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So dark the con of man

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: May 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I don't think I've to explain too much about the premise of The Da Vinci Code. It appears that the book is so immensely popular that even my mother, who seldom reads, has read it. Of course, it's only natural that a blockbuster movie adaptation follows, as well as a movie tie-in game. Unfortunately, while the book and movie are interesting entities on their own, the game doesn't quite measure up.

The game is billed as an action adventure game, but really, the action nature is very much mellowed down. The combat, in particular, just isn't very well done. Instead of allowing the player to freely attack an opponent, the game opts for a Struggle System that requires the player to press a series of buttons shown on the screen to perform an attack or defend sequence. This is an idea borrowed from the great adventure game Indigo Prophecy, but somehow, it just doesn't work as well here. Moreover, given the preconceptions that both the lead characters, Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu, aren't exactly martial arts expert, seeing them perform karate chops on opponents just doesn't feel right.

The adventure feature of the game, however, is pretty well done. Considering that The Da Vinci Code is about solving a murder case, and the uncovering of a great conspiracy of a grand scale, it's only right that the puzzles in this game offers the right amount of challenges. Cryptograms, puzzles and riddles are just some of the things that are thrown at your path liberally. And boy, some of these are truly tough. I like games that provide a good mind challenge, so it's not surprising that I find the puzzle elements in this game highly enjoyable. At times, the puzzles feel too pretentious, almost to the point of giving the player a puzzle for the sake of having a puzzle. Why would someone hide a key to a mansion in a shed that nobody can get access to apart from climbing in from the window? Nevertheless, many adventure games are guilty of that, so it isn't exactly a big issue for me as well.

Graphically, the game looks really dated. The character models are badly designed, and it's really sad that, with this being a movie tie-in, the developer couldn't at least try to get the licenses to include the actual models and voice-overs for Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen and (perhaps) Jean Reno. At least this would provide some novelty value. Instead, what we've here are just very boring looking characters that look, well, dead. The music and sound effects are also flat. The voice-overs sound tired and disinterested, and the music has the tendency to be overly loud in one situation, and totally incomprehensible in another. I've lost count of the number of times I had to adjust the volume on my TV set just to get the right sound level.

Adding to the frustration are glitches that make the playing experience a little worse. At times, the camera angle can go all haywire, causing the player not to be able to see what's happening around you. This works badly if you're in the midst of combat. Some times, when you load a game, your character will automatically walk around even without you touching the left analog stick. All these are little bugs that won't stop you from completing the game, but they're nonetheless irritating when you experience them.

On the whole, The Da Vinci Code feels like an unfinished game, probably rushed out just in time to accompany the movie's release date. Fans of the adventure genre may still find it intriguing due to the clever puzzles that are littered throughout the game. If you ignore the rather bland action sequences and poor presentations, The Da Vinci Code presents a good adventure story that complements the book and the movie adequately. And for this, it's still a recommendable game despite its flaws.

Cracking the Code for Yourself...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As far as games based off movies go, they don't always tend to be good. That doesn't mean they're bad, it simply means they're not up to standards. The Da Vinci Code is one of those games. There are times when playing that the game feels a little unfinished, and just all out unexciting. It follows the story of the book and movie quite well, and it's nice to play through it yourself, but as far as a quality game goes, The Da Vinci Code is far from being of fantastic quality.

Playing as Robert Langdon or Sophie Neveu you'll have to escape from the police, seeing as how Robert is framed for murder, and along the same lines, uncover a conspiracy of the catholic church by solving puzzles and trying to fend yourself from those standing in your way. You play as either Robert or Sophie. They both work exactly the same. There is no difference between them. They've got the exact same moves and play the exact same way. So it doesn't matter who you're playing as. It might have been nice to give them each different abilities.

Most of the gameplay consists of you solving puzzles throughout the game. These puzzles, surprisingly, are fun and actually require some logical thinking. If you find yourself stumped, it's no surprise. Some of these puzzles really are a challenge, and require you to think. There is also a really good variety of them. Because of this the gameplay keeps from being stale. You'll have to decipher anagrams, solve riddles and much more. The downside, of course, is that these puzzles aren't random. They have the same solution every time. So it's only really worth playing through the game once.

Then there's the combat. It surprisingly works out in this game as well. You'll find yourself clashing with your enemies and then having to press a series of buttons to make successful strikes. It's interesting, but also slow. If you miss a button press (or you're not fast enough), you'll have a harder time getting an attack off. It's not just about offense, it's also about defense. If an enemy comes swinging at you, there will also be a series of buttons to press in order to dodge their attack. Much like fighting, if you miss a button or you're not fast enough, you could take damage. The combat works, but as I said, it's a little slow.

The Da Vinci Code isn't exactly a fantastic looking game. Not only do the characters have little resemblance to their film counterparts, but they look bland and emotionless. The game also has a few graphical bugs. You'll find yourself getting caught up on some of the games objects in your way. It's annoying. The textures don't look great either.

As if that wasn't enough, the sound quality isn't brilliant either. The voice acting is horrible. It's dull and robotic. These characters have no feeling or apparent interest in what they're doing. This is a step down from voice quality in videogames.

It isn't just the graphics and voices that urk this game a little. The storyline is also a little bland. It's great to actually play through the adventure of the book and the movie, but the story moves really slow, despite how short the game itself is. It'll take you anywhere from seven to twelve hours to complete it, depending on how well you perform on the puzzles. The game's moments of story rather than gameplay are rather bland and boring, and because of the bad voice quality, it only keeps the story down even more.

The gameplay satisfies at least. This is what really counts, and I'm glad to say The Da Vinci Code does it well. However, the other things that make a quality game get the short end of the stick. If you didn't get enough of Dan Brown's run away bestseller, you'll probably like this. If you couldn't get enough the movie, you'll probably like this. If, however, you're expecting a high quality game... it isn't in The Da Vinci Code.

The Good
+The gameplay mechanics work
+Interesting puzzles, quite the variety, and they're challenging
+Follows the book and film pretty well
+Not such a bad combat system

The Bad
-The graphics aren't great
-The characters don't really look like the characters in the movie
-Horrible voice acting
-The Story is slow paced
-Combat is slow
-There's really not a whole lot of replay value

Fight and Knowledge = FUN !???

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is fun. The puzzles are hard and I used [...] to get through the cryptography ones, but the rest are fun. The game follows the basic story as the book: fonding the grail (Mary) but goes to different places. While at the different areas you will see different painting and learn about ancient civilizations not metioned in the book (like Roman gods and goddeses) and are able to look at the stuff you seen in a menue where you can read more about them. This is one of two features I love about this game. The other feature is the fights where you press a series of bottons to knock out your enemys. It is quite fun! I would never think Robert Langdon would be beating up police and monks! I only rented this game and i have not beaten it, BUT I LOVE IT!

Almost a perfect adventure game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The adventure game is a genre that has died out in the US in the past few years, much to the chagrin of many fans who enjoyed games like King's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Gabriel Knight, and Grim Fandango. Companies were going after the action game in a big way and there seemed no place for games that required creative thinking instead of quick reflexes.

Now, it appears that these types of games may be coming back in the form of such titles as the Da Vinci Code. While not strictly an adventure game, it does bring back puzzle-solving, creative thinking, and a strong game-driven storyline to the mix.

The puzzles are good (though not too hard) and add to the plot instead of just being tossed in to give players something to do. The environment is wonderful for exploring and players should make notes of what they've done to help get through some of the harder puzzles and challenges.

The one down-side of the game is the rather cumbersome (and, for a game featuring a college professor and a cryptologist as the main characters, unrealistic) combat system.

All in all, if you are a fan of the old Sierra and LucasArts type adventure games, I think you will enjoy this one.

Finally!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am pleased as punch to have been able to acquire this game!!! Maybe I am old-fashioned, but it is refreshing to find a modern game that does not rely on blood and gore, foul language and adult situations to be entertaining. The puzzles are challenging without being frustrating, the graphics are realistic and barely patchy, although, you can definitely find the "glitches" when trying really hard. I absolutely love finding the secrets with exploring!!! The combat scenes, personally I can do without, but at least they have a purpose, not just because the programmers needed more shoot-em up action. I would highly recommend this to young adults to challenge their brains and cannot wait for my daughters to be old enough to play this, the rating system is dead right for this game, it is teen and up. Highly, highly recommend and REALLY WANT MORE!!!!! Maybe they could make up a "sequel"?

SUPRISINGLY GREAT!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: May 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I played the Da Vinci Code with some doubt thinking that it would not be very great. But, It is actually a very good game. It follows the book where you play as Robert and Sophie. It is really intelligently made with difficult puzzles and smart battle sequences where you have to hit certain buttons to pull off a good combo. There is also the stealth mode where u have to escape from cops or sneak past a certain area. Of course there are some cool weapons to pick up. There are some flaws though.... First there is the camera. You constantly have to keep your and on the right analog stick to move the camera. Second.. the characters move to slow. There running looks like it is in slow motion. Lastly, the puzzles, even though they are fun, can be really hard and somewhat frustrating. But those are really minor flaws. I give this GAME A 4.5 ACTUALLY because it is fun, smart, addicting, and somewhat frightening (not really scary though). The game is overall great and exciting.

The Game Developers Should Be Slapped

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It's not the storyline or the puzzles that I hated (those were actually interesting and fun), it was the overall gameplay. I love adventure games because I can sit back, relax and solve puzzles, find clues, etc. But, instead it was a frustrating experience. First, who puts combat in an adventure game? That's just ridiculous.

Speaking of combat, in the middle of fights with security guards at the Louvre, I would continuously get pop-ups telling me which buttons to use. This was okay the first time, but come on, during EVERY fight? There were other annoyances like I couldn't open a door while holding a gun, but I couldn't drop it either. I had to restart my game to go through the door. Also, while walking the other person follows so close that you have to constantly keep trying to get out of the way.

Conclusion: I broke the DVD, stuck it in the box, and threw it away. I was going to resell it, but I wouldn't be that mean to someone. This is literally the worst game I have ever played. I would give it -5 stars. Yep, I hated it that much.

Tough to Critique Gameplay Through the Bugs

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: July 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Please note that these apply to the PC version of this game.

Despite falling well within the limits of the minimum specifications (2.5 GHz P4, 1 GB RAM, Radeon 9700 Pro 128 MB) the game has some of the most awful video glitches I've ever seen. Updates to the video drivers were no help either. To make things worse, there are no patches available either.

It is obvious that 2K Games had this title rushed out to cash in on the movie, paying little attention to trying to test compatibility with anything beyond their development systems. Granted, this system is no longer state of the art, but if they can't be bothered to beta test long enough to figure out accurate system requirements, why should we be forced to swallow this terrible state of quality?

Shameful.

The Book Is SOOOOO Much Better

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: June 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First off, I loved Dan Brown's book. It was a really well written piece of work. But this game.........OH MY GOD!!! Okay, so I don't completely lose my control, I'll list my opinions in a good and bad list.

THE GOOD
- GOOD IDEA
- PUZZLES ALSO A GOOD IDEA
- STEALTH WORKS
- WEAPONS WORK

THE BAD
- THE VOICEOVERS
- THE CHARACTERS THAT LOOK NOTHING LIKE THEIR COUNTERPARTS
- THE COMBAT SYSTEM IS HORRIBLE
- THE GRAPHICS ARE VERY, VERY BLAND
- WHILE YOU'RE ATTACKING A GUARD, ONE OF HIS LITTLE BUDDIES RUNS OVER AND GRABS YOU, THEREFORE PREVENTING THE ATTACK

Overall, this was a good idea that could've been a lot better. Actually, I think 2K Games should've just gotten their dirty little paws off of this game and left it at the book. This really isn't a game at all. It's a piece of crap!!

Rated T for teen?????

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 21
Date: June 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm not going to go into the "plot" of this game/movie only to say that it is little more than a pile of [...].However the only people who are going to buy into this junk in the first place are people who already have a hate bias,or the purely ignorant.

With that said,my main problem with this game is the irresponsible rating given to it.The movie is rated R,so why is the game given a T for teen rating?It easily earns a M for mature 17+ for story content alone.

On the back of the game,there is a screen shoot of a half naked dead man nailed to the floor with a satan star carved into his chest.THIS IS SUITABLE FOR 13/14 YEAR OLDS??The game description doesn't even have the guts to admit what "the mystery" it is your trying to solve.If it blatantly said that it was an all out attck on the fundementals of Christianity in general and Catholicisim specifically,no parent would even THINK about getting this garbage for their kids.

It just goes to show how low people will go to push hate propoganda and aim it at the youth,all for the sake of the almighty dollar.This joke will blow over like "the last temptation of Christ" did.But after this poor fad passes and dies,the people's faith will still remain strong.

God have mercy on Hollywood's arrogance.

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