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 | Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events PS2 Activision  Given the deservedly low expectations we have of movie tie-in games, 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events' is no disappointment. The game reflects the plot of the film, a condensation of the first three books of Snicket's popular children's series, and tenuously ties the chapters together with a selection of mini-games, fetching tasks and standard puzzle solving. The game follows the three Baudelaire orphans Violet, Klaus and Sunny in their efforts to escape the insidious claws of Count Olaf and his very filthy dilapidated mansion. Violet, Klaus and Olaf are all voiced by their actor counterparts (Emily Browning, Liam Aiken and Jim Carrey, respectively), who seem to be at a table reading as opposed to displaying any sort of real emotion. Carrey is the real disappointment here: while the children barely rise above 'miserable resignation', as is fitting with their characters, Carrey seems to be barely going through the motions and you can almost hear him looking at his watch. Tim Curry plays the narrator, Snicket himself, as he had done previously on the audio recordings of the books and he provides the only real depth of character within the game. The game focuses mainly on Violet's fine devices which she invents to help achieve a number of similar goals. Klaus, while providing much of his knowledge in the books, is relegated to being the muscle in the group, while Sunny's size is her only notable asset. The mini-games range in difficulty from embarrassingly easy to mildly tedious, from a 'Simon' style memory game to a railed shooter a la 'Time Crisis', but they are minor distractions from the vexing fetching details the characters are sent on throughout the game. While the overall look of the game is a decent enough facsimile of the film's gothic, Tim Burton-esque atmosphere, the graphics are disappointingly simplistic and the cut scenes of the characters are laughable, with close-ups of the characters' visages frightfully disjointed. Also disappointing is the lack of Thomas Newman's wonderful score, Activision instead opting for some stock standard music that could've come from any given title. The game is also incredibly short, and is lengthened only ever so slightly if the gamer chooses to collect jigsaw pieces that unlock hidden extras, such as movie stills and production art. Once the game is finished and the extras have all been unlocked, there is very little else to do and the replay value suffers immensely. While bearing in mind that this is a game intended for children, Activision have underestimated the intelligence of the viciously fanatic devotees of Lemony Snicket's books; only the youngest gamers will experience difficulty with this one.  | |
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