Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – XB – Review

You have to
hand it to author J. K. Rowling, she not only created a beloved series of books
but also a franchise that spawned three wonderful movies and a few games
crossing multiple platforms.  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
marks the young wizard-in-training’s third year at Hogwarts and as you can see
from the blockbuster film, this one’s much darker and–dare I say it?–probably
the best Potter movie so far.  As for games, EA gave us a really good Harry
Potter game with Chamber of Secrets so will Prisoner of Azkaban
bring more good magic to the series?

The game’s
plot follows closely in the footsteps of both the book and the film, although
many of the scenes are nicely pulled from the pages of the book itself (complete
with descriptive narrative).  On their way to Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione
are attacked by a specter-like presence called Dementors that are somehow
connected to the escape of a dangerous inmate held in Azkaban prison.  As Harry
soon finds out, the prisoner has a name and its Sirius Black who is a dark
magic-user that was rumored to have killed thirteen people with a single curse
and is, in some way, responsible for the death of Harry’s parents.  But that’s
not the half of it, it also seems that Black has a grudge against Harry and is
out to kill him.  It’s up to Harry and his two loyal and trusted friends to put
a stop to Black and unravel the mystery behind his escape.

So you see,
that’s quite a story and — for the most part — the game tries to be true to
it.  I say “tries” because there are factors that distract gamers from enjoying
the storytelling but we’ll get to that in a minute.  Moving Harry around once
again plays a lot like the N64 Zelda games and baby, that isn’t a bad
thing.  In fact, this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of Prisoner —
the character’s interaction with the surroundings and the scripted events that
occur during exploration.  Harry can still move around easily, look at things
and you can even assign spells to the controller button for easy access to
them.  The majority of spells found in Chamber of Secrets are back (Flipendo
being the one you start with) but thanks to the current situation he has opted
to learn new useful ones like Expecto Patronum (which fends of Dementors).

Harry isn’t
alone in this game, though.  This time around EA has opted to include Ron and
Hermione as playable characters and they’re not included just to give the game a
new point-of-view but to bring a neat sense of collaboration.  There are many
scenarios in the game that require Harry receive a helping hand and there are
even more that require the help of all three.  For instance, in order to open a
gate, something heavy is needed to be placed on the floor switch.  There’s a
huge chest but Harry can’t push it by himself so with the press of the B button
you can take control of Ron or Hermione and help Harry pick up the chest and
place it on top of the floor switch.  There is also a situation that has Harry
and Ron lifting a gate open for someone as small and slender as Hermione to slip
through in order to press the button that lifts the gate up completely. 

There’s
nothing like a good dose of teamwork to spice up a game and it works excellently
here but there’s more to Ron and Hermione than just lifting boxes or pulling
switches.  Ron, who is just way too curious for his own good, is great at
spotting things Harry might miss.  He’s also great at using stink pellets and
has mastered a lighting spell called Lumos Duo.  Hermione, on the other hand, is
something of a bookworm and as a result she’s mastered some really useful spells
such as Glacius (a spells that creates ice blocks or turns water to ice) or
Reparo (a spell that repairs broken items).

There’s also
plenty to interact with, and fans of the books and films will enjoy exploring
every little corner that will seem nicely familiar to fans.  Still the game
revolves around the story and you’ll often be hurried along by your companions
to keep the story rolling.  In Hogwarts you’ll be doing what is expected of you
during class and this mostly consists of getting certain objects for a professor
until you move along to investigating the mystery behind Sirius Black.  This
brings us to the puzzles in the game and, unfortunately, the game’s biggest
flaws.  Some puzzles are cleverer than other and some are pretty obvious (move a
few reflective crystals around to shine the light on an object that will open a
door).  Yet what brings this game down considerably is the fact that the game
gives you too many hints even for the easy puzzles.  Talk about leading a gamer
by the hand . . . these constant reminders and hints just bring no real
challenge even to the much younger gamer.

Here’s
another complaint; the targeting system just doesn’t work as well as it should.
There was one point in the game that a book suddenly came to life and attacked
Harry and Ron.  I must have spent close to twenty minutes trying to Flipendo the
darn critter to the ground with no success until Ron accidentally hit it.  This
makes battles somewhat frustrating to go through sometimes.  And, although I do
love a good mini-game during the game’s main action, it really shouldn’t
interrupt the flow of the story, which it does in this game.

Prisoner,
though, is great-looking Xbox game and has slicker graphics than the very
visually appealing Chamber of Secrets.  The surroundings and background
are beautifully detailed and rendered colorfully . . . even the game’s darker
environments look stunning.  The character models are nicely handled as well and
they look a lot like the actors that portray each character.  It’s cool to see
Professor Snape look so much like actor Alan Rickman.  The visual effects are
also great to look at, although they’re nothing as amazing as the effects found
in the movie.  All is not great, though, because the camera sometimes doesn’t
offer the best angles.

As for the
sound, the score is so beautifully cinematic that it just makes those tense
moments all the more dramatic.  The sound effects are also so much better than
its visual presentation and the atmospheric background sound just adds to it.
As far as the voice acting is concerned, the voice talent behind each character
is just so spot-on.  

Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
has all the makings of a classic Harry Potter game but it just doesn’t quite
make the grade.  If it wasn’t for the poorly executed lock-on feature and the
constant nudges that point to the obvious puzzle solution or the bad camera
angles this game could have been a fan favorite.  If you’re a fan of all things
Potter, by all means give this one a good rental.  If you’re not, this one won’t
make you one.

#Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay:
6.0
The gameplay should have scored a
4.0 but the Zelda-like feel, the ability to assign spell to the buttons
and explore/interaction are just too good.  The constant handholding just won’t
sit will with older gamers that Potter franchise is aimed at, though. 

Graphics:
8.0
Beautifully rendered backgrounds and
locations mixed with amazingly well detailed and colorful characters make this
one of the best looking Potter games available.  You’ll hate the awful camera
angles but with neat visual effects and character movement, it’s possible to
overlook this flaw.

Sound: 8.2
The cinematic score is dramatic and
rightly dark like the book and film.  You won’t be able to tell that these
aren’t the actual actor’s voices doing your favorite character — that’s how
good they are!

Difficulty: Easy
There are lots of clever puzzles
tossed into the game and you’ll have fun solving them . . . if you can ignore
the hints that keep you from the joys of solving them yourself.  Still, much
younger gamers might appreciate the hints.

Concept:
7.0
It’s fun exploring Harry’s universe
and all the places you see in the film version as well.  The teamwork aspect of
the game also deserves kudos. The three Mini-Games are nicely appreciated (the
owl race isn’t good but the Dueling Club is pretty fun) even though they’re not
as great as the PS2 version’s EyeToy fun.

Overall:
6.8
Prisoner of Azkaban
is a step down from the enjoyable Chamber of Secrets and that’s
unfortunate since EA handles the franchise well enough.  There’s a lot to like
about this game and die-hard Potter fans will love to play through levels that
they’ve seen in the movie but the flaws are too abundant to ignore.  There’s
always the next one like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.