Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

Term begins again at Hogwarts. Calling all wizards.

It's not really much of a coincidence that we finished our review just as the UK premiere hit the screens. The country is awash with Harry Potter fever and there are adverts all over the place, even for the mobile game. Which is a first for us, I don't often see an advert in the Tube for a game that I'm playing while on the Tube.

Still, EA don't do things by halves which is good when it comes to gaming. This HP game takes the plot of the film, so if you haven't seen the film yet, maybe you should before playing the game. Don't worry, I'm not going to give anything away, to be honest, I never got caught up in all the fuss. For me it was The Belgariad, Earthsea saga and The Worst Witch that caught my imagination growing up. At a brief summary, there's a new head in town, Dolores Umbridge, and you have to try and learn Defence against the Dark Arts. Oh, and He Who Cannot Be Named is kicking about too. But then you've all read the book haven't you?

The game is visually pretty stunning and EA have clearly put a lot of effort into it. The graphics are really rich and full of colour, there is shading on the characters and backgrounds and there are even some great lighting effects. You know the game will look good right from start when you see the detail of the menu and the floating wand you use to select an option. Movement is a little slow but the animation is reasonably well done, and the duels are quite decent. The sound is the HP theme tune so the fans will be impressed. You don't get to hear much of this in the game, just a little tune at the end of the level, but there is vibration for those instances where people cast magic and you get hit.

The game has an isometric view which makes controlling Harry a little awkward. I had to forego using my stick and rely on the keypad. You still move up, down, left and right, but on the screen it will look like you're moving up left, down right, down left and up right respectively. Sounds confusing but you know what I mean. For the duel levels, it's all about your reactions and you only have to press the main button or 5. This is much easier control wise.

The game levels take the format of three types of adventure. You are either trying to get to somewhere (and avoid being seen usually), trying to duel someone in a battle of magic or you are moving around levels and attacking with spells. The levels take the plot of the film and there is plenty of text and story advancement. Sometimes it can all go by a bit too quickly but you'll certainly enjoy it if you're a fan of the series.

Once you get used to the controls, you have to get used to the levels. They can be LONG. And I mean LONG. And there's no save mid level either so if you get quite far and have to quit, then it's back to the beginning for you. If you die on the other hand, you can restart from one of the...er...restart points, which to be fair to EA are pretty much all over the place. Even early on though, there's a level where you have to get to a room, all the while avoiding people from Slitherin. They stick to the light so you have to stick to the shadows. It's almost a bit like playing Splinter Cell or Metal Gear. Harry is no Solid Snake however, so apart from using stealth to stick to the shadows, he can extinguish lights to help aid his progress and widen the darkness as well as use some Fainting Faeries (yes, you heard that right) later on. The Slitherin crew patrol on set patterns so you have to get used to these and figure out a good route. However, due to the length of the level, I often used a Han Solo fly by the seat of your pants approach, and sprinted past while they were firing off spells at me. It was a good adrenalin exercise, until I realised that you still hadn't finished the level and had to send Hedwig (the owl) back for the password. And he can't hide in the shadows, so it's a flight of panic as well for him. You get a score at the end based on how many times you are seen etc. Suffice it to say my score was pretty low most times.

Still, it was satisying to complete these levels, and then move onto some of the duel levels. In the duel mode you battle against another wizard by selecting the difficulty of your spell. This determines how quickly your wand moves around in your "target" circles. You have to press the button when the wand is within the circle to light it green. Light the outer rim and you'll have 1 magic point for the spell, light the inner circle and you get 2. Once you get a certain number of magic points, the spell is cast, so it's a race against the clock to see who's got the faster fingers. While this method of combat was fun, I found it pretty unfair at times. The strength of the magic goes from easy to impossible. Even on the hard and impossible settings I was able to press the button when the wand was in the target circles, but the wand never went there long enough for me to finish the spells. This is a real shame as I had to stick to easy and medium most of the time (same animation). What was even more annoying is that for the later duels, I was pressing the button exactly on, yet my opponent always seemed to be faster than me with their spells. Oh well, with enough playing I got through in the end, but it took me ages for the last duel. One other thing with this, when you both cast at the same time, the spells collide and then you have to defend yourself against the ensuing sparks by deflecting them. Still haven't figured that one out.

The game has a good deal of playability due to its size. On the later levels you are moving and attacking, but as it's not a duel, pressing the main button will just cast a spell aimed at whoever you are nearest to. This is actually a lot of fun as the health items aren't that frequent so you have to dodge pretty well and then make your attacks count! The game also allows you to unlock characters to play against in the mini games, which are basically the duel and the moving combat levels.

The game does actually have a good feel of the series and books to it. The graphics and lighting give a great atmospheric effect, as does the plot advancements. One thing EA can't be accused of is deviating from the Harry Potter world and their claim that you feel immersed in it is probably fairly accurate. The game is impressively put together to say the least. But.... and here comes the but....it took me ages to complete this game. I did enjoy it, but it was pretty hard due to the view and the unfairness in spell casting. Still, I perservered and I guess if you are a fan of the Harry Potter series you will love it a lot more than I did. It does look great though.

BTW - if you are having trouble, check out my hints - the tab at the top of the game info bar.