Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Xbox)

My wife and I have not seen the films or read the books yet though this game has prompted us to read the books and no doubt we will watch the films too.

I have been playing computer games for about 20 years wheras my wife has not played for many years and is very much a novice. Nevertheless we have both been captivated by this game. It is not a hugely difficult game although there are some demanding parts,

The graphics are excellent as is the atmospheric music & effects.

It isn't perfect (there are few games which are). The camera angles can be a bit disorientating sometimes especially when you are frantically shooting spells at poisonous spiders! Also the save points are few and far between which in some ways is good because you are not able to save every few seconds (which is very lazy gaming indeed!) but on the other hand there is a long way to go before you can turn your x-box off!! Having said that, if you do get killed, you only get put back to the start of the particular room you are in, not the last save, and also anything you achieved before you were killed remains done.

A splendid family game and the best and most enjoyable movie tie in I have seen since Ghostbusters!

I found that the environmental graphics were reasonably good, but that the appearances of the people were not particularly good. The xbox is capable of very good graphics, but EA didn't quite fulfil an xbox gamers expectations.

There are some very dull levels of this game. There is no jump button, so some challenges that should take a minute or so end up being a huge hassle, because Harry often doesn't grab onto the ledge properly. Duelling can be quite hard as there is a delayed reaction when Harry does his shield charm. This can be extremely annoying. I think that collecting Bertie Botts beans is a pain, as whenever Harry gets harmed he drops several. You end up having to fly around the grounds and going through hoops for about half an hour to collect them, which is extremely boring because Harry is so slow. However, if you don't bother collecting Bertie Botts beans and wizard cards, it is a far better game (but shorter).

Quidditch is reasonable, though slightly annoying at times. If you bump into an object, you get automatically sent very far behind the Snitch, and you have to build up speed again.

The music does get rather repetetive after a while, but there are some nice pieces. It doesn't create atmosphere very well. The voiceovers are of varying quality. Harry and Hermione sound completely wrong, but the teachers sound like the actors in the films.

Overall scores:
Gameplay: 7 / 10
Graphics: 6.5 / 10
Sound: 6 / 10

I would personally give this game 3.5 stars, but that isn't possible, and 3 doesn't do it justice. It is worth buying, and can now be found at extremely cheap prices from amazon marketplace and second hand game shops.