I had played all three of the previous Potter games for PC, and enjoyed them, to only slightly varying degrees. I received this game shortly after it came out. I was looking forward most to exploring Hogwarts, seeing what changes had been made in its structure; I was familiar with the changes between previous castles. I had been checking the website every few weeks, anticipating the game even more once I saw the quality of the environment and character graphics.
I was pretty upset when I started playing the game, first off by the lack of control over the camera, limiting not just ability to see the way you wanted to, but also the ability to see exactly where your character was walking. The environments were well done, but they only had five, not six sides (The floor, back wall, 2 side walls, and the ceiling composing the five - the sixth is the computer screen), making it almost like a sitcom set sometimes.
As I said, the environments were well done, especially the Hogwarts exterior shown in the dragon level. However, there was no Hogwarts free roam, no real exploration, or direct connection between areas, as I had grown to love in the previous games. There were just areas that you selected from a main menu, and replayed, to collect 'upgrade cards' and defeat more enemies with a spell-casting system that was too complicated.
The 'videos'? They were awful! Not even videos- just 2-D, unmoving characters in front of hazy, blurry 2-D backgrounds, with voice-overs that gave little insight into what was going on - worse even than the graphics of the first game cut-scenes- and that by a landslide.
All in all- good game-play graphics, but everything else was a turn in a very wrong direction. Don't bother buying it.
I was pretty upset when I started playing the game, first off by the lack of control over the camera, limiting not just ability to see the way you wanted to, but also the ability to see exactly where your character was walking. The environments were well done, but they only had five, not six sides (The floor, back wall, 2 side walls, and the ceiling composing the five - the sixth is the computer screen), making it almost like a sitcom set sometimes.
As I said, the environments were well done, especially the Hogwarts exterior shown in the dragon level. However, there was no Hogwarts free roam, no real exploration, or direct connection between areas, as I had grown to love in the previous games. There were just areas that you selected from a main menu, and replayed, to collect 'upgrade cards' and defeat more enemies with a spell-casting system that was too complicated.
The 'videos'? They were awful! Not even videos- just 2-D, unmoving characters in front of hazy, blurry 2-D backgrounds, with voice-overs that gave little insight into what was going on - worse even than the graphics of the first game cut-scenes- and that by a landslide.
All in all- good game-play graphics, but everything else was a turn in a very wrong direction. Don't bother buying it.