LEGO Harry Potter may not be as action-y or funny as LEGO Star Wars, but it's still a really cute, fun experience.
Pros-
- Cute LEGO graphics.
- A lot of unlockable characters (most of whom control the same and have the same spells, so in most cases it's purely an aesthetic choice if you want to use them.)
- Some interesting boss battles that provide a small challenge, but nothing a new gamer can't handle (especially since there is essentially no death in the game.)
- Often humorous cutscenes convey the story well IF you've seen the movies.
- A few places in the game have vehicle-ish segments to break up the monotony of spellcasting.
- Watching your spells take effect is absolutely charming.
- There are several secret areas and things you can't do early in the game. I beat the game with ~41% complete. This allows for good replay value.
- LEGO bonus levels in Gringott's, the wizarding bank, provide extra income opportunities and fun playgrounds for yourself and a friend. (NOTE: I only played one of them, as I didn't have a friend to play with. It was fun and involved driving around a LEGO city in LEGO vehicles, smashing things. You don't need friends to play these, but I could tell that these were designed to be fun for two.)
- There are purchasable spells in Diagon Alley, which can be used on students to do things such as sprout antlers, make them fall, make them laugh, etc.
Cons-
- I encountered a few bugs, which I will list below.
- Single player AI is atrocious. The other characters just follow you around, often falling off screen/dying until splits in the path, where you must switch to them to use them. They only act if you are at a "teamwork spot" where they will help you activate something with Wingardium Leviosa, BUT, you have to make sure they are close to these things to do so, which is occasionally a huge bother. (Play this title multiplayer. It'll be a lot more fun.)
- Repetitive gameplay. The majority of the game has you use just one or two spells (though certain levels require up to 5.) There is a severe lack of enemies as this isn't an action game for the mostpart, so you'll be rapidly tapping square or holding circle a lot.
- Purchasable spells, though fun, occupy the same spot on your spell wheel. The picture on that slot on the wheel changes fairly quickly, so it's hard to choose what you use. The more spells you buy, the harder it gets to choose one. This doesn't affect the main game at all, but it makes it less fun when you're cursing other students.
- Some spells, gold bricks, codes (you unlock them, purchase them, and can then turn them off. One example is ice floor, which makes every floor in the game slippery while on) and characters are really expensive, so you will need to play the game a LOT to unlock everything, if that's what you want to do.
- I noticed only one reference to the books in gameplay, which was very minor. There are characters who don't appear (at least to my knowledge) in the movies, but you have to unlock them. I didn't take off points for this, but more inside references to the original source material would've been nice.
- Dying just takes away a small amount of tokens (some of which can be recovered) and you respawn right on screen, offering little-to-no difficulty in the game.
Bugs-
- One level didn't load correctly and waves of gray came across the screen, making it unplayable until I exited and re-entered the level.
- One boss fight involved multiple enemies and one of them didn't spawn. I had to kill myself in a fire to get it to spawn.
- There are places where you can get stuck, but they're fairly rare.
- While puzzle pieces respawn if they get to a certain distance, they can get stuck in one or two spots. (not major setbacks, but annoying.)
- (RUMOR: I've heard a rumor that the game messes up and doesn't allow certain scenes to happen if you quit the game or turn off your system during a year, so I played all of the years in single sittings. I cannot say whether this does or doesn't really happen, so you may wish to Google (or gamefaqs) this for more info.
FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10