Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Review

Platform: Nintendo Wii
Genre: Adventure
Number of Players: 1
Publisher: EA
Release Date: June 25, 2007 US
OfficialWebsite
Writer: Netzach

Rating : 7.8

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Review

Just as Harry Potter has been a cash cow for the literary world and the sliver screen, the video game industry needs to put its hand into the cookie jar. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth book that has transformed into a game. The downside is that most movie games have a history of performing poorly or being just plain bad. But will Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix follow the trend, or will it give me a reason to wave around the Wii-mote in triumph?

Graphics:
Since the Wii is not the graphical power house that the Xbox360 and PlayStation 3 are, I wasn’t expecting much (granted, they did make RE4 for the GameCube and that was beautiful). Returning to the subject at hand, the graphics are some of the best seen on the Wii. If the facial structures of the characters had been given a little more love, it would have given that perfect effect. But for the most part, they did a great job. The character that looks closest to their onscreen counter part is Hermione. I know who each of the characters are, the bodily structures are different in terms of height, but they all seem to have the rectangular shape, even the females. One thing that I think the graphic designers did really well was the invisibility cloak. I wasn’t completely invisible, with a distortion of where my character was so that I didn’t lose him while traveling from one area to another. I think this was handled very well graphically. In terms of the environment, the stones, paintings, and other factors are great. I feel like I am within Hogwarts as I adventure through. The attention paid to the environment is well recognized within the game play. 7.8/10

Controls:
This is the area where I was worried. Since the Wii has had a notorious history of having problems with third party games having sensor issues, I was hoping that this would be smooth. And for the most part it is. Moving the Wii-mote around like a magic wand feels completely natural, and I don’t feel like a complete idiot doing so. Each spell has a specific motion for the Wii-mote and/ or Nunchuk in order for it to be performed. Sometimes I did forget the movements, but the spell list was retrievable by pressing the negative button on the Wii-mote. The animated motions and what the spell does was expressed within the spell menu which helps a lot for someone who can’t remember the extensive spell list for this game. There were times the controllers were not responsive, and I even found a glitch with them, but for the most part they were really well done.
The only downside is that Harry moves like he’s wearing cement shoes. His movement is heavy and feels a little clunky. Sometimes trying to move him thought a doorway or just moving around Hogwarts is slow. They need to improve this for the next installment of the game.

Sounds:
The coolest thing by far about this game is that they actually got the actors for the Harry Potter movies to do the voices of their video game counter parts. Not just your leads such as Harry and Hermione, but also Ginny, Goyle, and Crabbe, are all voiced by their on screen counter-parts. This is great for those who love the films, but it also keeps a consistency. The music on the whole does create a great atmosphere for the game, with orchestrated music from the actual films. The AI voices do get a bit repetitive and the variation of comments is there, but sometimes there are a few repeats. The cool thing is that there is enough variation between them, depending on which house the person is in. For example, if Harry speaks to a person in the Slytherin house, they would say, “Potter sinks,” or something along those lines. The environment sounds such as footsteps, and doors sound great and don’t appear over done. 7.9/10

Fun Factor:
This game is actually fun. I had a blast putting myself within the settings and doing the quests. The great thing is that you get to explore the Hogwarts grounds in a way that you can’t in the movies, and that was only reserved for your imagination in the book. Plus, there are explorations and mini-games along the way. I spent a few hours just playing the mini-games that were littered though the environment. Waving the Wii-mote and Nunchuk really added to the whole Harry Potter experience, which would be lost on other consoles.
Though exploration, controls, and min-games are fun, some of the quests are sometimes very fetching based. I mean you have to go and find 25 people, do something for them, and then they go on their merry way, so that you can collect all of them for the DA. So they may seem a little repetitive. That being said, I think with the variety of what you have to do and the spells, I can overlook the fetching. 8/10

Female Aspect:
You don’t actually play as a female character. You play as Harry Potter throughout the game but you will encounter the female characters that have been mentioned throughout the books and movies, such as Hermione, Moaning Myrtle, Luna Lovegood, and other students and professors that exist within the Hogwarts realm. Of course, it wouldn’t make sense to be playing a Harry Potter game without being Harry Potter.

Gameplay:
In terms of the game play, the loading time between each stage is minimal. This made my experience with the game enjoyable, and gave more of a movie like experience than game play. With the combination of graphics and controls, I found this game really fun to play. I never noticed how fast the hours passed while playing, and never once felt like I was being forced to play. Another factor that really helped with the game’s experience was the ability to save whenever I wanted, which made me feel I wasn’t confined to the game. I could play for as long or little time as I wanted, and I didn’t have to keep playing till I found the next safe point. In conjunction, I found that I was not confined to a completely inner questing style. I didn’t have to pick up a specific character at a specific time. I could choose which members of the DA that I wished to pick up and when I wanted to pick them up. The order I decided to pick up the characters would not affect the storyline, so it still stayed true to the directed storyline. I could spend as much time exploring and playing wizards chess as I wanted without feeling the pressure of making sure I got all the DA Members by a specific point in time. Downside again to the game is the constant fetch quests of members. 7.8/10

Replay Value:
The game does contain some replay value in the fact that there are numerous things to find to unlock elements within the secret room, and many mini-games to play, such as Wizards Chess, to advance through and to play other members of the house till you become the best. Other than that, the really isn’t as much replay value. There is a decent single player experience that would outweigh feeling a little slighted for the lack of replay. 6/10.

If you’re a fan of the books, movies or the games, I would suggest picking up this installment of Harry Potter. It’s a great game by a 3rd party developer, who has gotten the concept of the Wii. It has made the graphics and controls work to there best advantage, and isn’t afraid to move away from the massive amount of puzzle, casual games that are flooding the Wii’s game library. This is a great adventure game for the Wii.