This game is mostly an improvement over the previous two, but some things are not. I won't be doing many comparisons in my review, so newcomers to the Harry Potter games shouldn't worry about that. Here is a quick overview of what the game has to offer:
- Play as Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
- Each character has different skills.
- Collect Wizards Cards and pages from the Folio Bruti.
- Partake in different kinds of side quest challenges.
- Gather potion ingredients
- Go in dangerous castle dungeons during lessons to learn new spells.
- Mini games such as dueling, owl racing, and Buckbeak's challenge of eating bats.
- Fly Buckbeak around the castle for fun (replacement for broom riding).
- No. You do NOT play Quidditch. Ever.
Now for the lengthy part of the review.
To start off with, the Hogwarts grounds have been remodeled to fit the movie. I believe this is a plus because it's more exciting, visually pleasing, and mysterious than the previous games. I also believe the interior of the castle is also a definite improvement.
Hogwarts: The exploration of Hogwarts could have been better. For some reason, during some parts of the game, rooms and hallways are locked so you do not have free range exploration all of the time. But don't fear, most of the time you CAN go just about anywhere. Around Hogwarts are little puzzles to solve, Wizard Cards to collect, pages of the Folio Bruti to grab, and various other little things. Some of these collectible were a little tricky to get.
Sneaking: Sneaking is a lot easier in this game. Prefects no longer deduct house points when the catch you. Hooray!. The prefects are also a lot more stupid. You can shoot spells across the room, but as long as you're in a corner they won't notice you're there. You also have to sneak past armor statues, but these are even easier than the prefects. You see a purple "eye sight" beam sweeping back and forth. You can stand in front of the statues, but you won't get caught unless you touch the purple beam.
Classroom Challenges: Even in this installment, it's obvious teachers don't care about the well being of their students. They still send you through passageways into dangerous areas where you have to battle monsters and solve puzzles. The dungeons in this game are MUCH longer than previous games, and I believe the battles are more difficult as well. The bosses. The lovely bosses are cleverly designed and defeating them takes more than just senselessly pushing spell buttons.
Potions Challenges: When you're not putting your life at stake for education in wand-work lessons, you're somewhat risking your life for cauldron lessons. Snape has you collect ingredients for his future potions lessons. Sometimes acquiring them is easy and safe, but once in a while you have to avoid becoming hurt.
Buckbeak: There is no broom flying (no Quidditch playing either), instead you fly Buckbeak the Hippogriff. Flying Buckbeak is a lot of fun. Somewhat different from flying a broomstick, but it still has a lot of charm.
Music: The music for this game is amazing. Simply amazing. A bit mysterious, too.
The Bad: There are only two things I don't like about this game. The first one, the return of the lengthy and annoyingly frequent load times return, isn't too bad. This I can easily pass off and still have a lot of fun. The second problem is by far the worst addition ever: Your friends complain every five seconds with sentences like "We need to go to Potions" and "Come ON, lets gooo." I don't know who in the right mind thought this was a good addition. The characters should have been silent.
BUT... regardless of your overly whiny companions, it is still a very enjoyable game in which to explore.Get more detail about Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
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