| advertisement |
|
|
WITH NINTENDO ALREADY HAVING a kiddie image was it necessarily a good idea to bring a game like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to GameCube? In a big bag of mixed emotions the answer seems to be yes. The prequel to this game sold extremely well (in fact, across all formats it is EA NZ's biggest selling game) and ofcourse the new movie with the same name has just hit cinemas.
So why would someone who isn't a fan of Harry play this game? The same reason a non fan of Buffy might pick up Buffy The Vampire Slayer for Xbox, to play a game from a genre they enjoy. Just because it has the name of a certain wizard shouldn't mean it relies on that name.
Your gaming experience starts with a nice, new, magical EA logo. The weirdest thing about the start-up is that instead of starting with some kind of story based intro you are introduced to the game with a movie styled trailer. Do we learn of a storyline? No. Does the game deliver the action it seems to promise? Sadly, no. Well that is, not until the last hour or two of playing.
The story is identical to that of the movie; Harry returns to Hogwarts and partakes in schooling and Quiditch, only something goes horribly wrong. You see, something is attacking Hogwarts dwellers and its up to Harry to discover what exactly is going on. The only problem being that you only find out something new maybe once every three days, if that. Once you work your way to Hogwarts -- which involves learning how to throw gnomes, finding out what can hurt you and what helps you get your health back -- a day consists of waking up, walking down the stairs, receiving a cutscene, going to class to meet the person who just previously told you which classroom to go to, earning a new spell in class, then a game of Quiditch. At night-time you find out something more about the storyline, but this happens quite late in the game. Once you have learnt a bit more of whats going on, or sometimes after a good game of Quiditch, get ready to repeat the previous steps... over and over until the game ends.
The start and the end of this game are great, and by all means you will probably be blown away at your first Quiditch game or when flying over Hogwarts, but there is very little else that will blow you away in terms of gameplay. Things that should be easy -- like jumping from one platform to another -- become frustrating because the camera decides that after utilising a "behind-Potter" view 80% through, that this puzzle/obstacle merely needs a different camera angle to make it more of a challenge. Other obstacles -- bosses -- are far too easy, and after completing most challenges you are left feeling more than a little underwhelmed.
The game also grabs a hold of probably the best control style ever given to a platformer/adventure game -- the Zelda control scheme -- and completely puts it out of commission. Spells you earn need to be changed about far too often, therefore assigning them to B, X and Y only becomes useful by chance. Then there's the auto-jump function, probably the most annoying feature considering that the need to jump should not have been used at all -- as mentioned above in the "what should be easy, isn't" section. Probably the most frustrating part of controlling Harry would be his speed. After inching yourself along a wall Solid Snake style, the only way to get him away from the wall is to tap on the control stick in the direction you want Harry to move. 7 out of 10 times you will find Harry leaping to his doom because of the speed he leaves the wall. Couldn't he have done his "arm-waving don't fall off motion"? Nope, because it seems completely random when he does such a thing. |
