This is a really great game. Its so much better than the first one. The graphics are beautiful. The controls are easy to use and the game takes much longer to complete than the first one.
The camera moves with you and is usually in a good place to show you what is going on. Most of the time the view is from behind you but sometimes it is a little hard to get the camera in exactly the right place. You move by pushing the left joystick. You also have some control over the camera angle with the right joystick.
There is so much to do. All of Harry’s friends are there as well as his enemies. The voices are excellent and you can talk to everyone you see. The story follows the film but there are so many more areas to explore and quests to complete. Some of these like the gnome slinging competion are very funny.
You can pick up Bertie Botts Every Flavour beans and trade them for famous witches and wizards cards or more spells. Each time you get 10 witches and wizards cards your life is increased.
There are many monsters to fight and you also have duels with Slitheryn including Malfoy of course. Each battle requires a different approach to win. This keeps the game interesting. All the battles are possible although sometimes you will find yourself trying the same battle over and over.
When Harry loses a battle or faints the game starts you at the beginning of the battle or very close to the point you lost to try again. This is really nice and you get the feeling that you never need to save. This can be a mistake as the game crashed once for me and we lost a few hours play.
Spells can be assigned to buttons on your controller. The complicated sequence of buttons used in the original game has been totally scrapped Spells are gained by going on quests from the classroom teaching that spell. There are puzzles to solve before the spell can be used but these are not too hard to figure out.
The game is organized in days with a different set of things to achieve each day. A typical day will start with a lesson in a classroom to learn a new spell followed by a game of quidditch followed by Hermione waking you up in the dead of night to go and do something. You have to sneak around and cast spells to distract prefects. If you get caught its back to the start of that area, usually the door where you entered and try again. The only problem is you lose 5 house points each time you get caught. The house points are totalled at the end of each day and it is quite a challenge to stay ahead.
Quidditch is about riding round on your broomstick trying to catch the golden snitch. There are some improvements here over the first game notably the ability to go super fast ‘boost’ after flying through enough rings. The rings increase your speed. There are also bludgers to avoid and another seeker who you have to beat.
The only thing my children didn’t like about this game was the loading screen. Where most loading screens have a bar that shows when the game is nearly finished loading this game has a bar that moves from side to side and you have no idea how long it will take.
There are so many little things in this game that you will love. My children particularly liked the way the sparks from Harry’s wand trail behind him as he runs and I loved the way the spiders scurry up vertical walls.
This is a game for the whole family. There is no violence and the children love it. I was totally amazed by this game. It definitely ranks as one of the best children’s games available and is also great fun for adults.