	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
	Developer: EA Bright Light Studios Publisher: EA Release Date: Out Now Players: 1-2	Words By:
I’ll get this out of the way quickly. I haven’t personally read beyond the first Harry Potter book myself but I have seen all of the films and can see why the material is popular with people in so many different age groups. The stories are exciting and the characters engaging, which is why it’s all the more disappointing to see EA’s latest 360 offering appear to be nothing more then your usual gaming cash-in. For fans the game will initially be exactly what you’d want from a Potter title. You play as the spectacled one right from the off, and within minutes are conjuring spells, mixing potions and flying on broomsticks around Hogwarts. Sounds great doesn’t it? It’s only after an hour or so’s play that you begin to realise that this is pretty much ALL you’ll be doing for the entire game. Let’s start with the spells. At the beginning of the game you are lumbered with helping Ron clear out some dirty cauldrons by picking them up and tossing them into a nearby pond. Here’s where the magic comes in. Following on-screen prompts you are tasked with moving the analogue sticks in a certain motion, which in turn moves Harry’s wand and casts the spell needed to pick up the cauldrons and complete the task. All the spells in the game are cast in a similar fashion and it’s obvious that this control scheme was designed with the Wii version of the game in mind. As well as moving objects and repairing items, spells are thankfully used in a more destructive manner during the game’s many duels. Duels are a strictly one-on-one affair and have you facing off against many characters from the novels. Flicking the analogue sticks in certain ways will allow Harry to perform a variety of different offensive and defensive magical abilities against his opponents. Stupify is your basic attack and to be honest it’s all you’ll really need. Disappointingly enemy AI is basic at best and whilst you can defend yourself, usually the most effective tactic is to keep on blasting away until your opponent is out for the count. A more sedate activity is to be found within the potion section of the game. Here you’re presented with a cauldron and a bunch of bottles and various insects needed for the potion recipes. Using the right analogue stick you can pick up, pour and stir as instructed, all against a generous time limit. This again feels like it would be more at home on the Wii, and whilst these sections are initially quite fun (if a little basic) they soon become rather dull and are definitely over-used and lacking variety. So can the game redeem itself with a decent game of Quidditch? Sadly not. Despite being the highlight of the film experience the game of Quidditch feels diluted and overly simplified here. For one thing the game is on-rails, which doesn’t seem right to me; all the player has to do is move the left analogue stick to fly through large stars floating in the sky. The whole excitement of this fantasy sport, for me at least, is being able to soar around the environment as you wish and here it feels like you’re being lead to an inevitable conclusion. You do occasionally have to barge into the opposing team but this never feels satisfying or as necessary as it should within the match. Holding the main activities together is the film’s plot conveyed by the briefest of cut-scenes. The story isn’t used to its full potential and you don’t really get the meat of what the book is about other than a few key-scenes shoehorned in between mini-games. There are also a bunch of side-quests to divert you from the main story including the potion and duelling clubs. These are essentially more of the same and unless you are after some easy achievement points aren’t really worth bothering with. Additionally there is a 2-player mode which allows you to take on a friend in a duel. Additional maps and characters are unlocked as you collect the 150 hidden crests within the single-player game, which at least gives completists the incentive to keep coming back. Visually the game is a bit of a mixed bag. The environments are probably the highlight as Hogwarts looks just as you’d expect it to with the grand staircase and talking paintings. It’s a shame that the characters are poorly implemented and despite having a fairly good likeness to the actors all suffer from a lack of detail and some terrible voice acting. On the plus side the music is quite good and fits the action on screen. So Harry Potter isn’t the magical title we all hoped for and it does seem like a terrible waste when you look at the source material. Whilst I’m sure it will excite younger fans to begin with, this just isn’t as good a game as Order of the Phoenix and even the most die-hard Harry Potter devotee will struggle to get much of value from the Half-Blood Prince.

Best Bits
- The soundtrack is faithful to the film.
- Easy achievement points.
- Hogwarts is an interesting setting.

Worst Bits
- Characters are visually disappointing.
- Gets repetitive very quickly.
- Where’s my Wii-Mote?
- Still no co-op mode.


by: Pedro