Review by: William Abner

I’m going to do something that is considered a real no-no in the world of game reviewing—well, in the world of ethics in general: I am going to plagiarize. I’m going to copy some of what I wrote from the review of the 2007 Harry Potter game, Order of the Phoenix. I do this not to cheat the reader but to point out that many of the complaints from that game are exactly the same in this latest one:

EA obviously threw more money at this latest version; you can tell in the scope of the design to the voice acting (much of which was done by cast members, although you can clearly tell who wasn’t hired on) to the grandiose setting of the game, that of Hogwarts itself. But upping the visual ante, hiring original cast members and, crafting Hogwarts to look like the real thing isn’t a replacement for quality gameplay, and that’s where the game falls down, and unless you’re a young gamer who loves everything about Harry (and there are a lot of those) you’re not going to get your (or your parents) $60 worth. There is a legion of adult Harry Potter fans as well, and for those people who also moonlight as gamers, the ease of which you can complete the game and the repetitive nature of the quests and puzzles are enough to cause you to bail out about halfway through the main storyline.

That’s basically the problem in Half-Blood Prince—too easy, too repetitive, and in many ways a waste of the fabulous source material. Instead of Harry running around doing menial tasks for schoolmates so that they’d join the Order of the Phoenix, here you’ll run around Hogwarts from one end to the other simply to talk to someone. Along the way you can collect Hogwarts crests (and you can earn a lot of easy Achievements this way – in fact this game is a Gamerscore gold mine).

But you’ll also get stopped/harassed by annoying Slitherine classmates who wish to duel you. Dueling is remarkably easy – just repeatedly cast Stupify and Expelliamous and you’ll win most duels – even against some of the tougher and notorious Death Eaters. I understand that the game should cater to a younger set but I would be stunned if any 10 year old gamer would suffer one dueling defeat in this game. The duels in Hogwarts are simply gameplay fillers.

It’s the same with quidditch. Getting the chance to take your broom and partake in a match sounds like great fun. It’s not. You aren’t playing quidditch as much as you are playing a simple arcade air combat game, zooming through green stars to add more time before the stage fails. It has absolutely nothing to do with the game of snitch catching and is mildly entertaining the first time you do it – boring as all get out the fourth time you do it. Again – it’s gameplay filler.

Potion making suffers from the same dilemma. In this mini game you add various ingredients to your cauldron, stir it until is turns into a specific color, heat it as it changes color again, etc. Just follow the directions and you’re done. It’s pretty easy and mind numbingly repetitive. It’s just something to eat up time, nothing more.