The Da Vinci Code review

As tie-ins go, the Da Vinci code is hardly a prime candidate for a videogame conversion. After all, talky pseudo-theological conspiracy thrillers don't tend to translate into a videogame medium.

Had this been the early 90s, the Da Vinci Code video game would probably have been a side scrolling platformer - where players shot Jesus discs at an army of killer monks and loose cannon French cops, whilst traversing a series of tourist hotspots with a large number of gaping holes and levitating platforms in them.

Sensibly, developer The Collective have plumped for a far more suitable adventure game format; although it has still upped the cop/killer monk encounter quota (surely the Catholic Church should have a more diligent monk screening program).

Gone to Plot

A surplus of mad monks and inept cops aside, the Da Vinci Code follows the plot of the book, and therefore the film, pretty closely, with the odd extension here and there to widen the experience. So, if you’re familiar with the material, (and with millions of book sales and countless cinema tickets sold there's a good chance you are) be prepared for yet another run through of the preposterous pot-boiler.

But just how do you keep your game exciting when the main set-pieces consist of people jabbering away about secret sects and sacred scrolls? Well most obviously, and in this case most successfully, through puzzles. After all, the central protagonists, “symbology” expert Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu are experts in all things code based and spent the majority of the book following overly elaborate clues to different picturesque destinations.

Some of these puzzles are variants on what you’ve read in the book or seen in the cinema, an early example being attaching a tracker onto a bar of soap to throw out of a window. Others involve word and number puzzles that work appropriately in the context of the game, such as solving an anagrams left in blood, and are generally well thought out and challenging without becoming tediously obtuse.

Rhythm Action

Less faithful to both the book are the action elements of the game. Presumably introduced to cater for a wider, more mainstream audience, the game includes various arcade elements that range from Fahrenheit style button pressing to initiate actions to full on physical fights and stealth sections.

Now, I’ve been out of university a few years, but last time I checked combat training wasn’t a prerequisite for becoming professor. Despite that, books aren’t the only thing Prof. Langdon and Sophie have been hitting, as both seem rather adept in the old fisty-cuffs department.

Admirably, the Collective has gone for something a bit different when in comes to brawling than the usually button mashing fare. Upon hitting or being hit by your opponent you become locked in a grapple where you must either defend or attack by matching button pressing with the onscreen prompts. Successful timing means you dodge punches when defending or land them when attacking, while the camera swooshes around dramatically.

It looks like a combination of martial arts and school playground pushing – you half expect Langdon to give fruit-cake monk Silus a wedgey. These fights are enjoyably daft up to a point, but they have a tendency to drag on when you just want to get on with the decryption.

Thankfully, while far from perfect, the stealth element is surprisingly tolerable where it could have been a game breaker. It’s fairly easy to work out if you can be seen or not, even without the presence of light meters, vision cones and the like, and even when you do get caught you can fight yourself out of most situations.

However the inclusion of these sections may upset adventure game purists who aren’t interested in arcade action. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to have had an adventure mode which toned down these elements, but, alas, it’s not there.

Hankless

A bit like Hanks. Although the game is a film license, this apparently didn’t include the likenesses or voices of any of the cast, so don't expect Tom to make an appearance. Or his mullet. Instead, the stars seem to have been replaced with expressionless mannequins. Which is a shame, as it would have been nice for the characters in a game with so much talking to have more than, say, one, facial gesture.

This would have been less of a problem if it weren’t for the fact the voice actors playing Langdon and Sophie give flat performances that are even less charismatic than those given by Hanks and Tautou. This does tend to make the endless exposition (which, unsurprisingly given the source material, there’s a lot of) drier than the Sahara desert on a particularly sunny day.

Elsewhere, the graphical presentation is competent. Despite the blank faces, the animation of each characters is pretty good, while most the levels are well lit and feel faithful to their real life (or at least movie) counterparts, making exploration fairly enjoyable. Sound wise it’s less polished, with the previously mentioned poor voice performances and a tinny sounding score. Things like the environmental background noise pausing to loop also seem unprofessional.

The Code Deciphered

While the Da Vinci Code is fairly lengthy, its longevity is partly down to the padding of the action sequences and talky exposition. If you do get stuck there is a hint button that should give you enough information to at least know where to start, but this can only be used for isolated puzzles. And while if you are stuck in a location and are unsure if you’ve missed something you can ask your colleague for help, the answer you usually get it is; “There must be something around here”. Thanks for that.

As both a traditional-style adventure and an action game, The Da Vinci Code is a puzzling enigma with an identity crisis. Unfortunately, it loses focus and lacks pace through trying to crowbar too much in. There are elements of the game that are enjoyable, particularly when it comes to the puzzles, but often the Da Vinci Code is as flat as its voice actors.