A general rule Hollywood has is that if a book is popular enough, it warrants a film. Nowhere is that more clear than with the Harry Potter franchise. One of the most popular and successful novel series of all time generated an even more successful and popular film series. However, it was clear that there needed to be more HP merchandise and paraphernalia. That meant toys, theme parks, and of course, video games. Like many movie-based games, the Harry Potter video games were never meant to be award-winners. However, a couple of games proved pretty decent and actually kind of GOOD. This is one of those games. Let's look closer.





There's ANOTHER evil being roaming Hogwarts? Sheesh!





After an eventful first year at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry the young boy Harry Potter, who survived an attack as an infant by the dark lord Voldemort that killed his parents, has returned home for the summer. He lives with his dreadful Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and the spoiled Dudley. These relatives are non-magical folk, so called muggles, and do not approve of Harry attending Hogwarts. One night, Harry is visited by an elf named Dobby, who warns him of an evil force lurking at Hogwarts and orders him not to return. Harry disobeys and escapes his abusive caretakers with the help of his friend Ron, Ron's brothers Fred and George, and a flying Ford Anglia. After missing the train to Hogwarts, Ron and Harry travel there with the Anglia and crash upon arrival, still late, and meet up with their friend Hermione.





Barely escaping expulsion, Harry goes through the school year without any real worries, aiding his house Gryffindor and playing Quidditch like a champ along the way. There are some new faces at Hogwarts, like the pompous new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockheart, as well as usual characters like the distrusting and snide Professor Snape, the wise headmaster Albus Dumbledore, and the conniving and snobby arch nemesis Draco Malfoy.





Overtime some unusual and disturbing events take place at Hogwarts. Several characters are petrified by an unknown force, messages are scrawled on the wall in blood, and eerie voices are heard in the halls. These lead to several rumours that the mythical Chamber of Secrets has been opened by the heir to Slytherin, releasing a horrifying creature, all of this tying in to Hogwarts dark history. Harry must rush to save the school once again, and also must worry about increasing fears that Hogwarts is not safe.





The story at the core isn't exactly anything to call home about. It's really a standard "hero must save the day" story with some new features. I love the dark new twists like the writing in blood and the creepy voices. Those add a whole new flavour to the story, which helps spice up its otherwise bland recipe.





What's at the core?





The core mechanic in Chamber of Secrets is, you guessed it, magic! There are nine spells:




-Flipendo: Used to move objects and activate triggers. You start with it.




-Alohomora: Opens things like locked chests. You start with it.




-Lumos: Lights up things like false walls, stairs, and your wand. You start with it.




-Expelliarmus: Deflects your opponents spell. Can only be used in duels.




-Mimblewimble: Confuses your opponent. Can only be used in duels.




-Rictusempra: Stuns enemies. Must be learned in Defense against the Dark Arts.




-Skurge: Removes ectoplasm, allowing you to move forward. Must be learned in Charms.




-Diffindo: Cuts vines, branches, and other plant obstacles. Must be learned in Herbology.




-Spongify: Activates trampoline tiles, allowing you to jump high. The final spell you learn, in Defense against the Dark Arts.




These spells are actually quite fun to use. No spell is too similar to another one, allowing for a great deal of fun to be had in using all of them. That means bouncing around on Spongify tiles or repeatedly knocking down foes with Rictusempra, there's always a use for these spells at any moment.





Another mechanic is house points. You earn points for your house every time you complete a lesson; how many points you earn depends on how fast you completed the lesson. Your goal is to outperform the other three houses. Do that and you'll get the opportunity to go to the Bean Bonus Room, where you can collect a huge amount of beans, after each lesson. It's fun that the house system is present, but i feel it's under-utilised. Your only reward for being the best is beans. There could have been additional prizes, like power-ups or special abilities (ex: shoot spells faster).





Yet another core mechanic is the beans system. Beans are the game's currency. They can be found in chests, certain areas, inside armour, and many other locations. They can be exchanged for many different goods, like wizard cards, potions, and equipment for Quidditch. You can buy this stuff from vendors on campus who will sell it for varying prices, so make sure you're getting the best deal. I love how the beans from the source material were incorporated; it makes sense that such a popular item amongst the students of Hogwarts would use them as currency.





The final core mechanic is wizard cards. They come in three categories:




-Bronze cards. Collecting 10 of these will give you an additional health meter, for a total of five gained health meters.




-Silver cards: Collecting all 40 will give you access to an area in Hogwarts where you can collect the gold cards.




-Gold cards: Collecting them is the objective of a fun challenge in which you must race to the end of the stage while collecting the cards.




The cards all portray a notable character in the wizarding world. The cards are a fun little touch to the game and collecting them proves not just to be fun, but also advantageous, though only with the bronze cards. That's my only problem - the two other types of cards really don't have a point besides existing.





Alright, let's get to the main gameplay.





The games map consists of Hogwarts and surrounding areas, like the Forbidden Forest. There's a great deal of locations, including just about every room in Hogwarts, ant there's loads to do (wizard cards, beans, secret areas, etc.), and nothing's ever too far away. For example, i will never have to (or need to) go all the way across the map, so any destination will never be more than a few minutes away if you're fast. Bonus points for that.





The core gameplay revolves around Harry's lessons and adventures in and around Hogwarts. The game is open-world, and like i said above there's load to do. When you feel like focusing on the main storyline, there are missions that usually involve something along the lines of "attend excessively dangerous lessons" or "plunge into even more dangerous parts and retrieve something". The lessons have two parts:




1) A QTE sequence in which a wand is maneuvering through a symbol with arrows. You must press the corresponding arrow key when the wand passes over the arrow. Should you get all of the arrows, you will get some points for your house. There are three stages here, each stage harder than the last and giving out more points than the last. The ultimate prize for completion of this part is learning a new spell and advancement to part 2.




2) The much longer part of the lessons is the practise stages, called "challenges". The goal here is to hone your skills in the spell you learned. The main mechanic is a time limit, which can be extended with stars found throughout the area. The total time remaining when you reach the end of the stage is converted into house points, so you want to have the highest time possible. However, the general design of these stages makes them impossible to rush through. There are many platforming challenges and enemies blocking your path, such obstacles are often unique to a certain location. For example, the Skurge challenge contains a huge amount of ectoplasm that must be cleared. It's not a quick process, and you'll often have to do it multiple times in one section. In addition, there are many pits that you either have to take a leap of faith over or must activate moving platforms to cross. Not to mention some important stuff, like stars, will be hidden in secret locations just off the path.





Non-lesson missions usually involve retrieving something from a certain location. For example, there is a mission that involves you going into the dungeons and navigating them to obtain an ingredient to a potion. These missions are usually the ones to really showcase the games challenges. You must use a multitude of spells, platforming obstacles are common, and there are countless foes to face. Usually these three will be meshed together to produce quite an epic challenge. For example, in one stage you must hop on a moving platform over a bottomless pit and fire a skurge across the chasm to safely make the jump. While dealing with attacking fairies. And fire-shooting crabs. It's every bit as difficult as it sounds, but also highly satisfying. You really do get a kick out of successfully navigating all of these perils, even more so if you were unscathed. The only mission that isn't really all that satisfying is the final mission. There are many bazillions of foes attacking over bottomless pits that make pushing through highly difficult, especially in the second half. For example, five fairies going for your neck as you leap over a chasm with a spongify tile. Not fun at all. It's but an ugly mark on what is otherwise a satisfying of batch of stages that really test your skill.





Finally, if you're tired of all of missions, card-collecting, and anything that has anything to do with the main story, there are two activities available to you. The first is Quidditch. The goal of this game is to collect the Golden Snitch first whilst fending off the other team. There are a total of six games you can play against other houses. The only really unique game, however, is the final game against your rival house, Slytherin. This game will take you under the stands for a match that's actually quite epic. You WILL love it, especially compared to the boringness of the other games.





The second activity is dueling. You will unlock this half-way through the game. Here, you can face off against other students to see who will win in an epic duel. If you can climb all the way to the top of the ranks, you'll be disappointed to find out that this activity is pretty much just a way to grind beans, with any satisfaction you get from it dissipating fairly quickly. There are new obstacles and terrain features for every duel, but it still feels bland after a bit.





Poor graphics and......OK music.





This is the part of the game i have the most grief over. I know i can't expect amazing graphics from a movie-game, but this is just sad. Textures are repetitive and boring, sprites are downright scary (not in a good way), and there's an air of laziness to the whole affair. Really, polish is few and far between - i have never seen quite so many graphical glitches and freak-outs ever, not even in betas. Textures (like Harry's glasses in the opening intro) often go blank, leaving an eerie space. Sprites of characters appear perpetually scared or constipated. Just look at Snape's face. I still can't figure out if he's supposed to be angry or just has the runs. Finally, textures for things like walls and background are epically generic and overused. The best example is the dungeon texture. It gets used AGAIN, AGAIN, AND AGAIN. I have never seen one texture get used so many times. It's not even a good texture, it's ugly and boring.





By now you're likely hoping that the music makes up for awful graphics. The answer is no, not really. Much of the film's flourish is brought over, but only the "meh" songs. This makes for tunes that do match their assigned locations, but only barely. For example, part of one stage set in a dungeon has cheery and energetic music. I don't think any dungeon ever would have that much happiness. It would completely ruin the feel if the rest of the mission wasn't set in sunlight. But the worst part of the songs is that they get repeated over and over. Seriously, there's only about five songs total, and you can remember them all quickly. There's the battle theme, the generic creepy theme, the fast-paced theme, to name about 60%. It sounds cool the first time over, but it gets bland and repetitive the next 29 times. Now again, this isn't to say the music's bad - it's quite decent. There are some good beats in there and it helps set the mood - sometimes.





Final Verdict:





Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a fun little PC game from times long since passed. It's got a lot of stuff to do, but it's ultimately dragged down quite a great deal by lackluster music and graphics. Despite those flaws, I’d still recommend it to anyone who's up for a game where you can control a magic-wielding 12-year-old.





Final Score: 6.5/10

Boxia : Dude, this is simply a beautiful review. You had put in so much effort into this as far as I can see and each category has so much detail, not to mention all the extra points that don't really fall under these categories and all the little bits and pieces of what makes the game.

You had put in so much more than what was required, and that's wonderful. As for the game, I have played this one, but for the PS2, not the PC, and I hated it. It was the worst of the Harry Potter games that I have ever played because I could never seem to beat certain levels.

Keep up the good work.

Boxia : i have played this one, I think 6.5 might be a bit kind .
I like you listed all the spells and their application, nice touch.

zanderlex :
Thanks! I worked for several hours over the span of two days on this review, by far my largest.
endings :
Perhaps I'm a bit biased since this was one of my first games, but i don't think this game was THAT bad. Sure, it wasn't a masterpiece, but the graphics and music didn't keep me from enjoying the loads of stuff to do.

Yeah, and it paid off. It was gray, and I already mentioned in the other thread, but I will check to feature this.

Boxia, this review reads very professionally.  I have to say that my mind was blown by how fluid it was to read.  The only thing I'd consider changing.... is providing too much of the story line.  It seemed a little unnecessary and takes up too much "space / time" (?) that could be used in getting to the good stuff.

Overall though, very, very nice.  

(The part where you said you experienced grief over the music?  That made me laugh. XD  However, I must mention that your "i" is uncapitalized there.  )