Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

"Better than the movie, for sure."

I've been a fan of the Harry Potter books for a while now. I remember that me and some of my friends used to call it things like ''Harry Potty'', but when I read them, I just HAD to read them all. When I heard of a movie coming out, I just had to see it. There was also the Sorcerer's Stone game, a great game for the PC in particular. Now, when I saw the CoS (Chamber of Secrets) in movie form, I'm thinking... ''Um... what the hell?'' especially at the end of the movie. Anyway, I'm here to talk about the game, so... This is a really good game, superb graphics, pretty nice control... you'll see.

Story: 10/10
There isn't much to say here, really... it's mostly based off of the movie. Some of the cut scenes have dialog from the books, but it's really just a reproduction of the movie. The book's ''plot'' was great, though, and since this is based off of the book as well, that's why it got a 10.

Control: 9/10
The control is basic and easy once you get used to it. As usual in most games, the A button does a lot of the ''Action''. The Y, X, and B buttons are used to assign spells to, and moving is... *gasp* THE CONTROL STICK. Who would've thought? I suppose the problem with control is when you ''charge up'' a spell. It's impossible to tell how long to hold the button when you do.

Graphics: 10/10
*whistles* And we've got some FABULOUS graphics today, folks! The graphics in this game really show off the Gamecube's amazing capability for graphics. When it comes to spells, though... they're really... bland. The Lumos spell in particular could've had a LOT wider range, and the Expelliamus spell... *shudders* I won't even GO into that, but that was the spell that I was really disappointed on. Did they get J.K. Rowling to check this game before they published it?

Sound: 8/10
The game shows some pretty good sound for a game of it's type. Voice acting is straight from the movie, but I think they could've made some of the paintings talk and the students in the halls... and some of the spells aren't so great, either. Then again, it IS hard to make sound interesting... only bad.

Music: 8/10
Again, music straight from the movie and some just from the game. The Quidditch music especially made an impression on me... There isn't really much to say except they didn't really put music in some areas where there could've been... like maybe eerie music at night?

Replay Value: 9/10
While I usually play games over just for the fun of it, there's almost always the possibility of collecting ALL the wizard's cards. It's a long and challenging task but now that you've beaten the game you could focus on that.

Buy or Rent?
Probably buy. Rent it if you're not too sure (as in you've read some of the other reviews for this game) but I say buy. It's worth the $50 or so dollars.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/03, Updated 04/04/03