With such a great universe as source material, OotP could have been a lovely game. But it`s ultimately boring.

User Rating: 6 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix PS3
By Strider_23 | Review Date:
I never understood why Harry Potter video games are always a letdown. I mean, yes, they want to release each game along with its grand screen counterpart, but the hiatus between the movies - 1 year and a half - 2 years.. is more than enough for the decision making of a great game. Potter`s world is huge, colorful, diverse, and would have made a powerful way of escaping reality while exploring it. Instead, most of the games except GoF, fall short because they ultimately feel rushed, short and without too much depth. The HP stories always were great because of some powerful themes, but oddly enough the game developers chose not to make use of any. It`s as if they took only the flashy stuff, like magic and duels, and then totally randomized it with shallow and cliche' motivations.

The same goes for the latest game from the HP universe. The castle is great, and beautiful... it`s definitely large and I can surely lose myself in it... but I don`t feel any motivation behind doing so. I mean sweeping floors and re-building statues ? And after that I get some stinkin` orbs ? What is this ? "Harry Potter and His Pitiful Attempt at being a Hogwarts cleaning Lady" ?

The pace is really slow and if Harry would have been always busy cleansing Hogwarts, when people were not believing him that Voldemort returned, then he would have been a total moron. Where are the schemes ? The snappy interactions between characters ? Even duels, who are supposed to be exciting are ZzzzZZZzz, because you`re never quite sure what exactly are you doing there.. you just twist that wand and hope something cool comes out..

I really hate the development team that was in charge of this game... They took great artistic direction and totally pooped over it with bad ideas gameplay wise, while totally ignoring the seriousness of the story. Too bad.

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