Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Review

Written by: Tracy Bosworth Posted: 24th August 2009

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We guide Harry around Hogwarts.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Details:

Goto Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Game Page

	Adventure
	PC/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/Nintendo Wii/PSP/Nintendo DS
	EA Games
	EA Games

12+

Out Now

The Harry Potter books have captured the hearts and imaginations of children and adults alike. The story of the unassuming, skinny orphaned boy who, on his 11th birthday discovers that he's a wizard opened up a world of magic, heroes and friendship to readers world-wide. The majestic Hogwarts Castle, wonderful game of Quidditch, proud Professor Dumbledore and rather intimidating Professor Snape.

In short, the Harry Potter novels were amazing and unusually, getting even better as the years progressed. Friendships became stronger, enemies became darker and emotion ran deeper as the story reached its climax. There is a general rule of thumb however that the movies are never as good as the books … and the video games are never as good as the movies … So where does that leave the Harry Potter video game series?

Well I’ll be honest, I’m a massive Harry Potter fan and I’ve never played a H.P game that I thought was any good. In my experience, the video games generally consist of running around the grounds of Hogwarts collecting things and performing the odd spell. I was hoping the developers would have learnt from the past mistakes and made The Half Blood Prince different.

The game follows the story of the novel but does a terrible job of telling it. If you’ve not read the book or seen the movie, it’s unlikely that you will understand the story behind The Half Blood Prince from the game’s short cut-scenes and story progression.

In short, you join Harry and co. as they embark on their 6th year at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, gone are the days of the simple, childish worries that the friends used to face … such as half-wit giants and gormless trolls. These days, it’s all a bit grown up and the threat is more sinister. Voldermort and the Death Eaters are raining chaos on both the muggle and the wizard world and Harry must prepare to face his enemy once and for all … all whilst trying to work out the true identity of The Half Blood Prince.

The first thing I noticed when starting up the game was the impressive size and design of the Hogwarts grounds. For the first time, Hogwarts has been brilliantly re-created and players are free to explore this in full. It’s all here; Hagrid’s Hut, Dumbledor’s Office, The Great Hall, The Quidditch Pitch and even the Owlery. Which is already a huge improvement on its predecessor, The Order of the Phoenix? As the area is so big, it’s easy to get lost so a clever system has been put into place to help players find their way. Introducing Nearly Headless Nick. If you get lost, you can simply call up Nick and the friendly ghost will appear before you, leading you to your destination. I liked this it made a change from the age-old arrow pointing or fading footsteps.

The game’s environment is the best part of the game. I quite enjoyed running through the corridors of Hogwarts, passing Dumbledor’s password protected office, discovering hidden corridors behind portraits and exploring the vast castle grounds. Unfortunately however, the actual Game play is more of the same. You run around collecting things basically. You do come across the odd duel (which I suppose is quite fun with the Wii remote!) and Quidditch makes a welcome return but the storyline is generally pushed along with collecting or finding tasks.

You don’t have to stick with the storyline all the time though. Throughout the game, new clubs and mini games open up allowing light relief from the main story. The duelling club is a good example … just sign up on the notice board and you’re matched up against another student. As you win one, your name replaces theirs as the title-holder and your next opponent will be more difficult and so on.

Potion making is a big part of the game, as it should be judging by the subject of the novel. This bit is quite fun too. Players are given a set time and must follow instructions on making up a potion. For instance, if the pink bottle is shown and a splodge of green is beside it … players must tip the liquid from the pink bottle into the cauldron until it turns green. If you pour in too much, or use the wrong bottle … you’ll wreck the potion and a cloud of thick, black smoke fills the screen (this can be wafted away with the nunchuck).

Although fun at first, I personally found the potion making to be far more frustrating than it needed to be, thanks to the awkward controls. The bottles would not pick up properly and half the time the cursor disappeared completely. I found that motion was not detected as well as I know the Wii is capable I therefore can only assume this to be a problem with the game.

Controls in other parts of the game are a little hit and miss. Harry runs with the use of the stick on the nunchuck and the Wii remote is used as a wand. This would work brilliantly if the game picked up every movement as it’s supposed to. Unfortunately, I was left frustrated as Harry became stuck on objects, didn’t pick up my wand movements (and therefore got his butt kicked on many occasions!) and vision was often obscured by weird camera angles.

Graphically, the game has its highs and lows. Cut-scenes are pretty bad with robotic character models that make the game seem much older than it is. Mouths did not move properly when characters spoke and their eyes have a kind of ‘glassed over … dead’ appearance! On a good note, the environments are highly impressive and a lot of work has gone into re-creating the world we fans have come to know and love. Portraits in the castle move, the staircases are up to their usual tricks and material is detailed to a high standard.

The game’s audio is pretty average. Actors do not lend their voices to the characters but dialogue is well done anyway and about as close to the movies as you can expect without the original actors.

Overall, The Half Blood Prince is certainly an improvement on The Order of the Phoenix but it’s still nothing amazing. The highlight of the game is the re-creation of Hogwarts … everything else is a little too familiar. I can’t help but wonder why they continue to make these Harry Potter games. They’re all the same … walk around the grounds, collect stuff, find stuff, talk to student A, find passage B …

I’d like to see developers scrap these constant installments completely and remake a one off Harry Potter game. Maybe one that tells the whole story, obviously in a very watered down fashion. One good game is better than seven clones of the same mediocre game.

In closing, it’s not bad … it’s just not great either.