Along with Spielberg's movie, Ubisoft have released the exiting adventure of Tintin in The Secret Of The Unicorn game to accompany this great movie and a classic comic from the Belgian artist Georges Remi. People being 30 to 40 years old will remember Tintin quite well and they will surely love this game.

Well, if you are new to the Tintin adventures, Tintin is a journalist and of course our hero who along with his faithful fox terrier dog Snowy (who is also known as Milou) gets his nose into some serious mysteries involving lost treasures or international intrigues. While Tintin and his faithful Snowy are browsing in the market they find a model boat who then discovers it was a replica of the lost ship called Unicorn. He is then approached by a sinister man called Ivan Ivanovitch Skharine who wanted desperately to buy this model and when I mean desperate, he wanted it badly enough to assault Tintin. Later on Tintin discovers there is more into this ship model and that is where the story evolves into a great story.

The game's presentation is very good as you will be playing with the combination of Snowy and Tintin which will be taking part in solving the mystery or get out from a sticky situation. The game is played into a 2D-ish platform and it is mostly aimed for the younger generation and casual gamers since the puzzles or the action will not amuse the hard-core players, but never less... the game is very interesting and has a very good mix of puzzle, action, humour and playability. I am saying 2D-ish since its looks like a 2D platform game but you will go from one floor to another by jumping inwards or outward giving a 3D idea of the place, very good idea.

By that I mean that the game allows you to play different roles, like when you play with Snowy, you will be able to sniff around, get into small passages, bark at rats and dig a hole. While playing with Tintin, you can jump around and knockout enemies. Knocking out enemies is quite interesting since you can have different combination of the knockout. You can take the direct approach and punch them, hide in a barrel and smack them with the lid, sneak on them, throw something at them or even bounce something with something to hit them. Alternative you can also hit a chandelier and drop it on them. Also when it is dark, you can light up your zippo and show the way and of course kill the bugs that try to sting you by pointing the light on them. Gameplay is varied and although sometimes it may seem repetitive, the mechanics are varied and interesting, like grabbing to a parrot, use a torch and blocking gears. Also with the addition of playing with Snowy, the game has enough mechanics to keep you happy till the end.   

The controls are fairly easy to use and you will instantly get acquainted with them. The game is well balanced between puzzles and action to leave you interested in the game. All the time there is something happening and most of the time it will let you decide how to complete the mission, either fighting your way out or sneak through it. It involves moving parts along, escaping from a chasing car, sword fighting with pirates, shooting from a sidecar, flying a plane, different views depending on the scene, viewing a book, moving something and you will always have the dog point some hints to you while the floating notebook notes with some hints, is a nice touch. 

The graphics are simple and beautiful and they are accompanied by a great voiceover and soundtrack to set the mood right and keep you interested while playing. Thou the voiceovers where great, I was a bit disappointed for the facial expressions of the characters wasn't quite putting the right mood as when the character was laughing or angry it wasn't quite noticeable. Sometimes when either sniffing around for footprints, I couldn't turn the camera around and it camera view wasn't quite letting me see the whole picture around me.

The game has a good variety of places to visit and they are all greatly detailed, like the catacombs, the mansion and the ship. While seeing the age rate because there was some violence, well I was a bit questioned on why it was rated 12 since there isn't any direct violence. The only violence there is, is when Tintin knocks down an enemy and falls down with yellow stars going round their head and Snowy only barks to rats to scare them away with no blood or cursing.

Apart from playing around with storyline, Ubisoft have added the ability to play in co-op mode which is completely different from the story of the single player and movie... and it's mostly played into the bizarre mind of Haddock. It's like playing in his dreams. Thou co-op the game mode is singleplayer but you will play with simultaneous characters from the series. Everyone has his own special power like Francis Haddock being a ghost can enter paintings and unlocks items and Captain Haddock can punch down walls. The co-op mode has you stuck to collect all the coins and hidden treasures along the way and to be honest I was very likely to enjoy it more than the singleplayer. There are some boss battles and it has more wacky mechanics such as giant pirates and upside-down levels along with many characters and costumes to choose from.

Then there is the challenge mode which to be honest didn't like it much as playing the singleplayer and co-op mode. But this mode offers mini-games which are based on item collection or winning time trails and are in a 3rd person view. You will be using a plane, sword fighting and shooting from your sidecar. Thou funny to sum after a while they get a bit boring.

The game also offers some extras which to be honest was one of the things that I like as it allows you to replay the game's cutscenes and unlock the character's bio.

Conclusion

The Adventures of Tintin in The Secret Of The Unicorn although it is aimed for a younger and casual generation it was fun and entertaining, and while having multiple languages and some mini games here and there it offers some interesting parts to keep you stuck till the end. The graphics look great and the accompany music and voiceovers was great.