Harry Potter and his encounters with the Half-Blood Prince won’t win over newcomers to the franchise but it may have enough juice to entertain longtime fans. Electronic Arts is not going to win any awards with this video game based on the hugely popular series that spans the globe. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is no different than the previous titles with gameplay that will be felt as overly repetitive. The phenomenon of Harry Potter is no mystery; it’s able to grasp the attention of all demographics. As a novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was remarkable in its attempt to push its characters towards adulthood and their encounters with mature scenarios such as Harry’s journey with Professor Dumbledore through Lord Voldemort’s cave. As a film, Warner Brothers took the novel and put forth one of the darkest entries in the series to date.
So when it came to developing the video game, Electronic Arts had a great source to work from. They could’ve gone in a variety of directions, but the one they opted to go with didn’t translate into a great or even a mediocre game. Let’s take a look at what the game is compromised of. Half-Blood Prince suffers from lack of riveting gameplay, little replay value and dismal graphics. The only redeeming value is that the video game contains material from the novel that the movie didn’t have. This might entice longtime fans that want to see their favorite scenes brought to life, but not even hardcore fans will enjoy EA’s recreation of important scenes with the horrendous voice-acting. It’s pitiful that the title didn’t turn out to be more than Quidditch games, potion-making mini-games and magical duels. The Quidditch portion boils down to pitting players in the role as Harry, the seeker of he team.
His quest is to grab the golden snitch before the rival’s time does. If you’ve watched the film, then you’ll remember that each team employs bruisers who are out to stop the seeker from retrieving the snitch – sadly, this doesn’t come into play as Harry only has to fly through a few hoops in the sky before he catches the snitch. Not the Quidditch that everybody has imagined from the novels or has seen from the films. Potion making isn’t any better; it’s fairly limited to being a carbon copy of Cooking Mama. Players will pour the appropriate ingredients in, stir them around for a bit and then heat them up to create the potion. By the end of the first-half of the game the majority of players will be bored due to the limited depth of the gameplay. Thankfully the wizard duels are one of the major, redeeming gameplay features of the title.
Controlling the wands with the analog sticks, players will send spells by flicking the stick in any one direction. The battles aren’t insanely hard nor are they profound with strategies, but battling a friend is fun from time to time. The only real issue with a duel is that your opponent’s next move turns out to be fairly predictable, so it isn’t that difficult to obtain victory. If you are still skeptical, then let me remind you that outside of the monotonous gameplay, the plot is mucked up with poor storytelling, the voice acting is on the level of low-budget English voice-overs for anime, and the graphics are nothing to brag about. If you are thinking about buying the game, I suggest renting before you make any decision (unless you are one of the massive Potter fans). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is not worth anything more than an afternoon sit-down or rainy weekend rental.
