Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[the_dead_man]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Mobile Game Review

Title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Developer: EA
Publisher: EA
Publishing Rights: WB & JKR
Release Date: June, 2009
Format: J2ME
Game Features: Mini Games, Free roam environment.
Reviewed on: SE W580 and Nokia 5300

HP1.jpg

Summary

Harry Potter’s back at Hogwarts and it’s his sixth year. Play as Harry Potter and help him face several challenges in school; go on an exciting adventure with Professor Dumbledore to discover one of the very elusive ‘Horcruxes’. Finally battle the deadly Death Eaters and face the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

Review

I’ve always been a fan of the Harry Potter series, be it the books, the movies or the games. I find them entertaining, interesting and quite addictive. This week, since Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is out, I thought of reviewing it but I’ll have to say I was really disappointed with the game.

The storyline is extremely short, the game consists of seven levels in all. However most of the levels are extremely short and shockingly the last two levels are the shortest. The game begins with Harry already at Hogwarts and he’s late for his potions class. On reaching his class, Professor Slughorn tells him to get a spare book from the cupboard and Harry finds a book which is supposedly the property of the mysterious ‘Half-Blood Prince’. Then Harry has to find ingredients for a potion, thus you have to go around looking for the ingredients asking students who have an exclamation mark (!) over their head. This forms a major part of the gameplay in all levels. In the succeeding levels, you have to try your best to know more about Draco Malfoy’s plans. Besides that you’ll have to complete several tasks for students, like finding items for them. You’ll also have to find Luna’s robes and help Ron’s and his family at ‘The Burrow’ to decorate their Christmas tree. Finally you get to go with Dumbledore to the cave where Voldemort has hidden one of his horcruxes and battle ‘inferi’. On returning back, the Death Eaters along with Draco Malfoy corner Dumbledore and Severus Snape kills Dumbledore. You as Harry have to pursue Snape, battling Death Eaters along the way and finally when they come face to face, Harry comes to know that Snape is the Half-Blood Prince.

Considering the graphics, there’s nothing special about them, they are just average and there’s a lot of room for improvement. To be honest, the detailing of the characters is very poor, the surroundings have been well designed but it’s nothing special and can be said to be ‘ordinary’ considering the high standards EA has set for itself. However the textures, colours and shadow effects that have been used are quite good. The worst aspect about this game was the sound. The main menu music is just a repetitive tune and there are a few sound effects in the game. To sum it up in one word, the sound was ‘average’. Sounds in Order of the Phoenix were much better compared to this game.

Gameplay is not too bad, controls are easy to master. You control movement using the regular numpad keys and cast spells using the centre button. The longer you hold the centre button, the more powerful spells you can cast. Besides this there are different spells that you have to use in different levels to solve puzzles and complete the mission. Another interesting aspect of the game are the mini-games, which include Gobstones, Duelling and Exploding Snap. You can play these games with fellow Hogwarts students whenever you want because this game offers a free-roam environment. However Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix was better because there you got to play as Harry, Ron and Hermione. Here you can just play as Harry and the levels are not really very challenging compared to Order of the Phoenix.


Screenshots

HP-HBP1.jpg
HP-HBP2.jpg

Scores

Graphics: 7.4/10
Not bad, but nothing special.

Sound: 6/10
Average.

Gameplay: 7/10
Good, but could be better.

Story: 6.6/10
Short story, very short levels.

Overall Score: 7.2 out of 10

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[power2go3]

id give it a 7.5 (to the game)
but nice review

[Ghost]

Good review

[t-mac2008]

nice review

[thesfgeek]

i thought it would be a nice long game.but still looks good

[Duje]

Great review but I think this one is better than the Order of the Phoenix

[Vivian]

Another great review! Good job Dip!

[Chris]

Nice review Dip!
The game was very short though,dissapointing...
EA Games:

[the_dead_man]

Next Review: Aces of the Luftwaffe 2

[the_dead_man]

Review this weekend.