Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Paul sends EA's tie-in back to school

I like Harry Potter as much as the next thirty-something. I've read a few of the books, seen all the films and genuinely enjoyed 2007's Order of the Phoenix game. So, I was really quite looking forward to sitting down and playing the Wii version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, unfortunately that anticipation proved to be the best bit. It seems Harry Potter games are becoming much like annual sports game updates in that it's becoming fiendishly hard to shake off the feeling of having been here, done that while playing them. Couple that with a sense that like a surly teenager the game seems to be doing the bare minimum to get by all the time and you're left with an experience only a mother could love.

It's worth pointing out at this early stage that I'm consciously not going to discuss the story directly in this review, there's bound to be people reading this who have yet to read the book or see the film so and I've no desire to be Mr Spoiler man. However, anyone jumping into the game without some prior knowledge of either the book or the film should be aware that the game's version of the plot is sketched out in broad, very fragmented, strokes. Whether it was decided that anyone playing the game would doubtless have already experienced the story or the developers at EA are simply very very bad at structuring a game around an existing plot, who knows. Whatever the reason, the video game version of The Half-Blood Prince manages to turn Rowling's beautifully plotted book into a series of vaguely linked story bullet points with little context or explanation given to fill in the gaps.

Much like Order of the Phoenix, Hogwarts is the real star of the Half-Blood Prince. The magical school is lovingly recreated in all its glory and you're given the freedom to explore its entire grounds at will. This ability to experience for yourself the many nooks and crannies of the old building remains as enjoyable as ever, the problem is it's no better (or thankfully worse) than time out last so unless you missed Order of the Phoenix there's nothing really new to see here. The only real difference is the absence of the phantom footprints that guided you from objective to objective, these are replaced this time by the ghost Headless Nick (unfortunately not played here by John Cleese) which works far better but still doesn't get round the more fundamental problem that you still spend most of the game traipsing around the same well worn routes time and again.

It doesn't help that despite the apparent freedom given to you around Hogwarts there's only really three different kinds of magical activity to get your teeth into. This means a continually repeating cycle of potion making, Quidditch and duelling amounts to pretty much the entire game. Of course this is a Wii game so these tasks involve lots of arm waving which, to be fair, does manage to make the whole experience feel distinctly more engaging than simple button presses ever could. However, it's also hugely repetitive, the potion making especially, and each gameplay style suffers from the same lack of nuance in the motion control that almost every other pre-MotionPlus Wii game has struggled with.

Probably most entertaining of the three activities is the duelling; Wizard on Wizard wand-based combat should after all be an ideal 'sport' for the Wiimote. So it's a shame that while lobbing spells around and dodging incoming attacks is fun, and the Wii motion controls do indeed add to the experience (Protego, the defensive spell that requires you to cross your arms in front of you feels especially intuitive) the whole thing is undermined slightly by the simplistic AI you'll be up against. Most battles throughout the game can be overcome with the same 'stun-attack-attack-attack, repeat until dead' pattern you'll figure out early on which neatly of removes any feeling of real progression or skill from things.

The plot of Half-Blood Prince necessitates Harry doing a lot of potion making, an activity which makes it into the game in the form of a Cooking Mamma-style mini-game. With the ingredients and recipe on screen it's up to you to use the Wiimote to blend the required potion as requested using the motion controls to lift, pour and stir your concoction as you go. It all actually works really well, the movements needed to control your actions are natural enough and everything does exactly what it says on the tin. The problem is simply that you're forced to make so many potions over the course of the game, all in basically the same way, that what was fun at first soon becomes a chore.

Last and quite definitely least comes Quidditch. The magical world's most popular sport looks great on film and in theory at least could make a great game, unfortunately here it's stripped of pretty much everything that could make it fun and is reduced instead to little more than a point and fly mini-game. Once the match starts all you're asked to do is point the cursor in the middle of on screen stars to direct Harry's flight path, then once he's flown through enough of them he automatically grabs the Snitch and it's game over. This almost auto-pilot version of Quidditch is about as fun as you'd expect, and it gets less fun each time you're forced to repeat it. As with the rest of the game's three main activities it either feels like a mini-game you're forced to play too often or a more substantial gameplay mechanic that's been seriously underdeveloped.

It's a real shame that there's so little game here to get your teeth into, a magical school, especially one so rich in well documented lore as Hogwarts should make the ideal game setting. Had EA taken the time to have a closer look at Rockstar's excellent Bully they'd have found a perfect template for a school-based open-world style action-adventure that just needed a Harry Potter make-over to be onto a winner. Sadly however, they didn't and we're left with a Harry Potter game that manages to make spending time at Hogwarts feel almost as repetitive and dull as real school.

When you consider the sumptuous production values of the film its a shame to see the game incarnation struggling to produce a realistic looking cut-scene. While you perhaps don't notice the lack of detail in the character models during normal play, once the camera gets in close for an attempt at plot development it becomes painfully obvious that expense has most definitely been spared in this area. Characters look only vaguely like the real world thespians that play them and appear to have been crafted using the minimum number of polygons before being animated using motion capture data provided by a 1970's robot. It doesn't help that the 'sound-a-likes' who provide the voices not only seem unable to act but also fail to sound much like their intended targets either. Hogwarts itself looks nice enough, this is the Wii don't forget so it was never going to be spectacular, and the engine as a whole does a good job of providing a robust world to explore; its just a shame that its inhabitants let the whole show down so badly.

Had we not already explored a remarkably similar Hogwarts last time out the impressive size and detail of the virtual school would perhaps be a selling point on it's own. Unfortunately with the novelty worn off we're forced to cast a keener eye on the game content provided within its grounds. Sadly the lack of variety and repetitive nature of what's there does little more than throw the half hearted story telling and horrible voice acting into even sharper relief. For Harry Potter devotees there's fun to be had simply spending time in the game world, however, those who demand a little more meat on their gaming bones may want to look elsewhere.

60%

By Paul Newcombe