The Da Vinci Code PS2 Review

Dan Brown’s controversial The Da Vinci Code started life as a book, it was a phenomenon so it spawned a film and it was only natural for a game to appear sometime down the line. The game is far more cerebral than your average movie licence, which giving the subject matter is hardly a surprise.

The game doesn’t possess the actor likenesses nor their voices (though Robert Landon’s voice-actor does sound a bit like Tom Hanks on considerably worse form) and the story actually has more in relation with the novel than the recent big screen adaptation.

Although it does have some out of place action elements, The Da Vinci Code is still more akin to the doomed point-and-click genre than the scrolling fighting game. But, whilst from time to time you must partake in a bit of stealth or fisticuffs, Puzzles are however the main focus of the gameplay, which is exactly the way it should be in such a game.

The puzzles can on occasion be fiendishly difficult, requiring you to decode encrypted text or solve perplexing anagrams amongst other evil challenges, thank god for walkthroughs! The puzzling, whilst at times a bit obscure is easily the most refined and satisfactory aspect of The Da Vinci Code, which considering it’s the primary thing you’ll be getting up to in the game, is a good thing.

The stealth and fighting on the other hand is not.

Main characters: Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu can do all the usual stealthy stuff, such as knocking on walls or floors to distract enemies and creeping up on them to knock them out cold. Which is all well and good, but the enemies are dim to say the least, appearing to all be suffering from short sightedness and just generally lacking in the brain cell department, which -even if you happen to get spotted- results in these sections being stupidly easy.

Getting into fights initiates a mini game, where you must press on screen commands to either attack or dodge the attacks of your enemy. It’s animated nicely and is initially a fun method of combat, but lacks challenge, each fight takes too long and considering its source material it ultimately ends up feeling a bit out of place.

Not being able to enter a door whilst holding something is also a crime as is the fact that menial things such as dragging bodies is much trickier than need be. It also has a myriad of bugs, which are hardly game breaking in our experience but are still inexcusable all the same.

Lacking the puzzle solving, The Da Vinci Code could have been a disaster, but with it, it’s a moderately enjoyable adventure game and at the same time a film licence that for once doesn’t patronize its mass market target audience with baby like simplicity and for that the game should be commended.

6/10