The only problem is that you can only collect an item once you need it if you find something important earlier, your character will simply comment idly on it and leave it there. Most of your time is spent collecting items around the mansion and its grounds to progress. It took me about five minutes to determine that this game was a sequence of fetch-quests, broken up by some combat. If you’re noticing a pattern here, you aren’t alone. The game switches control to Simon, who must locate the parts needed to construct a monocle and put them together in the study. Thimbletack retrieves a special seeing stone for Jared, and tells him to turn it into a monocle so that he can wear the stone and see magical creatures. The end result is that you recruit Thimbletack the brownie. To do this, you have to find uncle Arthur’s study, smash open an old wall, collect crackers and honey, find a new house for the brownie, and assemble everything in the study. Jared finds the field guide and learns that the mansion has a mischievous boggart in it, and that he can turn the boggart into a helpful brownie by giving it honey. As the intrepid Jared explores the mansion, the basic controls are explained and you get a general idea of what’s going on. The game starts out with the usual tutorial. The game plays out as a pretty standard adventure, which means all of the gameplay tropes are included and some are used a bit too much. In the game, you play as each of the three kids, and occasionally as their small friend, Thimbletack. Soon they’re catching fairies, solving family history and trying to keep the field guide out of the hands of ogres and goblins.

Spiderwick Chronicles follows three siblings: twins Simon and Jared and their older sister Mallory, as they explore their great uncle Arthur’s mansion and discover his field guide to magical creatures. Spiderwick Chronicles treads a lot of old ground, and I found myself in need of highly caffeinated beverages to make it through conscious. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks braving the unseen realm of magic and mythical creatures, and emerged…mildly entertained. It’s that time again folks! Movie tie-in time! Can you guess what the source material is this time? It’s Spiderwick Chronicles! Yes, after a number of media permutations, this modern fantasy adventure has arrived on the Xbox 360, just in time to coincide with the pre-spring blockbuster.

Spiderwick chronicles pc game controls