Off the Shelf Media

Do you want to know how I knew this game belonged in a dumpster? The cover art had Daniel Radcliffe and not a rendered image of Harry Potter. That, my friends, is what you call a red flag. This game is so bad I didn’t even bother finishing it. I would have, but the game made it too difficult to progress to the next level. 

Let me explain…

Gameplay: 0

So, remember how in my previous Harry Potter reviews, I praised EA for its open world and exploration of Hogwarts castle? Yup, you can forget about that this time around. This game decided to take out the open world and install a menu system where you select which level you want to play like it’s 2003. 

Why would they take out the exploration of the castle and side quests? It takes away from the immersion and experience for a gamer. We all wanted to go to Hogwarts as a kid, but since we can’t, this is the next best thing. It’s like EA forgot they had to make a game and pieced this together in six weeks. It’s a huge disappointment. 

The combat is fine. It’s similar to the other games if not slightly better. You can play as Harry, Ron, or Hermoine and each has the same skills and abilities, which you can level up with Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. 

Quick sidebar on that. In previous games, the jelly beans were easy to get. You walk over them and they disappear into the endless void that is a protagonist’s pockets. An easy mechanic, right? Wrong. EA had to go be all EA and ruin it. It’s like the prank where you put a $20 bill attached to a string on the ground and pull it away when some bozo tries to pick it up. Collecting in-game currency should never be a chore. 

Oh, and if you’re playing single-player, don’t expect Ron or Hermoine to collect beans. They won’t. Don’t worry though, you can upgrade your ability to catch the beans easier. So you can collect all the beans as Harry and use them to upgrade Ron, right? Nope. You can only use the beans Ron collects. EA created a problem they then solved to pad the runtime of their bad game. 

Anyway, back to the combat. It’s easier to fight multiple enemies this time around. The previous games had issues with the cameras but this game is easier to manage. The camera is fixed and that makes everything easier. 

Typically, a game like this will have you beat a level and immediately unlock the next one. That is any game but this game. There aren’t that many missions in this game, and if they did the traditional level progression, this game would be beaten in four to five hours. So, the developers thought it was a great idea to lock the next level behind collectibles. You have to collect Triwizard shields to unlock the next level. How do you unlock them? By playing the previous level of course!

So you have to play each level multiple times to upgrade your characters. You have to play each level multiple times to play the next level. You have to fight the same battles and do the same challenges over and over and over again to get the right score to move on. 

A game is supposed to have levels you want to play again. This game is filled with levels you have to play again, and that is not a formula for success. 

Story: 1

There’s kind of a story. There are a few cutscenes to set the scene but that’s about it. If you never watched the movie or never read the book, you’d be completely lost. 

The game starts with Harry and his friends at the Quidditch World Cup where the Death Eaters, followers of Lord Voldemort, attack. You have to fight monsters and obstacles to reach the Portkey. 

From there, you’re at Hogwarts where the Triwizard Tournament is being held. It’s basically the Wizard Olympics but much more dangerous. Someone enters Harry into the competition and there you go. That’s the story. 

What bugs me is the opportunity wasted in this game. You could have gone to class with students from the other schools, or done side quests for them. There could have been a racing minigame with Viktor Krum. Something to make the player excited. 

This is a turning point in the Harry Potter franchise and EA managed to take one of the best books and turn it into the worst game to date. 

Atmosphere: 1

The graphics aren’t anything to write home about. EA tried to make the character models more realistic, but I liked the cartoonish rendering from the previous games. At least the voice acting is closer to what you get in the movies if that’s something you care about. 

The level design is lazy and the challenges are more tedious than challenging. You are on the Hogwarts rooftop in the rain, in the prefect’s bathroom, which turns into a sewer level, in the forbidden forest, and then the three tournament tasks. That’s it. 

A big part of the Potterverse is the different spells. Each game had a set number of spells you’d unlock. This time around, you already know the spells. To be fair, it makes sense since Harry is in his fourth year, but you X, Square, or Triangle to do a certain spell. There’s no spell book, no figuring anything out, just press a button to do the thing you’re trying to do. The spells are pretty to look at, but a fresh coat of paint on a rundown house won’t increase its value much. 

Value: 0

If I bought this game for $50 back in 2005, I would have been furious. This is not a full-price game and it lacks the same depth other games had in that era. If you and your friend or sibling went halfsies on this game, it would almost be worth full price because, admittedly, two players would make this game way better. 

Duration: 1

Technically the runtime will be around 10-12 hours but that’s because the game forces you to play and replay the levels multiple times. It gets a pity point for trying, but this is a game I look forward to never playing again. 

Total Score: 3/10

The word I’m going to use is disappointment. The Harry Potter games went 3/3 in my book. This one is a stinker and I fear it’s only going to get worse from here. I haven’t played Order of the Phoenix yet, so I’m remaining cautiously optimistic for now. 

I’m taking a detour before I play that game though. Backyard Baseball 97 came out recently, and I called dibs on reviewing that. It’s a classic but will it stand the test of time? Stay tuned because it’s coming next. 

I’ll see ya there, but until then, y’all take care.