A fairly good adaptation of the popular books (Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone (PC))

Member Name: SimonCook

Product:	Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone (PC)
Date:	04/02/02 (276 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting tie-in to the books, Easy to get started

Disadvantages: Not the best game out there

First of all I should mention that I will not go into any detail of the characters or the story – this is because this is a well known story and if you haven’t heard of Harry Potter then it is better to read a separate opinion on the books and the movie (I have written opinions on all the books and the movies – and there are literally hundreds of opinions on Dooyoo!!!). It actually isn’t that important if you know the characters of the books as this doesn’t really detract from the game play, although a knowledge of the series probably makes the game less boring!

With the success of the Harry Potter books and the subsequent merchandising (and movie) it was inevitable that there would be a computer game. There are several available, one for the PC and one for the Gameboy; they both have similar game play. Essentially a three-D platform, search for the hidden room type game, this game doesn’t really give us anything new – the only real point of interest is the tie-in of the characters to the movie and the books. (The characters are drawn to look like the movie stars.)


<Installation>

Installation is very easy and fairly quick. The documentation recommends using scandisk and defragging your hard drive, but this is not totally essential if you maintain you PC regularly. Like most installations, you get some screenshots to keep you amused while it installs.

You do not have a choice of installation – there is no option to install small files and use the CD-ROM, or an option to fully install the product – this is slightly disappointing, as I would have loved to install the full game thus speeding up the graphics.

<Menu Choices>

You have several options when you first start the game.

Start Game – you can start a new game or load a saved game. There isn’t anything difficult about staring a new game, no stats to roll, no characters to
chose.

Options – this is where you can change the way the game works. You can change the resolution, the detail level, the controls, and the sound. After playing the game I advice the following – choose low-level detail, and always select Auto Jump. If you have a very high powered PC then chose the maximum detail – although I still advice Auto Jump – it makes the game so much easier.

Quiddich – this gives you the choice of practicing Quiddich or playing in a league. You cannot play these games until you have unlocked them in the full game. (I describe how to play this below)

<The Game>

When starting the game, you are given a comic book style introduction that explains who you are, how you became an orphan, and how you got to Hogwarts – this follows the book fairly closely – it is a shame that you cannot skip through this intro as readers of the book will already know the story! I am also a little surprised that there is no animated introduction – especially as the game ties in with the movie characters.

The game is fairly simple and is a combination of running around a maze and some other sub-games. You generally follow a story line by completing levels, although I did find that without a map to follow it often became difficult to find out where to go next – some of the characters sometimes pointed you in the correct direction though.

<Levels>

You are giving a brief start screen describing what you are supposed to collect in the level. This will be a combination of Task stars, wizard cards or visiting hidden section.

All the levels are very similar and involve you moving around mazes, climbing and jumping as you go and searching for various items. There are many puzzles to solve, most involve casting a spell to move items, or click a switch or de-activate an enemy (there are many enemies that try to thwart your progress ranging fro
m little gobliny type things, to plants that try to bit you etc - each enemy does different things to you – the goblins steal your Berty Botts Every Flavour beans – see below, while the plants reduce your stamina).

While doing a level you will have several tasks to accomplish.

Learn new spells – as you attend classes you will learn spells – this is a test of hand co-ordination and involves tracing a shape with your mouse within a time limit.

Collect Berty Botts Every Flavour Beans – you can swap these items for useful items – e.g. Fred & George Weasley will give you wizarding cards. (To gain the final special wizard card you must collect all wizarding cards – it should be noted that often you cannot go back and find the wizard card you missed!). There are several hidden items that only become available when you have collected a certain amount of beans – these are generally hidden behind portraits.

Leap and jump – throughout many of the levels you will have to do a lot of leaping and jumping – sometimes this involves jumping onto moving platforms (thus setting Auto Jump makes this a lot easier.). Climbing will help you get over some of the obstacles in your way.

Hidden doors – if you look carefully you will often find hidden doors or passageways (sometimes you can blast a mirror to reveal hidden chambers) that will allow you to complete the level. Mostly locked or hidden doors are revealed by casting a spell on an item.

Play sub games – quite often you will encounter people who may play a sub game with you – e.g. your nemesis Malfoy often tries to thwart your progress – in one sub game this involves throwing fir crackers at each other – the winner being the one who doesn’t faint (see fainting). These are often very difficult, although the game does allow you to save just before these sub games. I find that hitting
the ‘fire’ button constantly and moving around normally wins especially when attempting to defeat peeves.

Avoid fainting – as you progress through a level you have to ensure that you don’t faint – this means you have to keep your stamina high. As you encounter enemies or play sub games you will often lose stamina – luckily there are sometimes some chocolate frogs that will help increase your stamina. Additionally in some of the levels, if you fall off a moving platform, you will faint, your only option after fainting is to go back to the last save point.

Maze – sometimes your task will simply to find your next classroom – this involves running around the Hogwarts castle or the grounds. There are some hidden areas that can be found that have additional Beans etc.

Characters – you will meet all of the main characters from the book – mostly they will give you advice or give you additionally instructions. The game doesn’t really build on the characters from the book, missing out on some of the humour and craftiness of them.

Quiddich and practice – some of the levels involve the game Quiddich – initially you practice flying by aiming yourself through loops – practice
is essential as it can be fairly difficult – however eventually you will find yourself in a Quiddich game – the games are very long and involve you trying to catch the Golden Snitch. You try and follow the snitch – a progress bar starts to fill up as you get close – and once full you can get the snitch – this can be frustrating as the snitch makes many twists and turns just as you are about to catch it. I find this hard to do in later levels and it becomes a race to avoid fainting before you luckily manage to catch the snitch.

Wizard cards-Although initially the Wizard cards are not useful, you do need to collect them all to be able to finish
the game – the cards are pretty and give a little background info. (NOTE – you cannot go back to collect some of the cards, so therefore you must ensure that you collect them all!)

There are several books scattered around the game – touch one of these and your game saves – this is OK, but I would have liked to have the chance to save the game to a different name – it is a good idea to only allow the player to save at certain points, but saving to a different name would allow you to go back to different parts of the game. Often the ‘save books’ appear before a particularly difficult section –e.g. sections where peeves and Mrs Norris are prowling the library looking for you. It is therefore always a good idea to save, even though it can take quite a while.


<Graphics>

First of all you must have an 8MB graphics card to get the best out of the graphics. You do have the ability to set the resolution to low and the detail to low, but the graphics can get very slow when there are many moving characters on the screen.

The actual Graphics on the screen are very good and atmospheric. The animations are excellent as are some of the special effects – I particularly like the mirrors. The characters are modeled on the movie and are very close, however I was disappointed that the mouths didn’t move.

The 3-d mazes are good although do not compare to Quake or other more graphically oriented games.

Perhaps the most impressive features of the graphics are the views from some of the towers. Although they don’t add to the game play, they do add much to the atmosphere.

The graphics are good enough to make you feel that you are in Hogwarts castle.

<SOUND>

The sound effects are generally good and add to the atmosphere of the game. The music is pretty repetitive, and although it changes in intensity as situations become dangero
us I soon turned the volume down!

<Game Play>
____________

This is an addictive game even if it is highly repetitive - you’ll find yourself saying ‘Just one more level’. The controls are very simple and good. The computer automatically selects the relevant spell for casting and all you have to do is aim the spell. You can control the game entirely using the keyboard, but I found that a combination of mouse and keyboard was best. It is perhaps a great introduction into the 3-d gaming world for children – it isn’t particularly difficult and there is no blood and gore.

<REQUIREMENTS>

The game runs on Windows 95 or above (not sure if it works on Windows 2000 but it should work on XP). You need a minimum of 32MB, 266hz, 400MB hard drive and a 4MB graphics card – however as I mentioned earlier the game becomes very slow at times with this set-up. I would advice at least a 8MB graphics card and a high end PC to get the best out of the game. The game retails at about 30GBP, although you can get it in the US for $30.

<My Opinion>

If this was just another 3-d game then I would be fairly disappointed – there are game with better graphics and sound that have far less repetitive levels. However, as this has a Harry Potter theme you will find that with the storyline that develops, the game does become addictive especially if your children have read the books.

The interactive story manages to keep you interested when you start to get bored with the game play. Additionally, the sub-games that crop up also maintain your interest.

The graphics and sound are very atmospheric, however they are not the best – it is simply the combination of the story with the graphics that make this game good.

My advice is to wait for this game to become discounted and then buy it – with all the media hype at the moment this will probably take seve
ral months!

Additionally, if you don’t like the books then you generally won’t be too impressed with the game.

It should be pointed out that although the game does follow the general storyline of the book, there are some subtle changes and perhaps many avid readers will be disappointed by this!

Summary: