Reviewed: August 8, 2007
Reviewed by: Stacey Meade

Publisher
Electronic Arts

Developer
EA UK

Released: June 25, 2007
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1

6
7
7
6
6.5

Supported Features:

The success with the Harry Potter gaming series only comes natural. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a huge fan of the book series and movie series. This is however the first Harry Potter game that I have ever played. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for PS3 is the next installment in the Harry Potter gaming franchise. Like previous titles in the series, Order of the Phoenix follows along with the movie of the same name. Would Order of the Phoenix be as big of a hit as the movie or would it be like most movie-inspired games and fall short of expectations?

While playing the Order of the Phoenix you will learn Combat and Non-Combat spells. The Combat spells include Expelliarmas, Stupefy, Protego, Rictusempra, Petrificus Totalus, and Levicorpus. Expelliarmas will disarm your opponents; however I never saw a wand fly out of anyone’s hand. Stupefy will stun your opponents, however I never saw anyone become immobile. Protego will deflect a spell, this one you will actually see happen. Rictusempra is a tickling charm it can make your enemy’s fall forward on their knees. Petrificus Totalus is supposed to paralyze your opponent, however, like I said before I never saw anyone become immobile. Levicorpus will make you opponents hang from the air by their feet; stronger opponents such as Lucious Malfoy will simply float and not attack you. This is one of the only spells that causes and an effect exactly like the book states.

Non-Combat spells are used mainly for cleaning, lighting fires, and moving objects. They cannot be used during battle, just as the Combat spells cannot be used outside of battle. Non-Combat spells include Accio, Depulso, Reparo, Wingardium Leviosa, Incendio, and Reducto. Accio brings items towards you, and Depulso pushes them away. Reparo will fix an object. Wingardium Leviosa will make objects float so you can move them. Incendio is used to light fires and torches. Reducto will break objects.

To use these all of these spells you will move the right analog stick in various positions or you could activate the motion sensor function and move the entire controller. Each position of the analog stick and motion sensor movement will be used twice, once on Combat Spells and again in Non-Combats spells. I think you can get along just as easily with the motion sensor as with the analog stick, however the analog stick does seem a little more accurate, but the motion sensor can be really fun during duels. I found myself putting a lot of pressure and tension on the right analog stick while casting spells. I kept getting the feeling that this would damage the controller after playing for extensive periods of time.

Get used to using Non-Combat spells because these are the main spells you will use. You really only have about five duels and that’s including the last one with Voldemort. Yes, you get to fight Voldemort. The rest of the time you will spend finding the DA members, cleaning and fixing things, and looking for items. You will also spend time with Professor Snape learning Occlumency.

While learning Occlumency you will have to flick you analog stick in the opposite direction of Snape, which gets pretty boring. When you first start out you will find a room called The Room of Rewards behind a painting with Moaning Myrtles help. If you pretty much do anything you will receive achievement points or trophies. You can complete teacher requests, find out the passwords for secret passageways, and uncover Hogwarts symbols. One of the ways you can find items is with Harry’s Invisibility Cloak which is located in the Boy’s Dormitory.

When you do receive a trophy or unlock an achievement Moaning Myrtle will appear and tell you to visit the Room of Rewards. I spent the main portion of my playing time looking for items and fixing things. The duels all together only took about 20-30 minutes. When you actually go into the Room of Rewards you can view commentary by the creators which I guess is a nice aspect of the game.

I know the book was mainly about what was going on inside Harry’s head but they could have added something exciting. Here are the basics of the game you come to Hogwarts you get Dumbledore’s Army assembled and then you go and fight Voldemort. If you just focused on the main aspects of the game you could probably beat it in four hours. The main spells that you use are cleaning and fixing spells. When you do get to actually duel I don’t think you really can loose, no matter what happens you always move on the same you never have to go back and fight again and you can never die.

During the game you will be able to use Harry’s Invisibility Cloak, however, the Marauders map is pretty much useless if you have opened up any secret passage ways while under the cloak because while under the cloak you cannot talk to any of the portraits. The only way to take off the cloak is to go back to the Boy’s Dormitory, if you can find it because the area is huge.

The one thing that I really was upset about was the characters. They were recognizable but the moved like robots while they were talking. During a lot of the cut-scenes the sound would finish before the person’s mouth stopped moving and the mouths really did not move in sync with the sound. I really was disappointed by the way the characters’ faces looked too. I have seen much better face mapping in lower-budget games. Also, sometimes characters would get stuck behind and end up on top of things you’re not even supposed to be able to get on.

So if you’re a Harry Potter fan you’ll like this game and understand why everything had to be the way the way it is, but unfortunately, the game can become tedious and boring because action is few and far between.