Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for PC, based on the third book / film of the septology, is another fun game that doesn't quite deliver as much as you would like, though it gets closer than the previous two Harry Potter games. After ting off with a frankly rather annoying tutorial, the game follows much the same pattern as the previous games, but with a few extra features that make this game the best of the three.
The game ts off with a short introduction featuring Harry's summer holidays, and soon enough you're on the train bound towards Hogwarts school. The game itself ts on the train - the tutorial is admittedly helpful for those who don't know the controls, but having recently played the first two games which feature identical controls, I found it pretty annoying. Still, the tutorial level does introduce the most important of the new features - the fact that you control not just Harry, but also best friends Ron and Hermione as well. The three usually stick together and sometimes you have to use their combined spell casting to achieve your goal; at other times you will by controlling just one of the three, typically during the spell challenges. This feature does add a little to the game, although the way it's implemented isn't particularly imaginative.
The basic interface used cursor keys to move and mouse to change view angle, left mouse button to cast spells and right mouse button to jump (though you can use purely the keyboard or of course a joystick / joypad). The main part of the game involves solving puzzles based on position, timing and spell-casting, and in general it's fun with well-designed (if usually too easy) levels. You undertake various challenge levels after a lesson, where you have to use the spell you've just learned (and whatever else you already knew) to get past the various obstacles in the level. There are various items to collect along the way including Bertie Botts Every-Flavour Beans, Pumpkin Pasties and Cauldron Cakes (in increasing value, the basic forms of "currency" in the game). You can also travel around the school and outside in the school grounds; most of the trickier puzzles are to be found in the latter. Fred and George's shop have some items for sale once you have enough beans or whatever, including passwords to enable you to get into secret areas inside the school building (by far the most useful item they sell!). Wizard cards can also be collected, often available for sale by random schoolchildren you meet inside or outside the school. Collect all of them and bonus cards can be obtained.
While the main game is fun in itself, it doesn't provide enough challenge for most gamers. Some of the spells allow you to do cool things, such as control rabbits or small dragons in Hermione's case, grab objects from a distance in Ron's case and freeze rivers which you can then slide down when you're controlling Harry. However it would have been nice to see these ideas extended beyond the specific challenge levels (and later the end of year exams, which are like the challenges but a bit tougher). There are three mini-games, two of which aren't very good, but flying the hippogriff is great fun, and actually quite challenging on the tougher levels. Such features make the game a lot more enjoyable and extend its lifespan; not quite enough, unfortunately, but you'll be playing for a fair amount of time.
Plotwise the game manages to keep most of the important events in, although really I think anyone who'd not read the book or seen the movie might be a little lost as to what's going on at times. The objective for each part of the game is clear enough though so that wouldn't be a problem, and I can't imagine that many people who get this game won't already know the storyline anyway.
The graphics are a huge improvement over the first two games, and the backgrounds are nicely rendered. The character models don't look too bad either, and while obviously modern games are much more impressive graphically, this 2004 game doesn't look too bad even by today's standards. There's the very occasional graphical glitch, but nothing that detracts seriously from the gameplay. The music is quite nice but strangely lacklustre - it's just too... relaxing for this sort of game. It should add to a feeling of excitement, but it tends to have the opposite effect at times. The voice acting is mostly very good, but there's too much happy-smiley-buddy talk for my liking, it comes over as just too much sometimes. Added to this Hermoine is quite annoying at times, as is Ron to a lesser extent... When it comes to the sound there is one major positive factor though - the narration is done by Stephen Fry, who's a very good choice for this.
Overall Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for PC is fun for quite a while and has one or two challenging bits, but with the moderately short length and overall lack of challenging gameplay, coupled with uninspiring sound, the game is only average. Out of ten I would probably give it a seven though.
System Requirements
OS: Windows 98 / 2000 / ME / XP (I ran it in Vista with no discernable problems)
CPU: 600MHz
RAM: 256Mb
HDD Space: 850Mb
VDU: 32Mb
DirectX: 9.0b
Related Links:
PC GAMES
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The game ts off with a short introduction featuring Harry's summer holidays, and soon enough you're on the train bound towards Hogwarts school. The game itself ts on the train - the tutorial is admittedly helpful for those who don't know the controls, but having recently played the first two games which feature identical controls, I found it pretty annoying. Still, the tutorial level does introduce the most important of the new features - the fact that you control not just Harry, but also best friends Ron and Hermione as well. The three usually stick together and sometimes you have to use their combined spell casting to achieve your goal; at other times you will by controlling just one of the three, typically during the spell challenges. This feature does add a little to the game, although the way it's implemented isn't particularly imaginative.
The basic interface used cursor keys to move and mouse to change view angle, left mouse button to cast spells and right mouse button to jump (though you can use purely the keyboard or of course a joystick / joypad). The main part of the game involves solving puzzles based on position, timing and spell-casting, and in general it's fun with well-designed (if usually too easy) levels. You undertake various challenge levels after a lesson, where you have to use the spell you've just learned (and whatever else you already knew) to get past the various obstacles in the level. There are various items to collect along the way including Bertie Botts Every-Flavour Beans, Pumpkin Pasties and Cauldron Cakes (in increasing value, the basic forms of "currency" in the game). You can also travel around the school and outside in the school grounds; most of the trickier puzzles are to be found in the latter. Fred and George's shop have some items for sale once you have enough beans or whatever, including passwords to enable you to get into secret areas inside the school building (by far the most useful item they sell!). Wizard cards can also be collected, often available for sale by random schoolchildren you meet inside or outside the school. Collect all of them and bonus cards can be obtained.
While the main game is fun in itself, it doesn't provide enough challenge for most gamers. Some of the spells allow you to do cool things, such as control rabbits or small dragons in Hermione's case, grab objects from a distance in Ron's case and freeze rivers which you can then slide down when you're controlling Harry. However it would have been nice to see these ideas extended beyond the specific challenge levels (and later the end of year exams, which are like the challenges but a bit tougher). There are three mini-games, two of which aren't very good, but flying the hippogriff is great fun, and actually quite challenging on the tougher levels. Such features make the game a lot more enjoyable and extend its lifespan; not quite enough, unfortunately, but you'll be playing for a fair amount of time.
Plotwise the game manages to keep most of the important events in, although really I think anyone who'd not read the book or seen the movie might be a little lost as to what's going on at times. The objective for each part of the game is clear enough though so that wouldn't be a problem, and I can't imagine that many people who get this game won't already know the storyline anyway.
The graphics are a huge improvement over the first two games, and the backgrounds are nicely rendered. The character models don't look too bad either, and while obviously modern games are much more impressive graphically, this 2004 game doesn't look too bad even by today's standards. There's the very occasional graphical glitch, but nothing that detracts seriously from the gameplay. The music is quite nice but strangely lacklustre - it's just too... relaxing for this sort of game. It should add to a feeling of excitement, but it tends to have the opposite effect at times. The voice acting is mostly very good, but there's too much happy-smiley-buddy talk for my liking, it comes over as just too much sometimes. Added to this Hermoine is quite annoying at times, as is Ron to a lesser extent... When it comes to the sound there is one major positive factor though - the narration is done by Stephen Fry, who's a very good choice for this.
Overall Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for PC is fun for quite a while and has one or two challenging bits, but with the moderately short length and overall lack of challenging gameplay, coupled with uninspiring sound, the game is only average. Out of ten I would probably give it a seven though.
System Requirements
OS: Windows 98 / 2000 / ME / XP (I ran it in Vista with no discernable problems)
CPU: 600MHz
RAM: 256Mb
HDD Space: 850Mb
VDU: 32Mb
DirectX: 9.0b
Related Links:
PC GAMES
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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