I was in Game earlier this week, and got another bargain - or at least I thought I had. I now realize why the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix PC game was going so cheap - it’s crap.
The Harry Potter franchise has reached a new low in this game, and is the most obvious money grabbing scheme so far.Oh dear, where do I start…Well the positives first - the graphics are quite good and realistic enough, the characters voices are done by the same actors from the films, and you can explore Hogwarts as much as you want, completing side quests as you go. The school and the grounds are huge and wouldn’t seem out of place in an RPG, and there are very few loading times, which is remarkable for such a vast exploration area. But after playing 10 minutes of the game you will forget the few positives, because everything else is terrible.
The worst things are the controls and the camera angles, it’s actually quite hard to explain just how dreadful it is. You cast spells by holding down a mouse button and moving the mouse in a direction, which sounds fine in theory, except that the developers have made it so that there are different spells for the same mouse combinations. Not only this, but aiming at a specific target takes about 20 minutes because the camera is constantly jittering and spinning around like it’s had one too many Red Bulls. The camera is not fixed behind Harry, so when you change direction in game, it takes a minute of you banging into a wall to convince the camera to swing around so that you can see where you are going. So, when trying to target one object when there are twenty in front of you, the tiniest mouse or keyboard movement will mean you will spend a LOT of time just trying to point the right way. Just tapping the key to turn left ever so slightly causes Harry to turn 90 degrees so accurate aiming is just not possible.
You navigate your way around Hogwarts by using the Marauders Map, which lists all the key rooms and characters, so you set a target on the map and then you are guided to that point by footprints, which appear on the floor in front of your character as you move. The rather obvious downside to this is that you have to move in the right direction for the footprints to appear in the first place. You don’t follow a footprint trail like you might expect, but the footprints only appear as you move forwards. The footprints are also black, which doesn’t help them stand out against the dark ground.
The story is loosely related to the books, but there are too many parts which are skimmed or missed out completely. If you haven’t read the book or seen the film, then you won’t have the foggiest idea who’s who or what the plot is about. There are also too many FMV’s (videos/cut-scenes) for my liking, which break up what little gameplay there is. The ‘puzzles’ usually involve using a spell to lift or move something, so its a case of waving your wand around until something happens. I was so bored by the early training parts, which were insultingly easy, that I didn’t pay attention so couldn’t remember any spells. Still, I clicked and wiggled the mouse randomly until I got it right. So, no skill or anything else is required to play or complete the game, which incidentally, took under 2 hours to complete - minus several hours of cut scenes and FMV’s.
One of the few good points I mentioned before about Hogwarts being huge actually has a massive disadvantage - all the quests involve running around to various rooms or to find certain people. This is cute at first, seeing familiar faces in the corridor saying ‘hi Harry’ as you pass by, and there are ghosts floating around, and the staircases even move around just like they do in the film. I think you know where I’m going with this. The grand scale of the game means most of your time is spent getting from A to B and then C and onto D before settling at E. Add to this the poor navigation map, poor controls, waiting for up to a minute for a staircase to move to where you are and then another minute for the stairs to move to where you want to get to, and even the ’secret’ passageways only take a few minutes off the journey. So, the cute features I mentioned quickly become infuriating, making you wish you could set fire to anyone who says a friendly hello as you pass by.
Even Ron and Hermione don’t help. They’re constantly glued to within a few feet of Harry, getting in the way and offering advice on where to go in a really patronizing way. When you’re trying to cast a spell but can’t target the right object, they will chirp in telling you what to do, thus eliminating any thought process which might otherwise be necessary - I was frequently yelling at them, “I know what to do! Move out of the way!” In fight sequences it’s always three on two, making it ridiculously easy, and I know its aimed at kids, but you don’t actually have to do anything remotely challenging to win or advance through the game. The game is tedious, boring, repetitive, easy, frustrating, and dull. The game is essentially 80% running around and the rest is trying to remember or work out what to click and where to wiggle it. So, please avoid this game - unless you’re being forced too by Potter Terrorists - there is no excuse having read this review. Anybody want my copy?
Rating - 2/10
Posted by MaSh
