Full Review

Wonderful, fanciful, and challenging for a novice gamer.
Follows the movie, more or less. Colorful and exciting animation and graphics. Good story line.

The game is basically for kids. And older kids may find the game too easy. But most will enjoy the fast moving quidditch matches.

HARRY POTTER MISSES

An adult friend of mine with the mind of a child bought the video game, “Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone”. His computer was way to slow for this game. His computer may have met “minimum requirements. But, loading the various game segments takes “forever” making play slow and tedious.

DON’T BE SUCKERED BY THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

I definitely do not recommend purchasing this game unless your computer has (1) 400Mhz or faster Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-2 processor, (2) 128 MB ore more RAM, (3) 8x or faster CD-ROM/DVD/ROM drive, and (4) 32 MB or greater supported Direct3D capable video card. If you only have the minimum, I expect that you will become so frustrated playing this game that you will fling the game disc into the air so that it will fly away faster than a Golden Snitch.

SAVED BY A MAGICAL BOOK

The game need not be played from start to finish at a single sitting. The game periodically presents the player with an opportunity to find a magical book floating in mid air. When the player gets to the book the game is saved at that point. I liked this feature. It allows the player to repeat a challenge until successful without having to back to the very beginning of the game upon failure to overcome the present obstacle.

Being video challenged, I often needed to repeat the challenges.

NO BLOOD AND GUTS

The violence in this game is kept to a minimum. Observation and reasoning are as important as fingering skills. There are plenty of chocolate frogs (for energy), large brightly colored beans (Bertie Botts Every-Flavor Beans), challenge stars, and Famous Witches and Wizard Cards to collect. The sophisticated gamer may well find this game boring or not much of a challenge. No blood, guts, and big explosions to satisfy anyone with a fantasy for death and blood lust.

WHAT CHOKES

It is difficult to move a mouse properly when learning spells so scoring a lot of points in spell classes is difficult. The mouse often does not respond well, I don’t know the cause of this problem. However, if you don’t have enough memory in your computer it is practically impossible to make the spell properly with the mouse.

Also, when moving the mouse, your perspective shifts quickly and it makes it difficult to cast spells. After playing for awhile it can get really annoying.

Sometimes you have to repeat a challenge 2 or three times because the auto or manual jump is not working right. This can make you miss your mark and fall into an abyss. Then you must start at the last saved point and repeat the challenge from there. This did not happen very often but it did repeatedly happen tom me at one jump point in the Library when escaping from the tower.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?

Assuming your computer meets the recommended requirements. And, assuming you can suspend reality and accept a child like fantasy world for a few hours, you will probably like the game. A gamer can probably complete this game in 3.5 to 4 hours. There are many challenges, secret rooms, treasure chests, secret areas, creatures of the plant and animal kingdom to encounter. For the novice, this game can provide entertainment for 2 to 3 times that long.