Dones’ Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Video Game
Cats: Movies, Tech, Books| |
Bottom Line: One of the better film-based video games. Read the movie review here.
**Note: This review is specifically for the Nintendo Wii version of the game.**
You know, I’m not going to have an intro here. I think the ratings will say it all:Production value: 3/5 stars. Man, this was a tough rating to put together. I think top honors must be given to the folks at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for taking the time to put together a fully explorable Hogwarts castle for gamers to play around in. More about that later. The fact that they also got most of the film actors to voice the characters is also a major plus for this game. Where did they fall short? Polish. First, developers need to realize the Wii crowd buys games as well as consoles, and the extra time the put into optimizing the graphics for the platform will pay off in user satisfaction. I was rather disappointed in the graphics of this game, and I know it’s not all the Wii’s fault. The other place where finishing touches are needed is in gameplay and environmental aspects of the game. The number one issue for me was not having a first-person view like the Legend of Zelda provided. This is especially crucial in OOTP as the targeting system depends on you facing the item you want to interact with.
Story: 3.5/5 stars. The cutscenes were helpful but there should have been much better quality here, both technically and in the realm of storytelling. I felt like I really had to have seen the movie or read the book to get any sort of continuity between the cutscenes and the activities I was performing. The dialogue with most of the characters was pretty good, however, and it was a nice touch.
Enjoyability: 4/5 stars: The enjoyability for me is searching every nook and cranny in Hogwarts to find every last secret, and the ability to cast spells using the Wii remote as my magic wand made this game for me. This brings the replay factor into play, even when the storyline is relatively short for a puzzle/adventure game. The environment of the game is much richer than the film, even, and incorporates story aspects from the book that never made it into the film. I could just roam around the grounds and hang out in the Grand Staircase for a long time if the game didn’t have so many secrets and challenges to unlock. The minigames are also an added bonus: the game basically includes a three-difficulty-level chess game, in addition to the fun gobstones and exploding snap minigames, which are well-implemented and challenging to master. I have not yet found 100% of the secrets, but I am already interested in restarting the game to play it through again, and as a Harry Potter fan I am quite pleased with the rewards provided for discovering secrets, which are basically extra interviews and production stills related to the film. I would ultimately like to see a game with a refined version of this explorable Hogwarts engine incorporate the stories from all 7 books/movies. That would be a killer game!
Dones’ Rating: 
I would not buy this for any platform but the Wii, but it’s very fun to swish and flick your wand.
