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The Golden Compass First Details

By Brad Shoemaker, GameSpotPosted May 10, 2007 12:22 pm PT

We got the first brief info on the forthcoming action game based on Philip Pullman's hit children's book.

After New Line Cinema's unfettered success with The Lord of the Rings trilogy a few years ago, the Hollywood powerhouse must have been feeling bullish on the prospect of turning other multivolume fantasy literature into lavishly produced, big-budget movies. Next on the docket is the first entry in Philip Pullman's celebrated His Dark Materials series, titled The Golden Compass, which is due to hit theaters in December. Famed developer Shiny Entertainment is hard at work on an accompanying video game to be released by Sega. At the publisher's press event this morning, we saw some brief work-in-progress footage of both the game and the movie. We also got a few details on the production of the game, which is due to hit shelves a little before the movie itself.

The book, movie, and game all follow the journey of Lyra, a young girl in an alternate, fantastical universe who must travel to the desolate north to rescue her best friend. She'll be joined by Pan--a shape-shifting and friendly daemon that we saw become a cat, a butterfly, a mouse, and several other animals during the movie footage--and Iorek, a massive bearlike creature that appears to serve as the brawn of the outfit. You'll get to play as all three characters throughout the game's 11 action levels, and two of those levels will be set in environments that don't appear in the movie at all. (The designers plumbed the original novel for the inspiration of these exclusive levels.)

You'll encounter characters in the game based on those of the film, including the icily lovely villainess played by Nicole Kidman and a matronly witch played by Eva Green. Nascent James Bond Daniel Craig will also appear in the movie and game, though Sega and New Line are giving such sparse details about the project right now that we don't know a lot about any of these characters just yet. Nor did we get any real information about what the gameplay will be like, though we did see a few brief clips of what looked like standard platforming in some nice-looking fantasy environments.

In fact, New Line is holding back information on The Golden Compass in preparation for an unveiling of several minutes of the finished film at the Cannes Film Festival in just a couple of weeks. Afterward, there ought to be quite a bit more in terms of media and information released on both the movie and the game. We do know that the artists and designers at Shiny are working closely with the people making the movie, using facial scans of the principal actors and photographs of the costumes, props, and set designs to create a game as aesthetically cohesive as the movie on which it's based.

Because we barely glimpsed the actual game itself, it's hard to say exactly how The Golden Compass is shaping up, but New Line appears to be giving the film due attention: It said the studio will ready a massive marketing push for the latter part of the year. We should get to see the game by that time and will bring you firmer impressions of its gameplay as soon as we can.

36 Comments

  • savetehhaloz

    Posted Dec 4, 2007 1:56 pm PT

    i am not even bothering with this..... whose gona bet the Golden Compass will be another Eragon?

  • jazz_kenny

    Posted Aug 6, 2007 5:40 am PT

    let us all hope that this one will turn out to be a good one...

  • GriffinLord602

    Posted Aug 2, 2007 10:28 am PT

    OMG ive read the trilogy, Northern Lights (converted to golden compass for film purposes) The Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass...and they were all amazing books...in fact they were some of my faviourites, i do hope that they dont make this game rubbish or the film, purely for the trilogies well appreciated reputation...so keep your fingers crossed....

  • jesus_knight

    Posted Jul 14, 2007 10:09 am PT

    i am not sure about this one......

  • syncroshadow

    Posted Jul 11, 2007 12:35 am PT

    i forgot if those pics r the games graphics i m so getting this game unless it was kinda like code lyoko which had sharp 3d grahpics yet screwed up

  • _Sam_

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 12:40 pm PT

    I never read the book, but I still hope that they don't mess this up!

  • s0njas0n

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 6:11 am PT

    this may turn out better than we expect... who knows?

  • syncroshadow

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 5:02 am PT

    i read all three books well some teacher took the third one away from me so then after summer i tried to read it and it felt like i had forgotten too many things. instead of reading i guess i'm going to play the game. the sequel in the game should be awesome sense u can probably play as Will

  • chutup

    Posted Jul 10, 2007 3:58 am PT

    NO NO NO NO NO
    what a POS
    maybe a traditional adventure game would have done dark materials ok but a FREAKIN ACTION GAME??
    Whoever greenlighted this POS should die

  • sens_rocks_40

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 7:32 pm PT

    this game is going to ruin the franchise, the books were great, i haven't heard much on the movie but it probably will turn out ok, but this isn't the type of thing that should be made into a game.

  • IKKF

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 7:04 pm PT

    It's a freakin' movie game! It will most likely receive a rating of 7.0 or lower.

  • BaldursGate18

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 5:31 pm PT

    Anyone a fan of Lord Of The Rings Books or part of any LOTR Unions contact me.

  • willauqs

    Posted Jul 9, 2007 5:26 pm PT

    its not a children's book. and now the movie and the game and going to be nothing like the book

  • nicfromspace

    Posted Jul 3, 2007 4:58 pm PT

    I believe the best way to experience something is to read it. Someone should make a movie after the Shannara Series.

  • benjo89

    Posted Jun 25, 2007 5:00 pm PT

    The book was absolutely fantastic and holds great memories from my childhood.
    I think they are wrong to destroy the imaginations of the reader by the director/creator forcing their interpretations and ideas down your throat and inevitabily tainting your own perception of the trio.

    And by the way, the first book in the series in the UK is called 'The Nothern Lights' - beamme...I'm looking at you...

  • haesuse

    Posted Jun 13, 2007 1:20 pm PT

    yes, another crappy book to movie to video game clone. dear god ppl, stop cashing in on quick trash games and realize that the gaming systems never had so much power to be used in constructive ways. ie. make some original games!

  • band_aid

    Posted May 28, 2007 7:08 pm PT

    my thumbs cant read only push buttons

  • aparsegh

    Posted May 27, 2007 7:27 am PT

    @martianrobot

    Is this really the proper place to engage in American bashing?

    Instead of assuming that the name change is due to anything lacking in the average American, maybe its just that while "The Northern Lights" is a decent name, "The Golden Compass" fits better thematically with the following two books.

  • martianrobot

    Posted May 26, 2007 2:10 pm PT

    The first book is called "The Northern Lights", and the next two are "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass". Well, they are here in the UK, and seeing as the writer is British... I don't know why the name has been changed into "The Golden Compass"... doesn't make sense. I guess it's for an American audience. Who never make sense of anything

    Probably similar issues as the name change for the first Harry Potter... yer average American probably couldn't grasp the concept of what a Philosopher was so they had to change it to Sorceror.

    I'm actually quite surprised this great 'childrens' book trilogy is being made into Hollywood films and games, considering the authors outspoken atheism, the book's anti-religious subject matter and the fact that the US is in the grip of Christian Fundamentalism. Yahweh knows how they are going to recreate the 'difficult' third book (which I didn't actually like all that much to be honest).

    "Northern Lights" is fantastic though, one of the greats in child/adult fiction that I've read three times in 5 years. Brilliant characters and atmosphere and adventure. I await the film version with distrust. But, oh, I'm supposed to be writing about the game...

    Hmmmmmmmm. It is being made by Shiny, so my expectations have raised a notch.

  • dissonantblack

    Posted May 22, 2007 1:35 pm PT

    i'm reading the first book right now. the Northern lights. I'm glad that I'm reading the series before it becomes really popular.

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