Off the Shelf Media

First and foremost, don’t confuse this game for the PlayStation 1 version that was released in 2001. That game is famous for the goofy-looking Hagrid and the impossible level in Gringotts Bank in the middle of the game. That is not this game. This game came out in 2003 for the PS2 and is much better in every single way. 

Remember when Harry Potter games were fun? Yeah…good times. 

Gameplay: 2

All of my ratings and final scores are being critiqued through the lens of 2003. It’s not fair to compare the gameplay, story, graphics, or anything else from this game to Hogwarts Legacy. 

That being said, the gameplay is fun. It’s fun playing as Harry. It’s fun exploring the castle and grounds. The side quests are fun. Quidditch is fun. The combat is fun. And the boss fights are challenging enough for an E-rated game. 

My one critique is the lock-on feature. It can be clunky at times, especially if there are more than three enemies around. It doesn’t ruin the game or the experience, but it is noticeable. 

For a game that came out in 2003, they pack a lot to do if you want to unlock everything. You can do bulletin board challenges in your common room. You have to help students find their lost items. In return, you get house points, which are tallied up at the end of each day. 

Yes, they were fetch quests before fetch quests were an official gaming term, but it encourages exploration of the world they built. It’s also important if you want to win the House Cup. 

If you skip these extra challenges and just play the main story, you will lose to Slytherin at the end of the game. It’s a detail that makes me tip my cap to the developers, and yes, I Googled where they were. 

The game uses Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans as currency, which you can spend at Fred and George’s shop at night. You can buy potions, upgrades, Witches and Wizard cards, or items to help you get past prefects at night.

These will come in handy because the sneak feature in this game can be aggravating. I’m not going to complain about the mechanic, but I am not a stealth gamer in any game so the fault is on me for being bad. 

At the end of the day, it’s a fun game and I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, having fun is the whole point of video games. And this game nails it where it counts. 

Story: 1

You play as Harry. A first-year student at the wizard school, Hogwarts. For the three of you who don’t know the story, pay attention. Harry Potter is a famous wizard with dead parents who lives with his aunt and uncle. His life was changed forever on his 11th birthday when the giant Hagrid told him he was a wizard and he’d been admitted to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

Harry is bamboozled by the wizarding world and is even more bamboozled when he learns he is one of the most famous wizards of all time. He vanquished the Dark Lord Voldemort when he was just a baby, and he has the scar to prove it. 

The game follows the story of the book and the movie accurately. I like how they use lines from both the movie and the book in the game. It’s a solid detail if you can pick them up. 

You start in Diagon Alley and get your wand from Ollivander. From there, you do a tutorial on how to cast magic and fight enemies before shipping off to Hogwarts. 

Once you arrive at school, you go to class during the day and go on adventures at night. 

Going to class will unlock different spells by completing challenges. Each spell you unlock will grant you access to different parts of the castle and fight new enemies. It feels like a natural progression through the school year and it’s fun going back through hidden passageways to find a collectable you may have missed previously. 

Sometimes games based on books or movies will add extra stuff to pad the runtime of the game, but this game doesn’t do that. There’s enough content from the source material to give the player an authentic experience of the story they love. 

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 

Atmosphere: 1

You get sucked right into the Harry Potter world. Hogwarts looks great and that rush of nostalgia is what every Potterhead dreams of. The graphics look good for a 2003 game and there were no lags, invisible barriers, or poor cutscenes when I played it. 

If you’re like me and are a fan of lore, this game has a lot of it. There are 101 Witches and Wizards Cards to collect. Each of them gives a photo and a small blurb on each. It’s a cool add-on for anyone who wants to know famous Quidditch players or learn that Merlin is canon in the Harry Potter Universe. 

There’s also a log book for potion ingredients and each monster and enemy in the game. They are small details but it’s the little things that set the game apart. 

Fun fact, this game was released after Chamber of Secrets and the developers cut copy and paste a lot of the same assets. There are a few tweaks and changes, but the overall framework is all there. I get it since it’s the same school, but all the character models look and sound the same as the previous game. 

I get why they did it but I can’t give it the full score due to copying themselves. They could have put more effort in and go the extra mile to set the game apart from the previous one. 

Hey, at least they got rid of loading screens. 

Value: 2

This game was $40 upon release. Seeing that the typical game was $50, I’d say you’re getting a deal for its time. 

The enjoyable gameplay and the nostalgia of running around Hogwarts are enough to justify the price point. You know what you’re getting and have no reason to be disappointed. If you’re ever stuck on the value of a game series like this, ask yourself a simple question: Does this game make me want to buy the next one? For this game, the answer is yes.

Duration: 1

There is a lot to do in this game and with a 15-ish hour runtime, I can’t complain. The problem is I don’t think I will ever play this game again. The replay value is low and I’d rather take a few days to read the book or a few hours to watch the movie. 

You could skip all the challenges and filler and complete the story in a day if you wanted to. Even for 2003, that’s not a good thing. 

Total Score: 7/10

For a video game adaptation to compete with its source material, it needs to go the extra mile to entice the player to choose the game over the other mediums. This game doesn’t do that. 

It’s fun, I’m glad I played it, but there are bigger and better games to play over and over again. 

That’ll do it for me for this review. The series continues with Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets. I’ll see ya there, but until then, y’all take care.