July 2nd, 2009

Harry Potter – The Wizard Without The Thrills

The new release of Harry Potter’s Half Blood Prince was expected to lift up to the complex creations of the previous releases, but the gameplay reveals itself quite simple having the story telling a little bit incoherent, and leaving the players with the feeling of an unfinished game. It seems that one had to read the book before starting to play the game, since a lot of details fail to be delivered, thus failing to be comprehensible to the gamers. The editing of the scenes reveals awful images with poor acting, no talented actors’ voices, and the resemblance to the real actors is clumsily displayed. Out of all the recreations of Hohwarts, the Order of the Phoenix seemed to be the only one faithful to the purpose. For those who haven’t played this previous adventure, the Half-BloodPrince may seem quite a challenge to take shortcuts through the portraits lined on the walls, to navigate the moving staircase, etc.

The game offers three activities based on wizard themes; as Half-Blood Prince you will spend a lot of time mixing potions in the dungeon, confronting the recipes full of ingredients, this activity enabling you to use the motion controls while pouring, stirring and heating the mixtures. But this assignment takes too much of your time, giving you the sensation of an everlasting burden. Quidditch, who missed his part in Order of the Phoenix, is now back but not so imaginative and not as funny as mixing potions. Your role is that of a seeker riding a broomstick with simple handling of controls while flying among the stars. In the novels, Harry needs to avoid opponents that attempt to knock him off his broom, but this hindrance is not at all present here.

The final task in Half-Blood Prince is dueling, and this activity looks to be funnier than others before, though it is not revealing too much. These one-on-one fights allow you to cast magical spells at your enemy and tricking the ways that can determine you to loose your energy. The controls for this part are based on motion, so it is up to the remote’s action that activates one of the six spells you have available. Protego though seems to be more satisfying since it gives you the possibility to cross your arms in order to form a shield that will protect you against a blow. The tactic is quite cheap, you amaze your opponent with a powerful spell for in the end to merely spam your weaker attack. As it is the case with nailing your enemy with levicorpus, he will float in midair, and then you simply shake your arm to release a string of attacks, that will drain the health out of the foe’s body.

The Harry Potter video games should stick to the visual beauty of the movies in order to match its excellent story, but this part of Half-Blood Prince doesn’t offer the fun to play as long as you got acquainted with the few simple tasks. The game is presenting itself as repetitive minigame actions, managing to display a Harry Potter wizard without the thrills that belong to the condition of a wizard.