Want to play “The Da Vinci Code”?
Sure, you probably wonder if the new game is any good. Not that it matters. With 59 million copies of the book in print across the globe, people will skip the usual quality inspection and drop 40 bucks to try it out because it’s a game based on a wildly popular novel.
Just look at the new movie. Even though critics like to use words like “lame” and “flop” when trying to capture the cinematic appeal of Ron Howard’s big-screen adaptation, the ample derision heaped on the movie didn’t slow the pileup of box-office receipts. The book was a smash, so the movie will do fine diverting just a fraction of fans curious about the adaptation. And who cares if it is a train wreck? For 10 bucks a head, we can rubberneck at that too.
Gamers are used to this. The video-game aisles are littered with endless attempts to cash in on popular appeal imported from other media. Sometimes it works. The “King Kong” games were not a wonder of the gaming world. But they got the job done. Sometimes they don’t. The big-budget “Enter the Matrix” got a science-fiction kung-fu drubbing from the critics but probably sold as many if not more games than “Kong.”
Even when critical praise and popular appeal coincide, it usually happens so far from the scene of the licensing crime that it doesn’t seem fair to call the result a spinoff. The “Lego Star Wars: The Video Game” picked up the viral Lucas thread after it wound its way through toys, then Legos and, finally, into games. Who would have guessed one of the best of the “Star Wars” games would let you play a stubby plastic Obi Wan smacking droids into little Lego pieces?
Video games have been so good at letting us pretend to pilot military jets, drive performance sports cars and administer entire cities, it shouldn’t surprise us that they also promise to serve up the fantasy that your favorite book, movie or television show can keep going on and on.
But is “The Da Vinci Code” game any good?
If you’ve never read the book nor seen the film, all the game does is underline the story’s hokey premise and thin characterizations. Had the game predated the movie and book, people would point to it as an example of why video games dumb down narrative and pile on cliché.
If – and this is the wheel on which the whole business model of licensed, derivative properties turns – you’re a fan of the original, then “The Da Vinci Code” game lets you participate in a plot that was never much more than a game in the first place. Exploring exotic locales and solving puzzles drove Dan Brown’s book to the heights of publishing fame. And the same formula provides a spine for an entertaining interactive supplement to the puzzling success of the Da Vinci mystery.
Yeah, “The Da Vinci Code” game is OK.
“The Da Vinci Code”
VIDEO GAME|PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2|$29.99 PC, $39.99 console|Rating T for teen
THIS WEEK | Upcoming game titles
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II, X360, Electronic Arts, released today; Moto GP 2006, X360, THQ, Wednesday; Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, PS2, Capcom, today; Mega Man Battle Network 6 Cybeast Gregar, GBA, Capcom, today; Urban Chaos: Riot Response, Xbox, PS2, Eidos Interactive, today; Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure, GBA, Banpresto, today; Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War, PC, Midway Games, June 12; Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Falzar, GBA, Capcom, today; Armored Core: Last Raven, PS2, FromSoftware, today|Gamermetric.com
