Excellent...if you like to think

Author's Rating:

Pros: Creative tasks and challenges, great graphical rendering. long game play.

Cons: Camera control could be better

The Bottom Line: 
Great thinking, puzzling game. For those who are tired of action shooters and want a mental challenge. Good game play and production values.

Author's Review
At first I hated this game. Totally boring. But I had been playing an adventure shooter game that had continual action and lots of guns. I wasn't really used to using my mind (comments about my ability to actually do that can be dispensed with thank you) and only starting with a wand.

But then my boys, having finished that very same action shooter, wanted to try Harry Potter. I was kinda worried they'd get frustrated and bored quickly, but as my entire family has become involved in solving the puzzles Harry faces, they are hooked and so am I.

The challenges you face as Harry and the imaginitive tasks that require you to inventory your skills and tools constantly and find a best tool for the task are great.

This is the kind of game, VERY similar to Myst, where you have to get something, to get something else, to find a spell, and then open a door. There are steps necessary for each "reward" within the game which require you to think. And sometimes, the process is slow (at least for me, see comment above about thinking).

So if you like the problem solving games and don't require a lot of action, this will do you nicely.

The only real beef I have with it is the camera controls. They could be better in that the camera gets stuck and the right joystick could be better at panning 360 degrees. Also, if you let Harry stand and the camera is not directly behind him, it will adjust to that position, but there is a delay. Enough of a delay that he could get hit by a book while you are waiting to see that he is looking at a book case that is throwing those books...

It takes some getting used to but the flow of the game is well paced enough to keep you interested. And as you progress, you want to see more. The storyline is close enough to the book/movie that if you have read/seen it, you'll recognize it. But that doesn't clue you in at all to what Harry will face. For that, you have to play the game.