You will lose, Harry Potter, you will lose
Right from the glory days of Ocean titles like Robocop, The Untouchables and Total Recall, the games industry has realized that there's plenty of money to be made from movie licenses. So it's no surprise that the unstoppable Harry Potter quickly made the leap from page to silver screen and to computers but in doing so, it lost some of its massive appeal and became suited only for younger fans. It's not a bad game but it is pretty simple, so adult fans might want to look elsewhere. This one follows the plot of the book quite closely and finds the player controlling Harry as he arrives at Hogwarts, starts to learn magic, fly broomsticks and then gets caught up in the plot to find the Sorcerer's Stone. The gameplay is a mix of styles, which is one of the game's big attractions, as one minute you'll be attending classes, then taking part in a Quidditch match before hanging out with Hagrid or swapping insults with Malfoy. The game does a good job of recreating the look and feel of the book and the movie and there's no denying that it's a lot of fun to explore Harry's world for yourself. All the characters are recreated well, as are the environments while the plot remains as engaging as ever. However, while the activities are also entertaining, they are quite simplistic so older gamers are likely to find themselves bored quite quickly, while there is also next to no replay value as once you've seen everything, there's little incentive to do it again. If you are a younger Harry fan though, there's a lot to enjoy here.
