By this time, if you haven't at least heard about the exploits of the boy-wizard Harry Potter, please crawl out from that rock that you're still hiding under. Chances are you've missed things that are more important. Anywho, the fifth book is somewhat considered to be the least popular amongst the fans. Funnily, it's also the longest novel, yet ends up being the shortest movie. Go figure. The (very) basic story, is that Harry is back for his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Magic and has to contend with the death of a classmate, a potential connection of minds between him and the story's main villian, Voldemort, the prospect of the school being taken over by a tyrannical political agenda, countless moments of angst and of course, end of year exams. While maybe not as eventful as the other novels, the book was still an entertaining read.
If you've seen the movie, you'll know by now that it's really a supplement to the actual novel. Sure, it was quite well made and covered the basics, but the novel is the only place for the FULL story. As people who've read the book, we can't possibly imagine how someone who hasn't read the book would have been able to sit through the entire thing. The game however, actually follows the movie closer than the book. We don't know whether EA only have the license to the movies and can't really rely directly on the books, but given the size of the source material, it would have been much more gratifying to see a more indepth portrayal of the story. This is as opposed to the limited structure of the movie. As a consequence, if you haven't read the novel, we can't imagine how you'll cope with the game's plot. The plot sequences are raced through rather quickly and don't really go into much depth. Furthermore, they mirror what happens in the movie, very closely.
The whole crew is here, for now.
In a way it's a good thing because it gives you more time with the game, but on the other hand, a lot of the potential in the story has been foresaken. This obviously means that aspects such as Quidditch have been left out of the game. Unless you know the story beforehand and are a fan of the novels, there really is no reason to bother with this game. Still, fans of the novels will at take solace in the fact that there are numerous references to previous novels. The game is littered with these references and Hogwarts itself is very faithfully recreated, if you consider looking like it does in the movie as faithful. Not to mention, it's utterly huge and will take a while before you're familiar with it.
The biggest aspect to the game is discovery. There are a whole lot of secrets to discover, some minor such as repairing a broken statue and some major such as discovering the password for a new secret passage. For every one of your discoveries, you'll get some discovery points that will eventually increase the levels of your spells. Don't discount the importance of these, as your spell level needs to be reasonably high towards the end of the game. There are a fair amount of extras to be unlocked from these discoveries as well. These range from “cups” to bonuses like commentary videos.
Most of the past Harry Potter games have been essentially Zelda clones. However, a major complaint with this latest game has been that the game ends up being something of a chore simulator. To an extent it's true, especially with the weak combat. One aspect that the game implements extremely well is the use of the Marauders map. Just like in the novels/movies, you bring up your map and pick a location or person to go to. When you put it away, you’ll notice that some footprints will track across the ground telling you which way to go. Essentially, it works like a GPS. While you will eventually learn the Hogwarts layout, this is an excellent tool not only for getting around but for learning more about the huge surroundings.
We’re quite grateful that the map is there. Because otherwise stumbling aimlessly from arbitrary task to (even more) arbitrary tasks, probably wouldn’t be worth our time. In an attempt to recreate the majority of major occurrences and the general “hunt-and-gather” nature of all of Harry’s tasks, the developers stuck us with rather rudimentary tasks. Virtually every single task, starts with someone wanting something, then Harry going to do/find it, while Ron and Hermione watch. It’s rather tragic because there happens to be so little that’s endearing. Occasionally, you’ll get a task that requires you to scale some heights or one where we donned the invisibility cloak but these tasks were few and far between. A couple were very annoying, where we had to find five talking gargoyles or six loudspeakers, with little to no help other than Hermione mentioning that one was in the area that you just walked into.
Nothing says endearing gaming like ringing a few bells.
To help with your tasks, often you’ll need your arsenal of spells to help you through. The non-combat spells and their implementation work reasonably well. The most useful spell will end up being Wingardium Leviosa, as you stack some benches to help you get to higher places or put items back where they’re supposed to be, while Reparo will be critical as well. The Wii controls are actually quite good, as they work and respond very well and are very easy to remember. However, the spell work is rather restrictive, where if you use the wrong spell, you’ll be met with a puff of smoke. The aspect that drags this side of the game down, is the targeting, which is not very well implemented. While you can point with the wiimote at your intended target, the system is plain and simply fails to register. It shows that the game needed more polish.
The aspect of the game that prevents the chore simulator tag from sticking is the combat. The idea is there, use a variety of disarming and pushing spells to knock down your opponent, then once more while they’re on their haunches. Thankfully, Protego deflects spells for a certain period, because otherwise, the magician battles would be very frustrating. Some of this comes down to the unresponsiveness of the controls, some to the stilted AI, which will aim exclusively for you when you’re down (your team mates are rather erratic with their help) and some to the cluttered and confusing rubble that fills the screen. You’ll almost be glad that some battles allow you to lose, because playing through too many of them is a chore on its own. One aspect of the game that was made a harsh reality on the Wii version was the camera. Unless the developers are highly skilled and can make a great fixed camera or alternate control method, Wii games will struggle without camera control. Order of the Phoenix is just one example, and while it was okay, there are many instances of obstruction and inconvenience due to the camera, particularly when it gets in the way of targetting.
Still, going around Hogwarts isn’t a complete farce. There are a scattering of mini-games, all faithful to the Harry Potter world, including exploding snap and wizard chess. The school has a reasonable atmosphere, with many students interacting differently with you as different events pass by and sometimes mentioning something nostalgic. Again though, the lack of variety and often random responses indicate that more work was needed. You’ve even got a few classes but they’re rather simple and not particularly prevalent.
So as we’ve mentioned, fans of the series are likely to be very pleased with the actual recreation of Hogwarts, as it really is quite superb. However, the closeness with the movie, probably hasn’t allowed for the developers to truly explore the depths of the source material. It’s this that highlights the fact that the game was in need of another year in development to really allow for the game to blossom. The underlying game is solid, it just needed some proper polish and the addition of endearing objectives. In the end, the game is really a supplement for the movie, which in turn, is a supplement for the novel. As such, anyone who is not a Potter fan, really shouldn’t bother with this game.
Not quite like escaping "The Rock".
The visual experience of Order of the Phoenix is not one to be sneezed at. Not only is Hogwarts huge and without any load times in the way but almost identical to the movie. There are a few dull corridors but for the most part, to looks mighty fine. Character likeness is quite good as well, as everyone makes the cut, tough there are a lot of repetitive NPC’s, simple models and stiff animations. Again, there is a coat of polish that is missing. Standard definition players are warned that in-game writing can be hard to read. The audio experience is quite good as well. The sound track is wonderfully orchestrated and recreated to give the movie feel but at times, it feels underused. The voicing is reasonable, but there are more than a few occasions where the lines sound like they’re being read off the script. A considerable amount of the actors have retained their roles. Sound effects get the job done.
Unlike a lot of games based off movies, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is not fundamentally flawed and doesn’t reek of cheap cash in. Unfortunately though, like most movie tie-ins, it was pushed out the door too early. The foundations for a great game are there, but it becomes obvious that restrictions were in place. Fans will probably overcome the chore work, especially as the moments that exude the history of the series come to the fore and there are some great little moments but once the combat and repetitiveness takes hold, it can be hard to swallow. Not to mention, the game’s stilted story leaves zero appeal for anyone who is not a Potter nut. We applaud the effort in visual recreation, but it really did need go the whole way.
so i dont really no wat to say bout it
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