Does this compelling new addition still have the magic & charm?
It’s once in a blue moon when movie to game’s actually end up being worth a play through. There have been a diverse amount of these attempts and only a select few have been worth a play through. But can EA pull it together and team up with Warner Brothers to put this game on the map? Well read on to find out what exactly make’s this game tick.
This seller hit the shelves on 29th June 2007. A mere week before its counterpart movie hit the box-office. It was one of the most anticipated movies of the year, so surely this would convince people to go out and buy the game to feel the magic early; surely if the movie’s good the game to be, right? Unfortunately this isn’t the case with all games, and this game isn’t an exception.
The past Harry Potter games have been mediocre at best. But this was EA’s time to make a fresh start and really impress us as they took there series into the next generation; although it was a some what wasted opportunity. The game has its strong points, but in this case it doesn’t balance out the bad points….
This game take’s the young hero Harry Potter into a new adventure that’s darker and dreary than ever. Now that the dark lord Voldermort is on the rise Harry is in more danger than ever, so much in fact Dumbledore won’t always be there to look over him. With Dumbledore stepping down as headmaster of ‘Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’ and the Ministry not believing Harry about Lord Voldermort’s return, even Harry’s peers are looking at his differently. This year Harry’s friends mean everything to him. You play as Harry as he watches the school go downhill rapidly. Just to make it more inconvenient the Ministry forbid all students to practice magic. As they are convinced they will not need it as Lord Voldermort is not on the rise. So Harry, Ron & Hermione take it upon themselves to make a secret underground organization to teach students how to protect themselves from all things in the outside world that may endanger them. This organization is suitably called ‘Dumbledore’s Army’. So it is your goal to recruit members into your club; this will take you around the new world of Hogwarts trying to persuade your friends into attending your meetings. Persuading them can include doing tasks for them, doing there homework, or simply helping them get there safely.
After you have been your friends skivvy, and doing all there choirs you are ready for your meetings. This is require you teaching your new students new spells which will also then be accessible to you from then on. So there’s a silver lining to you doing everyone’s homework, kind of…
But just as you feel comfortable with your meetings with the DA, and think you are sticking it to the man (new headmaster Professor Umbridge). You get buster in your hiding place by Draco Malfoy who is now recruited by Umbridge. Does a month’s detention sound fun? No? Not even virtually? No? Fine then!
But seeing Umbridge’s outraged face in high definition is worth all the money I paid for this game. She is one of the nastiest pieces of work in a long time. This brings me onto the graphical aspects of the game. The school looks like it has been carved from a fine stone. The details around the castle will easily make you impressed. Although it would seem the developers spent a little too long working on this because the characters in the game don’t look all that great. Maybe it’s harder making a real life person into a character? Maybe its just Daniel Radcliff’s face? I’m not to sure. But after looking at the graphical potential in this game it’s a bit of a disappointment when you see your favorite characters for the first time.
Unfortunately this story isn’t all that great in the length department. It can be done in about 4-5 hours if one sitting if you know what to do. But if you aiming to do all the side objectives such as chess champion, snap champion etc; this would add a considerably large about of time onto this game, but still it doesn’t make the $60 you paid for this game worth it. But there are still all the discoveries around Hogwarts to discover. These help you unlock achievements (around 200gs worth). As you discover something new about Hogwarts (fix statues, hang portraits, mop up mess on the floor, rake leaves etc) you get some discovery points (around 5-10 for each thing you discover) at first you just need about 200 points to reach the next level, which wouldn’t take that much time. The highest level is level thirteen, which needs 15,000 points, so as you could imagine this would take a lot of things to be discovered. So for that much discoveries you would need a large area to search right? Well you got it, in this addition Hogwarts is a lot bigger and more open ended that in the last games. So finding everything in every nook and cranny won’t be an easy task although no loading screens make things a little easier, so best keep a sharp eye on everything all the time. Or you may just miss something important.
But exploring cant all be bad, as you unveil and venture into a new environment the music can change and shape itself into something more suitable to your surroundings; Which is great as the music in this game is definitely one of its strong points. Say if you went strolling into the forbidden forest or the dungeons the music will become slow and dense with a very atmospheric sensation. Then as you enter the Great Hall where all your classmate’s are usually eating the music changes to something cheers are you hear people chatting and practicing magic at there table’s, a very nice and warm feeling. This is the first game that used the original Harry Potter theme song (also recognized as Hedwig’s Snowy theme). As odd as it may sound in the past the Harry potter franchise didn’t even have legal rights to the movie’s theme sound. But now its here, and you can hear it as you escalate the castles revolving staircase. A great new ambitious addition to this game is the new manual spell casting system. This allows you to have full control of Harry’s right arm at the push of a button (Y). To do the spells you with to do you have to move Harry’s arm in a certain fashion, each spell requires s different movement of the arm. Some require a rotational action, while some just need an up/down movement. But memorizing these sequences is the tricky part. There are a total of 12 spells you need to learn and act out throughout the game. There are 6 defensive spells and 6 offensive spells. These are mainly used in dueling which trigger at certain parts of the game. Also some spells can be used while roaming around the castle, spells such as Reparo (which repairs things) and Incendio which sets things alight.
The only major disappointment about this game is the abysmal thing they call cut scene's. It is a huge let down when a game with such a huge potential suffers greatly by little things like this. The cut scene's in this game are nothing short of 5-10 second clips of blotchy inaccurate movie to video game character models. Its as though the game tries to keep you as far away from the characters emotionally. It doesn't give you time to feel what Harry feels as he's exploring Hogwarts for getting abuse shouted at him by the opposing house mates.
If you are looking to finish this game to completion with all achievements unlocked you will be forced the go through the game on the hardest difficulty, which isn’t hard at all. Its pretty much the same as all you need to do is do tasks, only thing that may cause concern are the duals but with a bit of determination you will get through it. Also another thing you will be forced to do is beat all the mini objectives (chess, bowls, snap challenge’s etc). So you will need a slight knowledge of the games and a quick hand. Good luck! (4/10 – Pretty Easy to get all achievements)
Overall this is a very enjoyable game, but isn’t much if you wanting a game that will last you for a while. This game could easily be completed and finished with all achievements in a single day. But it’s very enjoyable while it lasts. But $60 for a game that will last a day isn’t a very good deal. So I would advise renting this game, but it worth a play through if you enjoy the Harry Potter franchise and/or the game series.
