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I’ve been a fan of Harry Potter ever since the first movie. After that I picked up the books and have been hooked ever since. With that out of the way I must say this game has surpassed anything I was expecting. When playing the Chamber of Secrets, you didn’t have a lot of freedom. This is still somewhat true when it comes to catching the snitch, but more on that later. The graphics are stunning and captivate the world that is Harry Potter. The voices and other sounds are phenomenal. The game play is quite unique, as this sport is only seen in Harry Potter titles.
Graphics:
The graphics could go one of two ways. First off the movies and books make a ton of money, so you would expect they would make a really great engine for the game. The other way would be it is geared towards kids who don’t really care. I can tell you they went half way on this. The graphics are nothing special; they look great and certainly exceed my expectations, but there are some places where it could be better of course.
The models themselves look like their movie counterparts, for the most part. The developers took the time to create individual models for everyone. Their animations are incredible, and there are so many. Most of the time you see cut-scenes when you do special moves, it appears to be rendered with the game but it gives off a CGI feel to it. The rest of it flows together as smooth as silk; moving from flying to tackling looks very lifelike. All the people from the different houses and countries wear a different uniform. Although they never have home or away uniforms, it is neat to see how the other countries dressed.
The stadiums that you fly in vary as you travel from country to country. USA offers a variety of pumpkins and such to look at, while Paris offers a huge lake or pool to fly over. This looks incredible and really adds to the replay factor, since no two places look the same. Stadiums are scattered with trees and other shrubs to add to the environment, and of course the crowd. The crowd, most of the time, looks like the standard 2D pictures of a lot of random people doing random animations. This might look bad, but who has time to look at the crowd when you have a quaffle to catch. Stadiums are also decorated with flags and other apparel according to that country. The Hogwarts stadium that you start off in is exactly as the movie depicts it. Also you can see it in two forms, summer and winter.
During the matches there is quite a lot of commotion going on. There are a total of 14 players on the field, and they all do their own thing. The brooms leave a trail behind that looks really cool. Also as you pass the quaffle, you can charge it up and watch it glow red. When you pass it when it’s fully charged it emits a lot of golden sparks in its trail, giving the effect that it is going really fast. The lighting effects from the quaffle and other special effects are great. They glow on the players’ faces and shine realistically. The other special effects you see are when you do special moves, more on those later.
Overall the graphics are splendid; they really have surpassed any expectation I had of them. While they are not ground breaking they perform amazingly well even on very high detail. The game runs flawlessly at 4xAA/8xAF at 1024x768. All the graphics are put together to show the player the world that Harry Potter lives in. Since the sports game is unique to Harry Potter, the graphics are quite unique themselves. They offer loads to look at and will definitely keep your eyes happy as you play this game. They are simple enough that even a child can be happy with, yet offer enough for some hardcore players to gawk at.
The voices done in the game are, after seeing the graphical presentation, superb. Although they can sound a little bit older than the characters are, depending on which book this game is before or after, they are top-notch.
Right when you start the game you hear a classic song that really tells you what to expect. Verdi’s 'Dies Irae from Requiem’ emits from your speakers and sets the stage that an immense battle is to ensue. The rest of the music during the game is pretty timid and Harry Potter’ish, John Williams type stuff. The sound effects and the commentator’s voice shuts out the music.
The voice acting is great, everyone sounds professional and kid-like. The commentator especially sounds great, naming off the names in such a fashion that it doesn’t clash with the game play. It changes from Lee Jordan at Hogwarts to Ludo Bagman at the world cup. He travels with you as you challenge each country. You can also hear how the crowd in the background gets riled up by the game. They cheer when you score and 'Aww’ when you get blocked.
Lip synching with voices in the beginning of the game is pretty well done. It isn’t perfect but it is really good, considering a lot of other games that had very poor lip synching with big budgets. The rest of the sound effects aren’t anything special. The bludger growls and makes funny noises as it moves. The various other sound effects sound good; they don’t become too annoying as time progresses.
Gameplay:
For those of you who have no idea what Quidditch is, or how it is played allow me to give you a quick introduction. Quidditch is played on a field like soccer or football, except it’s on brooms. There are 3 main balls in play; the quaffle, the bludgers, and the golden snitch. The quaffle is like a soccer ball; it is passed from player to player and thrown through three hoops to score 10 points. Bludgers are hit by beaters, and they are used to attack other players on the opposite team. The golden snitch is the most important ball in this game. It flies around the stadium and must be caught by the seeker in order to win. Catch the golden snitch and you win 150 points, this also ends the match. Team with the most points when the snitch is caught wins. Each team has 7 members; 1 Keeper, 1 Seeker, 2 Beaters, and 3 Chasers. The keeper is a goal tender, the seeker catches the snitch, the beaters hit the bludgers, and the chasers score goals with the quaffle.
Now, this game is played a bit differently then one would expect. You start off as a chaser on your team. As you progress you unlock special abilities that can allow you to become a beater for a brief moment and then it switches to controlling the bludger. You can move the bludger to try and hit a member of the opposing team. Other special abilities include a quick boost, a special move, and team special move.
The quick boost just shoots you ahead a little faster, somewhat like a nitro boost in a racing game. The special move allows you to perform a jaw dropping tactic that guarantees a goal. The team special move includes the whole team, while the regular one is independent. Also the team special move decreases the opponent’s seeker speed, more on that later. These special moves look amazing, simply amazing. I would have never had expected something this awesome from a game like this. Basically it goes to a game-rendered cut-scene of your player and they do a special move to score a goal. There are several ways to perform a special move, depending on what key combination you use.
Right when you jump into the game you are given the chance to choose the house you wish to play as. The more houses you play as, the more cards you get. Also when you start you play small tutorials that explain the game and the controls. This is definitely a must for new players, because as the game progresses a lot of things become available and can get very confusing. Of course getting those little cards helps improve your chances of unlocking the best stuff.
After each match you gain special collector cards, like in the first Harry Potter games. You use these cards to unlock special moves or new brooms, the faster the broom the harder the game. You can view these cards later on in the game to see some neat pictures of different things. You can tilt the cards to give off a 3D hologram illusion, this also looks really neat. Also at the end of each match it displays stats on the game, such as goals scored blocks, special moves, etc. You can see how well you did against the competition and what to improve upon if you lose.
As you play the game a little bar next to your score increases. This is your snitch boost bar. When the two pieces meet the snitch is 'released’ and you become the seeker. You must fly in the slipstream of the snitch to increase your boost bar. Also you fly a determined path that follows the snitch, this was a great idea as it could be very hard to control, especially for younger kids. Whenever you want to you can use your boost to close in on the snitch. This decreases as you use it and increases when you are in the snitches yellow slipstream. The opponent on the other team has this as well and it cane become a heated battle between you two to see who can get to the snitch first.
To get a higher snitch boost you must perform special moves and combos. Doing massive combos increases your bar greatly, and doing team special moves decreases the opponents bar quite a bit! Doing combos are quite easy given the controls; the most I’ve done in a single game was about 6. You have to keep an eye on your players to ensure that the quaffle doesn’t get intercepted during these passes. In order to gain a lot of snitch boost you do a lot of combos and then score a goal, simply doing combos alone does increase it, but not as much.
The controls are extremely easy to master; you can also reconfigure them to your liking. Doing combos and keeping an eye on the opponents becomes very tricky, this is where the game gets very intense. You can tackle the enemy and steal the quaffle from them, or intercept a pass. Keep in mind they can do the exact same to you, and they do. The game starts off fairly easy, considering I never lost a game at Hogwarts nor have I had a goal scored against me. Once at the World Cup things intensify quite a bit. The players attack quite often and use their special abilities more often, and they almost never miss.
Quidditch is a unique sport, and this game offers a great experience for Harry Potter fans and non-fans to enjoy. Even if you dislike Harry Potter you might enjoy this game, after all it is a sport. It plays a little like soccer, but it is still quite different. I have never played anything like this, even in Chamber of Secrets game; this is a whole new experience.
Conclusion:
This game is a must for any Potter fan out there. As I said before, non-fans might enjoy this title as it offers quite intense game play and a lot of things to do. There are several modes of play, but no multiplayer unfortunately. This game is definitely going on my top 10 favorite games, but then again I am a huge Potter fan.
