Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Reviews
I’m so disappointed with the new Harry Potter game. It was not made to be played on a PC. The controls are terrible. The perspective is confusing. You’re not always behind the character, but when he turns around he starts walking towards you. I can’t even make Harry walk in a straight line. I think he’s a little drunk. And the bertie botts beans actually jump out of your way, so they can be hard to pick up, which is really annoying. I can’t even cast a normal spell, because I’m not sure how to get my character pointed in the right direction. The cut scenes even suck; they’re not even animated. The first level is just running around the campsite at the quidditch world cup button mashing monsters that get in front of you. The second part is the same darn thing but you’re supposed to be in different rooms of a defense against the dark arts classroom. Boo hisss. I was just playing the third game last night and I’ve played that through more than once and it was loads more fun than this one. Really, the GOF game is just a playstation game that they tried to make work on a PC, and it totally doesn’t. All the secrets and fun are gone (at least in the first two parts), so what’s the point? I was already getting bored and frustrated, and I only played for a few minutes. Maybe it gets better??? I can hope.
After playing the first three HP games with my daughter, we both looked forward to #4. What a huge disappointment. Gone are looking for secrets areas. Gone are the amazingly beautiful graphics of the Hogwards interior or the school grounds, the bean bonus room and spongify. No cool games like flying Buckbeak and dueling matches.
What replaced the stuff that made the other three HP games so much fun? An impossible player control system. Playing with the keyboard controls (which can’t be customized) is the definition of frustrating. Even with an external game controller, it isn’t possible to accurately cast a spell or even make a character walk in a straight line. The extremely high view angle (which can’t be changed) often causes walls and other things to completely block the view of your character. There is no control whatsoever of any video or audio settings. In fact, the only customizable item on the “Options” page is toggling subtitles on and off.
The various areas to explore are disjointed and unrelated to each other. There doesn’t seem to be any point in progressing from one area to another. Another change from HP 1-3 is a system of collecting cards which then can be used to augment a character to add stamina, cast better charms/jinxes and to be more effective against certain creatures. But when the final big battles occur in the maze and Voldemort stages, the chance to beef up Harry to prepare for the battle with collector cards is suddenly gone. Really dumb.
One cool feature of GOF is the ability to let multiple players enjoy the games at the same time. Up to three humans can each control either Harry, Hermoine or Ron. External game controllers are required for 2 or 3 player game play. Be aware though that when my daughter and I played with a controller and keyboard, the game lost track of the character controlled by the keyboard whenever the game action got heavy. The keyboard character would just stop reacting. In an area where it takes 3 to levitate a block, an uncontrollable character is a showstopper.
The GOF system of charms and jinxes is a mystery, even after finishing the game. There are about a dozen jinxes available, but except for about two, there doesn’t seem to be any way to intentionally cast any of them. The strange part is that after each stage, the game shows the progress made in developing each jinx…as if it’s important and something a player has any control over. In battle, just pressing “X” as quickly as possible results in random jinxes. Unfortunately, all it takes to win the battles is a quick finger. There isn’t any strategy.
I enjoyed the last 3 HP games, so much so that I would sit and play them until they were complete. They were fun little games, secret areas to explore, colorful graphics and fun side games. This game lacks all aspects of the previous. It’s not fun, the controls are difficult at best,and there is no mouse support.
I can only hope that EA learns from their mistake and takes this back to it’s original charm of the first three.
In a few words, if you want to play a fun Harry Potter game, buy the first three games and enjoy.. avoid this one at all cost.
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