For the sixth time now, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the game based on the movie based on the novel of the same name from the Harry Potter franchise. Some of the games have been decent efforts, with the game based off The Chamber of Secrets being the most endearing of the lot so far. Even the last effort, Order of the Phoenix, had glimpses of the potential gaming excellence that the franchise could provide if there weren’t dollar signs flashing in the producer’s eyes.
Half-Blood Prince was amongst the most powerful of the novels, as the tale ominously lurched to a shocking and bleak penultimatum. Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, as the Dark Lord Voldemort strengthens his grip on the wizarding community. There’s a lot more to the story, especially surrounding an old text book that once belonged to the ‘Half-Blood Prince’. Whether all the themes and complexities of the novel have been fit into the movie will be revealed very soon, but the game stands as more of a highlights package than anything else. And not a particularly well directed one, if the stilted presentation is anything to go by. However, as with the previous movie/novel tie-ins, there is little to help those unfamiliar with the story. So unless you’ve read the novel, you might as well stay away.
I fart in your general direction.
Apart from sharpening the controls for Order of the Phoenix, the biggest complaint out of the game was that it was essentially a chore simulator, where Ron and Hermione would follow Harry around as he completed mundane tasks for everyone that asked, while occasionally attaching onto the story. To the credit of Half-Blood Prince, the game takes out a lot of the mundane and replaces it with a more streamlined approach. Sure, you’ve still got a few arbitrary and unrelated tasks, but the game now revolves around three main wizarding activities: duelling, potion-mixing and flying.
Duelling is substantially improved over past games. Controlled mainly with the analog sticks and triggers, you gradually learn to attack, defend, dodge and charge spells, as well as earning a few more along the way. It helps that duelling is easy to pick-up but it still provides a challenge. Potion-mixing is a timed mini-game that requires good timing, precision and adaptability, and manages to retain tension and a bit of excitement even after you’ve mixed several potions. Flying simply has you on a broom going through several star-shaped gates and is the least exciting of the three. And that’s even with the re-inclusion of the wizarding football equivalent of Quidditch.
Pretty much all the events within the game are based around these three tasks. You only have three non-duelling spells at your disposal: Wingardium Leviosa (lift), Reparo (repair) and Incendio (light on fire). Surprisingly, they’re very rarely utilised for substantial story-based tasks. The near redundancy of your spells is a cause for concern, particularly given that you are playing a game about wizards and magic. However, once you get over the fact that you’re performing the same three tasks, there are a few nasty issues that begin to crop up.
Looks like my cooking made it into the game.
For anyone who has played Order of the Phoenix, Hogwarts will be a very familiar place in Half-Blood Prince. And that’s because it’s the exact same place. The developers have ripped the exact same castle for this game. Why ruin a good thing, ay? Instead of using the Marauders map to help you around, where you would choose a location and follow the footstep silhouettes, you now call on Nearly-Headless Nick to guide you to your next objective. This certainly makes things easier, but also much less engaging.
The problem with the using the exact same castle and streamlining the game has made for what feels like a stripped experience. Gone are the incentives to explore, particularly since you’re going through the same castle of two years ago, and apart from the arbitrary crest collection, there is very little to find or do. As a result of this streamlining, as well as castration of the story, the main game can be finished in around five hours. Crest collection and playing through the game’s duelling, potion-mixing and flying clubs for some decent unlockables can extend the playtime but there’s no reason to continue with them unless you’re achievement/trophy hunting. It could be argued that kids will appreciate this streamlining, but even they are likely to take note of the lack of reward for exploration and lack of appreciation of the source material.
Even though Half-Blood Prince is completely functional and fairly glitch-free, that isn’t enough to save face. Again, it makes us wonder how far the Harry Potter license extends, whether it only covers the movies or the novels as well, particularly as the original source material is abundantly rich in gameplay potential. Instead, we’re presented with a shallow and slap-dash experience that barely scratches the surface of what made the novels so popular. Overall, this comes off more like lazy design and an ostentatious cash-grab, rather than an attempt to make the game more endearing than its chore simulator predecessor.
Quidditch is back!...Somewhat.
The visual presentation ought to be familiar to long time fans, seeing that they’re playing through essentially the same game that they were two years ago. Admittedly, Hogwarts is nicely recreated, mirroring the image of the school presented in the movies, and given the solid design, it’s almost understandable why the developers would want to keep it. However, despite the clean presentation and a couple of nice touches (such as when Harry takes the luck potion), more astute observers will notice some primitive technicalities. In particular, while the character likeness is there, there is no 'character' to be seen. That, and the cut scenes are very basic, short and lacking in creative direction.
None of the films actors reprise their role within the game. The sound-alikes do a decent job, even if the dialogue that they’re provided with is staler than last week’s bread. The writers (if we can call them that) don’t even seem like they tried. Thankfully, you’ll at least have some nice background music to listen to, with some very nicely orchestrated tunes that at times reflect the mood of the game. At the same time though, most will be familiar to those who have played the previous games.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a functional game that does the basic job of recreating a highlights package of the occurrences in the novel and film. Even at a slightly lower than usual price, the game really doesn’t have enough to justify anything other than a rent. The retelling of the story is poor, the streamlining of gameplay and recycling of the content comes off as a lazy cash-grab, and that’s despite having more than a year (possibly two) of development time. There have been worse movie tie-ins made, but few have been functional yet so desperate for attention. Even avid fans of the game will likely be disappointed with this half-arsed effort.
Pretty forgetable though, the only thing I remember about it is that Peeves is in it, unlike the movies.
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