Playstation 2 - Da Vinci Code, The

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
2K Games
Developer
The Collective
Country of origin
US
Genre
3rd person adventure

The Da Vinci Code

By David Rasmussen
18th Jun 06

Unless you’ve been offworld on the planet Jurai or Risa you’ve probably already heard about the specifics of this controversial movie. Based on the Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code, which in turn was somewhat (allegedly) inspired by Holy Blood Holy Grail (which sparked that UK lawsuit a few months ago in turn), the movie is a Catholic Church member’s best friend… because lord knows they don’t have ENOUGH to bitch and whine about these days!
But since this isn’t FOX News, and we’re not going to talk about rampant homophobia or the evil war against culture that isn’t stamped approved by the conservative religious right. Instead we’re talking The Da Vinci Code the game, brought to you by those wacky people at The Collective.

Here, stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
One night at the Lourve the curator of said museum was hunted down and shot by a crazed religious zealot over some sort of “secret” (that you’ll discover soon enough). After he was shot he was dying… but apparently he was not dying fast enough since he found the time to (not exactly in this order mind you) strip naked, fold his clothes into a nice pile, write cryptic messages both visible and invisible, reference stuff he hidden earlier, and then position himself in just the right way to… oh, dammit, just die already!!
And that’s where you come in, since your character was supposed to meet with the curator that night in the first place, which brings me to the first complaint I have with the game… the lack of star power.

Sure, you don’t really need star power if the voice acting cast is sufficient. I mean as long as the cast rocks who cares if they’re high priced Hollywood A-list or not! Games like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Batman Begins, Superman Returns and the like (where the stars of the movie reprise their character roles) is nice and all, but it’s not the end all and be all if the cast is sufficient in their acting skills.
Still, considering how much hype went into the movie and all, you’d think Tom Hanks would somehow find it in his so called heart to spend, what, three or so hours doing video game voiceovers? But noooooo, apparently Tom “I only talk to money people” Hanks couldn’t be bothered since at no point in the game does he appear in the game! Yeah, I know I bitch often about David Duchovny’s bland acting but at least he had the decency to appear as his Mulder character in X-Files : Resist or Serve (PS2)!

Yeah, apparently setting the game in the context of the novel and NOT the movie was sufficient reason to give Tom Hanks and company a chance to pass on doing video game voiceover. Not that some of them needed to since we’ll always have LOTR games for our Ian McKellan fix (yes, even LOTR : Third Age), and Onimusha 3 : Demon Siege for a small sliver of Jean Reno (though I am still down on him for NOT pulling a more substantial voice acting duty on that game)!
Yeah. Patrick Stewart can find the time to be Professor X in both the X-Men Legends games and the new X-Men : Official Game release. The cast of Superman Returns could find the time to be in their game. And, yes, even busy man Bruce Campbell can find the time to be in a couple of Evil Dead games! And yet, and yet, Tom (it’s apparently hip to have Tom Hanks be in your movie) Hanks could NOT be in his own game adaptation of his big movie. Thanks, Tom Hanks, thanks a lot.

Speaking of things the game should be spanked for, it seems The Da Vinci Code the game has an allergic reaction to The Da Vinci Code the movie because missing from this game is any content (be it during gameplay or extras) which speak of the movie, ala to the lacking theatrical content in X-Men : The Official Game. That means if you bought this as a companion piece to the movie, I.e. a game filled with movie content, boy are you going to be one disappointed Da Vinci Code fan! There are no theatrical trailer(s) to the movie, no behind the scenes cuts, no actor interviews, nothing. They couldn’t even be bothered to give you cutscenes from the movie to enhance the story of the game, it’s all movie-less content here (which sucks if you bought this game on the premise that you’ll get some movie content with your game).
Yeah, there are unlockable extras in this game (which you earn as you find “secrets“ in each level of the game), however these extras only extoll the “wonders” of the making of the game from what I can see of them, or of the works of Leonardo Da Vinci (in a set of secret items extolling the greatest works of Da Vinci). This, of course, is a shame that this game does not even come near to mentioning the theatrical version despite the fact the people who made the movie (Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures) put their company logo on the game which doesn’t have any ties to the movie they tied their brand names to.

Anyway where was I… oh, right, the game. Once you start the game you’ll see why this is listed as a “point & click” genre game.
Your first chance to see this in action is when you examine the naked old dude for clues, and the screen shits to a static image of him. This will happen often as you must scroll around these to interact with them by either examining stuff (and then listening to a long dry white toast and dry fried chicken dissertation on the “facts”), using items on items for desired effects, and picking up stuff (because The Collective is hellbent on kicking me headlong off my point & click kleptomania dry spell) including puzzle clues and the occasional roll of bandages which you use for healing your characters between dances with enemies.
This is interesting and all, but as you’re about to see when I get near the end of this there’s a hook to all this interesting content.

Once you get rolling into the game you’ll discover that this game mixes it up with part puzzler, part adventure and part stealth… yeah, apparently your Tom Hank-less man (who seems to channel the spirit of David Duchovny’s Fox Mulder more than Tom Hanks) has the ability to sneak around, which is good because you’re going to find yourself needing to undertake stealth sections where you have to get the drop on enemies before they can get the drop on you (right up to the point of being able to drag enemies you’ve subdued into the shadows once they’re defeated).
And, yes, that brings up the Struggle system, which isn’t all grappling. Half of the time you’re punching away at characters until they “grapple”, then you enter a Resident Evil 4 style button pushing sequence which either has you pushing four buttons in a sequence (attacks) or pushing buttons as they appear (defense). This is pretty easy to pick up, and once you master it you’ll be able to blaze through these “struggles” with little difficulty.

The rest of the game is puzzle solving (several revolving around themes like the pentagram and gods and so forth), finding stuff, and learning the truth of the Holy Grail and the bloodline of Jesus Christ via the involvement of the Priory of Sion and this Opus Dei type group that isn’t called Opus Dei in the game, probably as to not irk people.
That’s the good parts, and when you’re playing the game it’s all interesting and fun. Fears about the camera system proved to be without merit because the game did use a third person shooter camera system, using “dramatic“ camera angles only for the point & click puzzles (good since that means you had the ideal camera system for the game with the right amount of “dramatic“ to go with your practical camera work). And this? This is overall a good fun game… for the first time!
As you guessed once you put this game to bed you’ll have zero reason to replay because it won’t be as much “boy this will be fun to do again” as it will be “let’s see how fast I can finish this”.
Without any randomly generating puzzles, moving objects and retooled objectives, or anything that changes the gameplay you’ll find yourself just repeating from rote the things you did the first time around, making the second playthrough a mindless chore in repetitive action more than a new playing experience.
Yes, you do repetitive action in playing God of War, but at least God of War was kick(bleep) fun to play that you didn’t mind playing it over and over again… this, well, not so much the fun.

There is some “attempt” to provide replay value, what with two unlockable levels, but does that really provide anything more than a minor distraction to the fact that most of the game is only good one time over? I don’t think so.
The first unlockable level is a revisit to the Lourve, where you’ll be able to see all the artwork of the game and paintings that represent each of the levels of the game. Using your Uvlight you’ll find a secret puzzle on each painting, which might seem hard to beat… until you realize these puzzles all relate to the events of each level, which means if you just mentally go over the events of the level in question you should be able to figure out the puzzle (since it’s always based on what happened in the level shown).

The second? I didn’t unlock it in time, since I only got so far in the game, but if anyone finds out what this level is for let me know.

Now, before I wrap this (because there isn’t much else to say about the game since it’s fun once, and not much more) let’s go over the HARDEST puzzle in the game, the torch lighting puzzle at the end of the 3rd level (Normandy Mansion).
As you wrap this walk down memory lane with the female character of the game you’ll enter an underground chamber (after a long pain in the butt Roman Gods puzzle involving finding little statues and then spinning big statues to face their lover, Venus… what the hell is Venus’ dad Jupiter on the short list of lovers…) you’ll come face to face with a fire lighting puzzle with five lightable things in the shape of the pentagram. You have to light them in such a way that you’ll be able to move on in terms of the story.
Now if you go to GameFaqs you’ll be able to read a FAQ about this, but here’s the rundown that I got from GameFaq about the level.

Ok, once you get the stick you’ll need to light (the dark god is holding it), you need to note the position of each of the things you need to light. For the purposes of making this easier for you I’ll just stick to the clock formation used in the original piece. I.e. 12 o’clock represents the one nearest to the locked gate (flanked on either side by five white/black robes apiece set on the wall).
Now from 12 o’clock (the top of the pentagram) turn right until you see the next pot thing, which is 2 o’clock. After that we have (continuing to the right) 5 o’clock (which is (from your present POV) to the left of the staircase you entered). Continuing turning to the right and you’ll fall upon 7 o’clock (flanking the stairway on the opposite side). Finally turn yourself to the right and you’ll reach 10 o’clock and then back to 12. Ok. Now you got the set up so let’s do the lighting. Light the torch and…

1-Start at the top of the pentagram, 12 o’clock, and light it.
2-Turn towards 10 o’clock and light that.
3-Head down to 5 o’clock and light that (don’t get confused now, mind your clock pattern. If you ever get confused turn towards 12 o’clock and count your positions).
4-Back to 10 o’clock and light.
5-Head over to 2 o’clock and light.
6-Go back once again to 10 o’clock and light.
7-Now head to 7 o’clock, the one you haven’t lit yet, and light it.
That’s that. Breakdown time.

The Da Vinci Code Breakdown
What’s Hot?
You mean besides the sheer joy I get irking the Catholic Church by playing this game and promoting it? Believe it or not, this game. For the first time you play it the game is fun, and if you are willing to spend the whole week immersed in this game you’ll find a fun play for your rental time with this game, filled with intriguing puzzles, interesting levels, and a plot that keeps you going…

What’s Not?
For the FIRST TIME YOU PLAY IT! However if you are thinking of owning it I would reconsider. At the present price tag they’re asking for this game I don’t see ownership as an option, especially since you’ll probably not want to play it a second time around (since it will be no challenge once you beat it the first time). Add to that the lacking content in terms of film connection, no Tom Hanks and company in the voice actors, the lack of replay value (mentioned above), and the dry as white toast voice acting (which sounds as if everyone is reading a dull dissertation instead of “acting” out their roles as what should have been engaging interesting characters in a religiously controversial blockbuster).

But then again, considering critics have blasted the movie for it’s dull dry reading of the script you have to guess that the people who made the game were put under the same “gun” to make sure the line reading of the game followed the same “pace” as the movie. I.e. the movie had dry dialogue reading, then so too would the game based on the book which spawned the movie.
That is not good since I expected a more lively and spirited interpretation of the book, only to get an extremely dull to listen to voice track of people methodically reading their lines like Borgs.
Yawn. Dull voice acting makes me sleepy.

Moments to Remember?
The puzzles, I am glad to say, are not as uninteresting as I feared. With some interesting puzzles here and there I did find myself engaged by the thought provoking puzzlers in this game (and the ability to combine items to solve puzzles though that is not used very much from the amount of the game I managed to play).

What to Ignore?
HOWEVER the interesting puzzles were offset by the fact that they were set in stone, and had no randomizing element to make them fresh with each playing (thus compelling you to rethink your tactics for solving them with each game you play). This was sad, since it doomed this game from the lack of motivation to replay the game.

Oh, and don’t get me started on the classical artwork in this game! Once you get to the Lourve Revisited and get to see it all you’ll notice that half of the artwork (when you get a close look at it) is BLURRED! I mean damn! Could you NOT find a way to download all this culture into the game without making half the downloads of the paintings in this game a blurry mess that I can’t even figure out (when I get a good close look at it) what I’m looking at? What gives!

And then there’s the dull dry delivery of the dialogue. Gee, I never thought I would find somebody who could deliver dialogue in a way that makes David Duchovny sound lively and energetic… but I did! Whoever is doing the voice of Tom Hanks character in this game truly can deliver the most bland voice readings I have ever heard… damn!

Overall?
A pretty package of graphics, content and gameplay does not make a pretty game, especially when nobody plans ahead for the possible desire to replay said game past the first playing. While The Da Vinci Code does it’s job well on the first spin of the disc from beginning to end, it fails once you finished the game because you will have no practical need or desire to play the game more than once (due to the lack of replay value offered up from the strictly structured game structure that offers up nothing in terms of content that would change between playing, making each play interesting).

So in the end it wasn’t the lack of star power that doomed The Da Vinci Code to the rental route (or the bargain bin of purchases), or the controls or camera system (which both worked well), and not even the puzzles (which were interesting). No, the death of The Da Vinci Code’s chances to be on your buy list (as new) was the fact that the game lacked any replay value, a sure death for a game that would only have earned it’s price tag in spades if it was replayable past the first time (which this is not).

So rent it, play it, enjoy it and then return it. If you decide you DO want to own it, past rental, due to maybe it’s library of intellectual information or maybe the artwork in the game (half of which IS not half blurred) then go ahead. You won’t hurt my feelings if you decide to go buy this game.
That’s that. Now… what’s next? Superman Returns? I guess so… so bring it on, WB/EATiburon, bring it!

-- David Rasmussen 18th Jun 06

Playstation 2 Da Vinci Code, The Images