to a parallel universe. She and Iorek set out after them. They reach Asriel's location in the far north, and Iorek allows Lyra to head to face him alone.

The Golden Compass Gameplay

The game is played from a third-person perspective with players controlling either Lyra Belacqua and her d�mon Pan, or the Panserbj�rne Iorek Byrnison. Lyra's levels primarily involve platforming, stealth and puzzle solving, whilst Iorek's are mainly melee combat based.

A major aspect of the gameplay of Lyra's levels involves the shape-shifting ability of Pan, who has access to four forms; Ermine, Sloth, Hawk and Wildcat, each with its own unique ability. The Ermine's ability is "Insight", which allows Lyra to discover information about her surroundings, find hotspots, and unveil secrets. The Sloth's ability is "Whip", which allows Lyra to swing from poles and reach areas she cannot simply jump to. The Hawk's ability is "Glide", which allows Lyra to glide a short distance, covering gaps she wouldn't be able to any other way. The Wildcat's ability is "Climb", which allows Lyra to climb certain surfaces to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. Players often have to shift form mid-move. For example, to reach a certain platform, Lyra may need to use the "Whip" ability to swing on a pole, and after releasing herself from the pole may need to immediately use the "Glide" ability to reach the platform.

Also important in Lyra's levels are Evasion and Deception minigames. Evasion games occur whenever Lyra is spotted by an enemy and involves button presses to correspond with icons on screen to allow Lyra escape from her pursuer. Deception games are more common and occur regularly throughout her levels. These games take place whenever Lyra is involved in a conversation with someone and is attempting to deceive them. The better the player performs in the minigame, the more successful Lyra is in her deception. The minigames include, but are not limited to, matching symbols, collecting falling icons, avoiding falling icons, a Whac-A-Mole type game and a snooker type game.

Another major aspect of the gameplay is the Alethiometer. Once the player has access to the Alethiometer, it can be asked certain set questions. The device has thirty-six symbols on its outer edge, each with three meanings. These meanings are discovered over the course of game; some are learned automatically, some must be sought out by the player. For each question, Lyra is given three words, and each word is assigned a hand on the Alethiometer. If Lyra knows the corresponding symbol of a given word, the handle automatically turns to the correct symbol. Words she doesn't know must be guessed by the player. When the three hands are all pointing at symbols, the player confirms the selection and Lyra asks the question. A balancing minigame then begins, where the player must press buttons corresponding to the on-screen display. The more symbols which were correctly identified in the first part of the game, the easier the balancing game is.

Reception
The game received negative reviews on every platform. On GameRankings, the DS version holds an aggregate score of 46.71%, based on seven reviews; the PC version 22%, based on five reviews; the PlayStation 2 version 46.11%, based on nine reviews; the PlayStation 3 version 40.85%, based on seventeen reviews; the PlayStation Portable version 29.25%, based on four reviews; the Xbox 360 version 42.02%, based on twenty-one reviews; and the Wii version 35.25%, based on fourteen reviews. On Metacritic, the DS version holds an aggregate score of 43 out of 100, based on seven reviews; the PC version 26 out of 100, based on six reviews; the PlayStation 2 version 46 out of 100, based on ten reviews; the PlayStation 3 version 40 out of 100, based on seventeen reviews; the PlayStation Portable version 28 out of 100, based on four reviews; the Xbox 360 version 41 out of 100, based on twenty-five reviews; and the Wii version 35 out of 100, based on twelve reviews.

GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd rated the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 versions 4.5 out of 10, the Wii version 4 out of 10, and the PSP version 2 out of 10. He called the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions "a muddled mishmash of gameplay ideas that lacks focus and certainly lacks any sense of fun." He criticized the Wii version for failing to utilize the Wii Remote; "Shiny wasted a good number of opportunities to use the Wii's motion-sensing capabilities. A few tasks, such as rock throwing and other quick sequences that require aiming, put the remote to brief use. Yet for the most part, minigames are performed using buttons and the analog stick, leaving the platform's unique potential woefully unused." Of the PlayStation Portable version, he stated "it suffers from incomprehensibly awful glitches that essentially break the game there are four- or five-second loading times in the middle of nowhere, accompanied by the furious whir of the disc. This can happen midjump or midattack, and rather than just freeze the onscreen view, the game cuts away to a black screen with a loading symbol. This occurs every minute or two during action sequences." Of the game in general, he was highly critical of the plot, arguing that if players were unfamiliar with either the original novel or the film on which the game is based, they would not be able to follow what is happening. He also criticized the controls and camera, especially during the platforming levels; "Not only do the slippery controls make Lyra a pain to maneuver, but you can't manually control the camera, which makes it impossible to judge distance. Even worse, the camera has a tendency to move on its own in the middle of jumps and balancing acts."

IGN's Martin Robinson rated the PlayStation 2 version 4.5 out of 10. He was heavily critical of the deception and evasion mini-games, and although he thought the Alethiometer gameplay was interesting, he felt its almost wholly optional nature in the game undermined it. He was most critical, however, of the plot; "The story is a mess standing on its own The game makes little attempt to portray Pullman's world, instead opting to magpie scenes from the film and career through the story with little concession for the player. Characters disappear without explanation and large parts of the story are side-stepped, leaving the less informed player scratching their head as to what exactly is going on." Ryan Clements rated the PC version 3.5 out of 10 arguing "the game is all over the place and pretty much does nothing well." As with Robinson, he was highly critical of the plot, which he argued was incomprehensible unless the player was familiar with the novel or the film. He concluded that "Besides lousy gameplay, The Golden Compass has little else worth mentioning. The graphics, regardless of which system you play on, don't push the hardware at all. The sound is almost never properly synchronized with what's happening on the screen, and the overall presentation is embarrassingly cheap."

Eurogamer's Simon Parkin scored the Xbox 360 version 3 out of 10. He was critical of the graphics; "Character models lack texture detail, animations stutter and fail to flow into one another seamlessly, collision detection is fuzzy and the environments are relentlessly bare and uninteresting." He concluded that "The Golden Compass feels like an unfinished title. Chapters are disjointed and the attempts at narrative segues between scenes and tasks are a mess. Added to this is a litany of niggles and flaws that reveal how rushed the game actually was: levitating puddles, character's lips that fail to move when they are talking, lines of dialogue that clip, unnecessarily fussy button inputs, the five seconds it takes to call up your journal to check what you're meant to be doing next The ideas aren't all bad and on paper this must have sounded like a rich and promising game. However, the game far overreaches itself and the coding, visuals and execution of those ideas is comprehensively unpolished."

Game Revolution's Geoff Hunt gave the PC version an F, arguing that the mixing of gameplay styles did not work; "The essential problem with The Golden Compass is that there are tons of little gameplay mechanisms involved and none feel like they were ever completed." He was critical of the controls, the camera and the graphics; "Laughably bad animations coupled with low visual fidelity across the board makes for a worthless visual experience. Worse, the game has some distinct visual errors, such as geometry edges and the occasional chunk of flashing polygon."

GameSpy's Elisa Di Fiore rated the Wii version 1.5 out of 5, calling it "one of the worst licensed games of the last few years." She too was critical of the narrative, arguing that unless one was familiar with the source material, it was impossible to follow. She was also critical of the controls and the camera. Nintendo Power rated the Wii version 4 out of 10, noting the repetitive environments, simplistic minigames, low-resolution visuals and hard-to-grasp story.

GamePro was one of the few reviews to praise the game, scoring the PlayStation 2 version 3.75 out of 5, and arguing that despite low-res graphics, sound effects, and clunky controls, it captured the magic of the source material very well.

The Golden Compass ranked number 10 in the UK's all formats games sales chart of 2007.