Review: The Spiderwick Chronicles (360)

Gamestyle reads it’s fair share of fantasy and generic tales, but the Spiderwick Chronicles has certainly not crossed our path before. The focus of the adventure is firmly on three children (Grace plus the twins Jared and Simon) who you will control to perform various tasks. Due to a marital fallout their mother whisks the family away to an old homestead, which has remained empty after the disappearance of a relative. Soon the kids discover the world of the faeries, complete with goblins, sprites and other mythical creatures. Each faction is after the family book that contains details of every creature in the faerie universe, a vital resource that could become dangerous in the wrong hands.

The Spiderwick Estate not only features a main house, but several outbuildings and the woods beyond. It is from here that you can go deeper into the woods or venture to the quarry or swamp areas if you are looking for some fierce goblin action. The promotional blurb may promise a sandbox approach but the actual game is far from this. Placing a few collectable items around the Spiderwick map or allowing the player to collect several types of creatures does not instantly turn a linear adventure into a do as you please world. Yes, you can engage in various options other than following the main storyline but to even call these subplots would be a disservice. Their inclusion realistically is to only boost the overall playtime, as the plot will only take a few hours to complete.

Stormfront Studios have mixed the cinematics up by incorporating the game engine for minor sequences, while relying on film footage for the pivotal developments. It works reasonably well and fans of the series will appreciate the mix. Generally production standards are good in this title, with the voice acting and soundtrack all hitting the mark and adding to the experience. It is just unfortunate that the actual gameplay on offer here is little more than by the numbers with the emphasis on fetch and carry tasks, involving the dreaded backtracking dynamic.

Keeping track of every little meaningless activity and ticking each little box is made somewhat digestible through the use of the Field Guide. Here you can look up your progress, what remains to be achieved to reach the next level or just browse the records. For an experienced player there is little challenge in this title, as the biggest hurdle is trying to stand onboard until the end. It goes without saying that younger players or those with a passion for the books will find more enjoyment in Spiderwick Chronicles than Gamestyle did.

Technically, the level of detail on offer is good and Gamestyle especially enjoyed the autumn leaves loading screen. The paths through the forest are linear and full of respawning enemies, who will congregate around your character until swatted away with a baseball bat. The combat is fairly lacklustre and predictable, which matches the effort needed to chase down specific types of faeries to unlock the next stage. Each faerie has a specific ability, whether it is replenishing health, providing a distraction or boosting your speed. These can be painted and collected in limited quantities, to be unleashed at a moment of your choosing. Such decisions can turn key encounters and save the day, plus bring some much-needed variety to confrontations.

Outdoors the camera is workable, but as soon as you enter any building or confined space it soon requires considerable attention. An annoying design decision or glitch which Gamestyle grew to loathe is whenever you enter a new area, your in hand weapon or instrument is removed. So every time you have to reselect your net, bat or sword before moving on. The co-operative function is very limited as is the multi-player element that involves little more than running around after faeries like a headless chicken.

Ultimately The Spiderwick Chronicles achieves what it sets out to accomplish, and that is satisfy fans of the source material. It is not a video game adaptation that will break out of such a market (Goldeneye for example) and introduce players to a new experience. It plays to the converted and ticks all the boxes, whereas everyone else will correctly judge the final product as average.

Rating: 5 / 10

Words by Jason Julier