Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

"Welcome back Potter, good to see your better this time around..."

Licensed games have really come a long way. We are finally seeing quality movie to game transitions, and I must say it's about time! EA really did a great job with this one, and it is a game that every Potter head should try out.

Story
The story begins when Harry is saved from the dreaded Dursleys by the Weasleys and their flying car. You learn the basics at the Weasleys house, tossing gnomes and getting to grips with the controls. I was really surprised how nicely everything flowed from here, and it went on with the story pretty closely to the movie and book. There are several things that weren't mentioned, but they do add depth to the game. Usually during the day you go to a class and learn a spell or you play a Quiditch game (which I will get to later) and then at night you sneak around and do some secret business, usually for that darned Hemione (I thought she was smart, why can't she do this stuff on her own?). I grew to loath the night missions, because they were so challenging, and also because the school gets a lot scarier at night. There are ghosts everywhere and its a challenge to get around. The story flows very nicely however, and it has some great moments.

Controls
The controls in the Chamber of Secrets are pretty good. You can assign spells to different buttons, to make for quick deliverance. I like that you can't charge the spell for too long without it backfiring. This makes it a great challenge to master the spells, and adds some realism to it. The only element of the controls that I didn't like was the jumping. Harry has a lot of platforms to climb, and I became very frustrated at points. The camera isn't your friend in this game, and I encountered some problems with it while trying to jump corners and such. Usually however, the controls work great, and everything flows nicely.

Graphics and Sound
The graphics in this game are awesome. They truly are amazing. I love to just run around Hogwarts and see how beautiful everything looks. The lighting effects are top notch, and I love the reflections from the stained glass windows. The only bad part of the graphics is the characters. They all look a tad round, and I don't really like the model of Harry. It isn't too bad, but in my opinion he should have looked a little older. The music in this game is very nice. Most of it is the same as from The Sorcerer's Stone game, but it once again works nicely. The sound effects are good, and the voice acting is wonderful. I would have liked to have had the actors from the movie do the dialogue, but the people they used sound a lot like them. Harry shouts the name of the spell every time you use it which is cool, and I really enjoyed hitting random students with spells and hearing their reactions such as ''Harry, stop it!''.

Quiditch
I think that this was a very important part of this game, and it was executed wonderfully. You play as the seeker who has to find the golden snitch, a tiny golden flying ball. Basically you fly through the ring trail the snitch leaves, and each time you go through one you gain speed. If you are accurate and use speed boosts well, you will catch up with the snitch and then have to time your grab and win the game. All the while the other players are duking it out, and you have to move around them. You slow down when you get slammed with a Bludger, or when someone try's to knock you off your broom. It gets very intense and I really loved it.

Replay
The replay in this game is okay. There are different wizard cards you can find and if you want you can try to find them all (there are a lot). They all have cool descriptions of the wizards and are pretty cool. You can also link to the GBA game with the GCN-GBA link cable and visit an exclusive area, Gringotts bank. This is a very cool feature and I liked that they put it in. Playing the game multiple times may be fun, depending the type of person you are.

Conclusion
All in all, this is a great game. If you are a big Potter fan like me, you will surly love it. If you hate all things Potter, you probably wont appreciate it as much as I did and probably wont like it. I would have been happy with this if they just let you run around the beautiful Hogwarts and see things from the Potter world. The little things in the game are very neat, but as a game it's still great. Potter fans should definitely at least give this a rental.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/13/03, Updated 02/13/03