The Da Vinci Code Game Review

The Da Vinci Code revolves around secret societies, ancient cover-ups and calculated vengeance in an action-oriented suspense experience. While attempting to solve a murder, Harvard professor Robert Langdon and brilliant French cryptographer Sophie Neveu uncover a 2000-year-old conspiracy through clues encoded in paintings by Leonardo Da Vinci.

The Da Vinci Code takes you on a heart-pounding non-stop race through Paris and through time to find the truth and protect a secret that could shake the world.

The game promises players the chance to break the code for themselves, as they try to solve a murder mystery that has its origins more than 2,000 years ago.

THE DA VINCI CODE Format: PlayStation 2 (reviewed), Xbox, GameCube Graphics: 8 Sound: 9 Gameplay: 5 Enduring appeal: 5 Overall: 5

In reality, gamers are served up an often frustrating movie tie-in, with endless cut scenes and patchy gameplay. At times it feels tedious, and at others like the ancient mystery is being played out in real time.

But despite its glacial pace, the game makes a good stab at recreating the mood of the original story and gives gamers a chance to explore Dan Brown's world in detail.

Gamers familiar with the novel will recognise the basics of the plot as you set out to solve the bizarre murder of Jacques Sauniere in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

However, game developers the Collective have added extra locations and puzzles to appeal to gamers who do not just want a walkthrough of the novel.

You play as either Harvard Professor Robert Langdon or Sauniere's cryptographer grand-daughter, Sophie Neveu, as you make your way around 11 chapters of familiar locations solving cryptic posers as you go.

Wandering aimlessly

As you would expect, these anagrams, ciphers and puzzles form the backbone of the game and are clearly where most of the development effort has gone.

At times they can be gallingly hard, particular for people who have not read the book or seen the film. At times, players are reduced to pure guesswork by the needlessly elaborate clues.

That said, there is a certain sense of satisfaction when you are confronted by Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man that signals when you have solved a particularly complex riddle.

The vast majority of play involves aimlessly wandering around churches, art galleries and stately homes hoping to stumble across an object of interest.

This can lead to long periods of play, endlessly retracing your steps and painstakingly poring over rooms in the hope that you will trip over the missing object.

Until you have completed the required tasks in a particular section you cannot move on through the game.

These tedious walkabouts are occasionally punctuated by formulaic fighting sequences that seem out of place and, at times, tacked on as an afterthought.

Light and shadow

Visually, the game is good with fairly accurate and detailed recreations of famous locations including the Louvre Museum and Westminster Abbey.