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EA’s latest Harry Potter doesn’t fail to impress. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, one of this summer’s highly anticipated blockbusters, is around the corner and fittingly we have a game to go along with the movie. While previous Harry Potter games were aimed at a decidedly younger audience, Order of the Phoenix’s open-ended design and top-notch production values keep it near the top of the movie-based game hierarchy.
As expected, the latest Harry Potter game is based on the book and more accurately on the upcoming movie. The game picks up right where Goblet of Fire left off, with things going rather poorly for Harry. Cedric Diggory died, Voldemort is plotting something, and Harry can’t get proper training at Hogwarts. He does the only thing he can do and decides to form a secret army of students called Dumbledore’s Army in order to prepare themselves for the battles to come. The game doesn’t go into quite as much detail as the book or even as much detail as the upcoming movie is expected to, but it does give you a flavor for what is going on and provides enough reason to keep playing.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix can be described as mixture of Rockstar’s open-ended Bully and the Harry Potter universe. The open-ended nature of the game lets you choose how you spend your time by giving you a number of missions on a map and letting you pick which one of these you want to play next. Even with the new open-ended nature, the actual gameplay isn’t very different in Order of the Phoenix. You’re still going around, solving relatively easy puzzles, exploring the environments you’re in, and completing simple missions for others. Along the way, you’ll use Harry’s wand to take on some enemies, something made very easy, intuitive and fun on all of the versions of the game. There isn’t a whole lot of combat in the game, which is a little disappointing since it is one of the most fun bits.
That isn’t to downplay the significance of the open-ended design. The developers really pushed the open-ended structure by rewarding you for tinkering with the environment and making sure you explore every bit of Hogwarts. You get discovery points for finding new areas and completing optional puzzles that can be used to further develop your magic and unlock behind-the-scene and game development features.
The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions use the second analog stick to control spells, which works well as it lets you easily move Harry around as you fight off enemies. As expected, the Wii version’s biggest differentiating factor is the use of the Wiimote and Nunchuk’s motion sensitivity. While the Wii controls sometimes feel forced in other games, they work perfectly fine in Order of the Phoenix since your onscreen character is also using a wand. You can pull off most of the spells simply with the Wiimote and thanks to the context-sensitive controls, the game does a great job of accurately detecting your gestures and motions. The PS3 version makes fairly extensive use of that controller’s Sixaxis functionality, but because of the form factor it doesn’t quite mimic the interactive experience that the Wii provides.
Order of the Phoenix is the most visually striking Harry Potter yet. EA painstakingly recreated the world of Harry Potter and it comes across beautifully in the game. The school has excellent architecture, great textures and accurately captures the film’s feel. The various character models all look great, although on the Xbox 360 and PS3 can cross into the Uncanny Valley sometimes. Those versions, however, do benefit from the next-generation graphical polish in the form of higher-resolution graphics, more detailed character models, and better lighting effects. The Wii version is no slacker, though, and ultimately ends up being one of the best looking games on Nintendo’s console. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions support 720p, while the Wii version supports 480p widescreen.
The excellent production values are also demonstrated in the game’s sound. The game’s original soundtrack sounds appropriately epic. Neville Longbottom and other movie stars lent their voices to the game, which again goes a long way in recreating the film’s atmosphere.
Although the actual missions and tasks in Order of the Phoenix aren’t entirely different than what we’re used to in a Harry Potter way, the open-ended free-roaming design does increase the game’s appeal to older gamers. Thanks to the top-notch production values, this is an easy recommendation for fans of the books or movies. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Jul 2, 2007
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