The Adventures of Tintin - The Game Review

I'm going to be honest - I've never read any of the Tintin comic books, despite the fact that they've been around for several decades. That's not saying they aren't good, but when I was younger they just weren't my thing. However, I really enjoyed the TV series that came out in the 90s, so was thrilled when a new film was released this year. The Adventures of Tintin - The Game is based on the 2011 film, albeit with a few tweaks here and there.

It starts with Tintin browsing a market and coming across a fantastic looking model of a three-masted sailing ship. Just as he makes the purchase, Tintin is approached, rather rudely, by a man named Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine who wants to buy the ship off him, making a "money no object" offer. Tintin refuses and Sakharine skulks away. A short while later Tintin is assaulted and his ship stolen. Having a good idea who might have ordered the robbery, he sets out to get his ship back and this is where the adventure begins.

The Adventures of Tintin - The Game is an amalgamation of many different genres. One minute players will be using third-person stealth to sneak into a mansion, the next they will be on-rails, running away from an angry dog, and competing in quick time events to escape. It's a really impressive mix of ideas, and will keep the player interested throughout; there's even a little homage to Cut the Rope!

The controls are generally responsive, although sometimes the game didn't correctly recognise swipes. Moving the character feels really smooth, with the on-screen virtual d-pad reacting well. At the start of the game the player is asked if they wish to turn on motion controls, and it's something worth doing as there is some clever implementation further in. There's also some nice interaction in cutscenes, where the player can tap the screen to collect coins as the camera pans around.

Graphically The Adventures of Tintin - The Game is very impressive. All character models look fantastic, especially Tintin, and the environments are superb. The same can't really be said about the voice acting, which is weak at best. Unfortunately my game seemed to suffer from a high number of crashes, and every time one happened it would take about ten minutes and multiple reloads for the game to work again. Obviously this was incredibly frustrating, and whole areas would have to be repeated.

The Adventures of Tintin - The Game is an extremely enjoyable game that manages to combine multiple genres, yet never feels messy. It's just a shame about the number of game crashes.

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