Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

"Why does this mock the book so?"

Games of this sort usually don't hit it off well with the public. They are mainly used to cash in on the success of a movie, and aren't usually buy-worthy. Unfortunately, I foolishly bought it since it looked cool. I played it so you don't have to. Just a note, there are spoilers, but chances are you've already read the book or seen the movie.

Story: 5/10
Don't get me wrong, I loved the story, the best book in the series IMO. It's the way this game mocks the story. Harry Potter is on his second year at the magical school of Hogwarts, but something is afoot. People are getting petrified everywhere, and Harry is a suspect. The reason this isn't a 10/10 is that it takes away so many elements that made it a good story. It completely scraps the part before Harry and Ron Go to Hogwarts, the Dobby and Lockheart side story, ect. It boils down the story to the bare minimum, and even then it fails. It tells most of the story through narration, with the same view of Hogwarts. It even inserts the "friends can do anything" moral and completely ruins the ending. If they had actually tried, this could have been a masterpiece.

Graphics: 9/10
The best thing about the game is the graphics. Everything is clear and easy to see, and things never disappear from a distance.

Music/sound: 3/10
There's not much to say about the music. It's not bad, but it's not good either. What really bothers me is the sound. The voice acting is very weird. They make random people and talk like they are talking to Harry and themselves at the same time. An example: "Oh no! I've lost my tight nit group!" the sounds themselves are average like the music.

Controls: 7/10
Most control is made by the mouse, and is therefore very simple. Unfortunately it doesn't always do what it's asked, and you end up dying a lot.

Game play: 4/10
The game starts out with Dobby appearing on Harry's bed, saying, "Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts!". He is never seen again. Right away I thought, "uh oh". It didn't get much better. Like all the other games in the series, it adds a lot of stuff to try and make up for everything they take out. Isn't it interesting how every teacher in Hogwarts always calls on Harry to do a level? These levels are all the same thing basically. You kill a gnome, activate a switch, and find a star. Also, the few levels that actually progress the story are overdone, and one is very strange. How did Goyle get past all those hazards? Since when does Snape have a garden? And how is there sky when you're supposed to be underground? Anyway, the currency of Hogwarts are the Bertie botts beans. You use them to buy wizard cards, the best things in the game. There are 50 bronze cards, 40 silver ones, and 10 gold ones. Every 10 bronze cards you collect increase your life meter, and every 10 silver cards open a lock on a secret place. The bosses are very easy, and they even tell you how to hurt the first one. The game play is just like the story: Ruined potential.

Difficulty: easy
You get unlimited lives, frequent checkpoints, and an easy game. What do you think?

Replay value: 7/10
Once you get the ugliness of the game out of the way, you can get what the game should have been about: Wizard cards. Other than that, don't play it again.

Conclusion: 6/10
This game could have been a good game, but like so many before it, it blew it big time. Don't buy this, just don't buy this.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/19/05