Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsShort on Story. Made up for with activities.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 February 2016
After an enjoyable adventure with OotP - I was looking forward to exploring Hogwarts again with the additional promises of flying and duels, as in my personal favourites HP CoS and PoA.
I became immersed in the well-rendered Universe that is at once familiar and magical and bought into exploring the castle and collecting mini-crests/crests (like the bertie botts' and Wizarding cards of old - which actually might have been more internally consistent with the game). Once you've unlocked the castle, it's really great to be able to walk/run/sprint from place to place without the loading screens of old. I liked the reintroduction of NH Nick into the Series, but felt that the Marauders' Map feature from OotP - especially with the ghostly trodden path - would have worked just as well and been slightly less annoying than following Nick about from place to place.
The return of duelling was welcome, although not very challenging there is great satisfaction in beating everyone in 5-star matches. Potion-making is difficult and at times frustrating and I think there's a bit much of this in the storyline to justify the Potions Club.
Flying was disappointing. After the overhaul of the Quidditch system between PoA and Quidditch World Cup, I expected something really entertaining - especially if we weren't going to be allowed to explore by broomstick as in CoS - which HBP did for a while, until I became frustrated with the need to get perfect positioning in every star to earn a 5-star rating and get the all-important badge.
There are less spells than in OotP, which was a disappointment because I enjoyed the exploration aspect of the previous game, but it does streamline gameplay to the essentials. The story itself is scant. I was a bit shocked at the speed of the storyline missions at the start - I'd barely got Harry's feet in the Great Hall before it was Christmas. The earlier games knew how to deviate from the book, but still provide entertainment and plot. There was also a lot of repetition early on in some storyline duels which didn't help the feeling that the game is just extended versions of HP Book of Potions and Wonderbook (of duelling).
I would say this: if you don't like grinding out potion after potion and flying through stars until you go through each of them inch-perfectly then this game isn't for you. I felt like there was too much emphasis on perfecting the activities and completing the game 100% and once you've collected all the crests and earned all of the activity badges there's only exploration to do - although I could think of worse places to wander around aimlessly than Hogwarts in Summer.
