Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire-great book,great film,average action/adventure game.
7 books in the series and enjoyed them greatly.Also I have seen all 5 films released so far.The Goblet of Fire game is based on the book and film of the same name,but definitely takes its lead from the film.It is the first game in the series to have graphics which try to exactly mimic the look of the film instead of being slightly cartoonish,which I liked.This one seems to take its cue from EA's Lord of the Rings games in that the formula is to make the characters and levels look as much like the film as possible then just add
a good number of enemies for you to fight in these levels to ensure a good level of action throughout.This formula worked great in the two Lord of the Rings games,though perhaps not as well here.Basically the A button is your main attack button,or jinx button.You basically just whale on this to fight
and kill the enemy creatures that populate the various levels.X is your charm spell button,and the charm cast will depend on context-for example,if you are facing a fire you need to put out,X will cast aqua-eructo;if you are facing a rock you need to lift,it will cast wingaurdium leviosa,etc.
Y is always for the accio charm,which just serves to pull things toward you so they will be easier to grab,mainly health and beans.B is to enter "magicus extremos"mode when the magicus extremos gauge is full.
This mode increases the power of all 3 characters attacks for a limited time
and is filled by collecting beans. Overall a very good control layout.
The three playable characters are Harry,and his friends Ron and Hermione.
And they will always be together as a team except on the 3 levels based on the Tri-wizard tournament,which you do as Harry alone.The 3 play identical
to each other,though they can be customized with upgrade cards to vary them a little bit.Still,this fact may bother some players.
Graphics-7/10-Graphics are good,even above average.Very clean and colorful,though nothing spectacular-just solid.
Sound-9/10-Music lifted right from the film and timed very well to the action,so no complaints.The sound-alike voice actors do good jobs.Oh,and Voldemort's voice IS actually Ralph Fiennes-cool. :-)
Presentation-5/10-A dissappointment is that instead of using movie footage the game uses storyboard-style stills-boooooooo......also,the game
never goes into key points of the story such as explaining the whole thing with the "fake" Moody and how he was behind Harry's involvement in the tournament.
Gameplay-5/10-One word-repetititve.But then most games are.At times can be frustrating.Also a lot of backtracking through levels to collect shields necessary to advance the game.The game is also just too short.EA should have added levels between the action levels where you just had to walk around Hogwarts doing things like the older games such as finding objects, talking to other students,visiting Hagrid,whatever.This would help the storytelling,too.The Tri-wizard levels are great,but the maze should have been much bigger and a little harder to find the right way.
Overall-6.5/10-Nothing spectacular,but not horrible.Overall fun and solid,if too short.Maybe Half Blood Prince will finally get the balance right.