GameSpy Preview of Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

If you are familiar with "The Chronicles of Narnia," a series of books written by Oxford scholar and Tolkien's close friend C.S. Lewis, you probably already know everything about the movies that Disney is creating based on the fantasy world of Narnia and, of course, about the games that religiously follow every movie release. (If this is the case, you might even know small details such as the fact that Narnia takes its name from the small Italian village of Narni.) Following "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" that appeared in late 2005, Prince Caspian is the second novel turned movie turned videogame, and once again it's being developed by Traveller's Tales.

The four Pevensie children who were the main characters in the previous title will be back again, but this time they will be joined by a whole army of playable characters, many of whom will be fantastic creatures from the Narnia universe. The plot is somehow darker and more adult-oriented than in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:" Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are called back to Narnia by a powerful force, only to discover that a thousand years have passed since their last visit and that the land they used to rule is now oppressed by the cruel humans of Telmarine, who are trying to ban all the fantastic creatures from their territories. The rightful heir to the throne, Prince Caspian, is trying to gather his small army to fight his evil uncle Miraz, who is planning to depose the prince. In this dark scenario, the children will have to unite through several battles to ensure the freedom of Narnia.

Traveller's Tales promises 20 playable characters, both human and mythical. There will be the four Pevensie children, as well as dwarves, fauns, minotaurs and other creatures seen in the previous game. Each of them will have his or her own special ability or attribute in order to ensure a certain variety of action in multiplayer sessions. Prince Caspian supports two-player drop-in drop-out cooperative gameplay, both online and offline, but even in single-player sessions the variety of characters will be useful, since the party helps out the main character.

Clearly, the core of the game is now on battles. Up to 300 characters move simultaneously on-screen without the game slowing down, even in this early stage of development. Flying griffins, giants and war machines coexist on the battle field, allowing players to undertake different strategies. We saw one of the characters picking up a rock and throwing it into the masses to open a path for himself: the NPCs reacted instinctively moving away from the impact point and toward the sides of the screen. Then a dwarf hijacked a giant, riding on his shoulders and taking advantage of the high position to get closer to the trebuchets and destroy them. When battling in castles, players will have even more freedom, as we were told that there will be complete access to turrets, courtyards, rooms and every other area.

During battles, players will have to accomplish several mini-goals: they might be required to defeat all the archers on-screen or to destroy a certain number of Telmarine ships by using a ballista that is reloaded through the rotation of the analog stick. What should make the game even more interesting is the advanced physics technology that Traveller's Tales has implemented. Ragdoll dynamics will complement the movement of characters and objects and realistic collisions have been studied to improve the visual aspect of fighting between small and big characters.

Our short demo was focused on the concepts of a game that is more action-oriented, more dramatic and more expansive than the first installment in the series. We were also told that the development team is working on more believable environments. The game will be released in summer 2008 on every platform, with slight differences between them that haven't yet been revealed.

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