Sorry, but this game deserves much more then 5.5!
But enough about me... let's talk about this game. This game is seriously underrated, and I'm not saying this because I'm a Harry Potter fan (because there are Harry Potter games I really hate) but because I believe this game deserves it.
This game came out shortly after the movie. Any normal person's thought would be that the game would be entirely movie based... but not this game. The designers clearly saw the film, seeing as how a lot of characters look much like the original movie cast, but made their own version of Harry Potter! This is where the true beauty of this game comes to shine!!!
Whenever you read a book, you imagine the events that take place in a different way then any other person who has also read the same book. It's really refreshing to see that the designers had their own view of Hogwarts and some of it's characters!
I really should start writing about the gameplay, shouldn't I?
You play as Harry, and your goal is to attend classes, collect beans and ultimately defeat he-who-must-not-be-named. You start out with a simple jump but later learn spells that really enchant this game. There are 5 different spells in the game. These spells help you progress through the game but also to find hidden secrets!
The stages consist of Harry going to different classes, attending classes, collecting potion ingredients and such. Going to different classes is as simple as it sounds; you just follow someone until you get there. The classes on the other hand are played like a solid platform game. After you learn a spell, you will have to attend a challenge. Now these challenges aren't really casting the spell a few times, no, no, no, you actually have to FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE using the spell you learned! I'm not kidding! I guess I shouldn't judge wizards, but some of these challenges could really kill a child such as Harry. There are pitfalls, fire pits, dangerous creatures, mad plants and all other things that want Harry dead. Luckily they aren't that hard in particular.
Passing a level isn't hard, but finding all the secrets on a level can be. There are a lot of secrets to be found in this game. Some are obvious while other can be sneakily hidden. Before each level, you get a loading screen which shows the exact amount of secrets you need to collect on that level. Helpful, but the bad news is that you can not go back and replay a level
You can also play Quiditch, but I doubt anyone will enjoy it since it is ridiculously easy and pointless. It should have been made as a cut-scene instead of a mini game. The programmers actually added a Quidditch mode in the start screen... cool... but... maybe later... in like 20 years or so...
You also get to fight a few bosses, but all of them are really easy, except for the last one.
The graphics look great for it's time. This was made when 3d graphics were slowly beginning to develop into what they are today...
The entire Hogwarts castle is pleasant to look at, and you can really tell that the game designers were trying to make something nice on their own with little to no reliance on the movie. The entire game is also voice acted! The voice acting is ok. It's not spectacularly good, but it's more then good enough for the time it was made! Even though you pretty much do the same thing from the beginning to the end (go from A to B) the game doesn't feel repetitive because of it's clever level designs! Nowadays nobody would really find them that impressive, but back they were amazing to look at.
The controls in the game consist of either using the arrow keys or the W,S,A,D keys to move Harry, using Ctrl to jump and using the mouse as the wand.
It's fun to simply point your mouse at something hold the left click and see weather the spell icon will appear.
Unfortunately, just like in all games, this one has it's share of problems.
Learning spells seems amazing at first. You get a symbol shape on the screen and you need to trace from one end of the symbol to the other in one motion. So if you had a circle shaped symbol, you would have to make a circle using your mouse. At first try, the teachers (game) expects you to do it 50 percent correctly but later it goes too far by asking you to do 95 percent! That's a lot to ask, and I was seriously annoyed by this when I was younger!
Another huge flaw was the lack of free roam! Seriously, why isn't there any free roaming through Hogwarts! Why can't harry go around and explore? Maybe he would find a few more secrets?
There are a lot of secrets in this game, but some of them (at least in my opinion, were lazily added. I remember a few times that I found all the secrets at the very last part of the level just before the destination point.
I never did say what sorts of secrets you find in this game, did I?
Well, all you will ever find is berty bot beans and wizard cards. Wizard cards are fun to collect, but the berty bot beans just don't have enough usability. You occasionally trade 25 beans for a wizard card but you will have much more then that! I remember once beating the game with about 600 to 700 beans, there really isn't that much point in collecting them all.
My final complaint is that the game is glitchy, especially if you play it on a newer machine, but even if you don't, the game will crash from time to time. It can get really annoying, if you don't save often!
In conclusion, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) stone is a great game! While it plays like a solid platform game with not too many surprises, the originality and the design that is clearly different from the movie saves the game in my opinion.
If you are a Harry Potter fan you should get it now! If you aren't, it may be fun to beat the game once and collect all the wizard cards. If you are a Harry Potter hater then I salute you for reading this far!