Visible Achievements
The movie's been out for a month and a half, and we still find the Arthur and the Invisibles game to be half decent.
Published: March 1, 2007
I'm about 10 minutes into Arthur and the Invisibles, and it has made its intentions clear. This is a game for people who have not only seen Luc Besson's feature film, but are keen to having clips from the movie play through in lightning fast, nearly incomprehensible bits, hearing in-game dialogue nonsensically running at about twice the speed it's supposed to or playing through a tutorial pedantic enough to make you certain it's intended for five year olds.
Talk to me a few hours later and I'll tell you the game is, to my surprise, likeable. Granted you'd be hard-pressed to keep up with what the heck's going on plot-wise unless you've seen the movie, but on a fundamental gameplay level, the adventure is predominantly sound.
So what works here exactly? To be honest, a lot of it is about pacing. Cast off into the vast Minimoy world of minimal proportions, you'll find yourself constantly progressing from grass-shrouded paths to cavern-like ant tunnels that's ambitious enough to cut any backtracking down to nearly zilch (unless you choose to play the game's chapters out of order... which you can do from the very beginning). And there's always a task at hand: if it's not a several-step puzzle to sort through, than it's fending off an oncoming crowd of Henchmen, and only towards the end do the elements seem to intertwine.
To your advantage is a trio of characters, all of whom can be cycled through on-the-fly. Arthur, whom the tale centers around (he's off to find his grandfather's long lost treasure in order to save his grandmother from eviction, if you must know) plays something like a hybrid of Jak [uh, early Jak) meets the Prince of Persia. As the acrobat of the three, he'll traverse walls, somersault into enemies and commonly voice words of encouragement when spirits are low. Then you've got (Prince) Betameche, and if you can get past his endless string of complaints, his snail-entrancing tricky (it's... part of the puzzle solving) and, er, lollipop projectile attacks may come in handy. He's joined by sister and fellow royalty Princess Selenia, who's sword-wielding techniques make her the most useful in battle, not to mention she's the only one who can chop down any path-hindering bramble.
Through the crux of this tale, these team management skills work pretty effortlessly. The puzzle elements will put your through a fair amount of Tomb Raider-esque block stacking (through instead you're assembling smiling tiki statues) and switch-triggering, and its primarily a team effort: it takes three to hoist any object up a level, for example, or in some cases, you'll have to alternate between flagstones on the ground as Selenia and Beta to activate certain ledges whilst Arthur scales a high cliff.
Combat tests your inherent ability to multitask a bit more intensely, and although can get away with relying on a single preferred character without all real-time rotation, you'll have to come to the rescue of an ally if he/she gets knocked out and is being hoisted off to the dreaded Henchman cage. The showdowns are engaging enough, if not all-too-frequent at times with little to distinguish them (trap door comes down, henchmen swarm, player knocks henchmen around for keys, opens doors, then all three pile onto final "monster" henchman to the tune of God of War button-timing, procure last key, escape).
Talk to me a few hours later and I'll tell you the game is, to my surprise, likeable. Granted you'd be hard-pressed to keep up with what the heck's going on plot-wise unless you've seen the movie, but on a fundamental gameplay level, the adventure is predominantly sound.
So what works here exactly? To be honest, a lot of it is about pacing. Cast off into the vast Minimoy world of minimal proportions, you'll find yourself constantly progressing from grass-shrouded paths to cavern-like ant tunnels that's ambitious enough to cut any backtracking down to nearly zilch (unless you choose to play the game's chapters out of order... which you can do from the very beginning). And there's always a task at hand: if it's not a several-step puzzle to sort through, than it's fending off an oncoming crowd of Henchmen, and only towards the end do the elements seem to intertwine.
To your advantage is a trio of characters, all of whom can be cycled through on-the-fly. Arthur, whom the tale centers around (he's off to find his grandfather's long lost treasure in order to save his grandmother from eviction, if you must know) plays something like a hybrid of Jak [uh, early Jak) meets the Prince of Persia. As the acrobat of the three, he'll traverse walls, somersault into enemies and commonly voice words of encouragement when spirits are low. Then you've got (Prince) Betameche, and if you can get past his endless string of complaints, his snail-entrancing tricky (it's... part of the puzzle solving) and, er, lollipop projectile attacks may come in handy. He's joined by sister and fellow royalty Princess Selenia, who's sword-wielding techniques make her the most useful in battle, not to mention she's the only one who can chop down any path-hindering bramble.
Through the crux of this tale, these team management skills work pretty effortlessly. The puzzle elements will put your through a fair amount of Tomb Raider-esque block stacking (through instead you're assembling smiling tiki statues) and switch-triggering, and its primarily a team effort: it takes three to hoist any object up a level, for example, or in some cases, you'll have to alternate between flagstones on the ground as Selenia and Beta to activate certain ledges whilst Arthur scales a high cliff.
Combat tests your inherent ability to multitask a bit more intensely, and although can get away with relying on a single preferred character without all real-time rotation, you'll have to come to the rescue of an ally if he/she gets knocked out and is being hoisted off to the dreaded Henchman cage. The showdowns are engaging enough, if not all-too-frequent at times with little to distinguish them (trap door comes down, henchmen swarm, player knocks henchmen around for keys, opens doors, then all three pile onto final "monster" henchman to the tune of God of War button-timing, procure last key, escape).
