Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- November 25, 2002 17:07 PM PST
- Email this!
Hogwarts is back in session, this time on the Xbox. Flipendo!
- GamePro Score
- User Score
- Write your review!
No offense meant to Mr. Columbus, but the Harry Potter series is at its best in its original book form. The first movie, while spectacular to watch, was essentially exactly the book with some scenes missing. The games, as the Xbox version of Chamber of Secrets attests, are far below the movie on the Harry Potter quality scale. Flipendo!
On the top level, the game really does feel like Harry Potter. Hogwarts is faithfully reproduced and possesses some of the whimsy from the book; staircases move into place, books fly off shelves, and, for some reason, giant jellybeans pop out of boxes and vases when you hit them with a spell. You have to go to classes where you learn spells, and you interact with most of the series? most popular characters, all speaking in loud, overwrought, children?s-show-British voices. At first glance, everything looks great. Flipendo!
When you start looking underneath, though, things start to fall apart. Gameplay in Harry Potter consists mostly of hitting things with spells, running around hoping the floor doesn?t drop out beneath you, and even a fine spot of box-pushing. You have to fight enemies that don?t really die (they either respawn immediately or are simply temporarily ?knocked out?), and you have to fulfill all sorts of tasks that are nowhere near being in either the book or the movie. Apparently, attending a class at Hogwarts entails watching Harry Potter go through some sort of gauntlet and come out on the other side with a new spell. No wonder he?s the best wizard in the school; no one else ever gets the chance to learn anything. Flipendo!
Little gameplay annoyances betray the lack of attention paid to whether the game was much fun or not. Thanks to the inept camera, you?ll get hit frightfully often by enemies you can?t even see, and even when you can see the baddies, it?s difficult to get Harry?s slow self to cast a spell quickly enough to hit them. There?s no reward to fighting the enemies at all since they simply get right back up or respawn immediately. So while you?re trying to complete tedious puzzles, you?re doing so while constantly dodging unseen gnomes, fire beetles, or flying books. Flipendo!
Oh?and if you?re getting annoyed with the frequency of the ?Flipendo!? in this review, imagine how often you must hear it during the game. Crapendo.
On the upside, the game truly is pretty, and though it lacks a certain polish it would need to make the Xbox Graphics Hall of Fame, it?s certainly nice to look at. It?s also fairly faithful to the story of the book, when it bothers to go near the book?s plot. If you?re a fan of Harry Potter at all, the charm of the locations and characters just might help get you past the gameplay annoyances mentioned above.
The bottom line is, if you like the Harry Potter books, and if interacting with the books? charming world is your thing, then you?ll like this game a lot. For the rest of you, there?s always next year.
