The Golden Compass [X360]

Sega's The Golden Compass is inspired by the forthcoming movie of the same name, which will be in theaters on December 7th courtesy of New Line Cinema. Both these works are based on Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials," a trilogy of novels set in an alternate universe populated by personal daemons and incredibly clever polar bears.

During our private demo with Sega at E3, we had a chance to learn more about this title and the close relationship between the developers at Shiny Entertainment and New Line. In order to give players the same feeling of the movie, Shiny got pictures from the set every day and managed to take facial scans of all the actors, as well as copies of their costumes. Even if what we have seen so far is not outstanding from a graphic perspective, it is a truthful visual reproduction of the movie, with results similar to what was done for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

The Golden Compass' plot is very complex. The main character is Lyra Belacqua, a girl who leaves the safety of England to rescue her friend Roger, kidnapped and brought to the North Pole by the evil organization of the Gobblers. This is just the beginning of a long adventure filled with interesting characters and beautiful settings.

The game's action is equally shared between three main characters, with different flavors of gameplay. Lyra has most of the platform action in the game, a role that she partially shares with her daemon Pantalaimon (you can call him Pan). The polar bear Iorek Byrnison does all the dirty work, fighting against huge enemies with his claws and teeth. Don't be fooled by the fact that Lyra rides him: Iorek is not an animal, but a sentient being, with opposable thumbs and shiny golden armor. He also has a dark past that will be revealed throughout the game.