Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened..."

Many gamers look down upon games based on films and television shows. They are correct in thinking that most licensed games have repetitive gameplay and offer another cheap money maker for the developer. The same cannot be said for ' Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ' however. Each platform's version of the game is unique, and offers a different look into the magical world of Harry and his friends.

As one would expect, the graphics in this game are nothing spectacular. At the very best, they're mediocre. Some games get away with low quality visuals, but it really shows here. When you're walking around the castle halls, however, everything you see and interact with is just a variation on a box with different colours on it. Luckily, once you get over the initial surprise, the visuals become less of a drawback and you begin to realise why this game is special.

The first thing you'll notice when playing this game for the first time is the clear voice that narrates your adventure during all the cutscenes. Instead of opting for more complex animated sequences, the developers chose a simpler, more effective story telling method. As you progress through the game, story advances are shown as narrated pictures in a photo album. You discover quite early on that the photo album belongs to that annoying first year student, Colin Creevey. Aside from the fact that each character looks like he or she has slammed their head against a wall, watching the cutscenes is quite enjoyable.

Instead of being a full blown adventure title, this game features many mini games. from de-gnoming (where you throw small creatures and gain points by hitting strange objects like telephone boxes) from catching slugs in a dog's water bowl and emptying them into a bucket before they spill over the floor. Tasks like this are tremendously hilarious, and will no doubt make you want to come back and play them again.

Even though the main adventure is quite easy for you to dash through and reach the ending, there are plenty of things for the completionist to do if you get bored of playing through the game. There are many Famous Witches and Wizards cards for you to collect, and snatching them all will earn you a sweet little bonus. You can try and beat the four house champions in a wizard duel to unlock the Founders Tower, which not even Fred and George Weasley know what it contains. Finally, you can earn trophies for arriving at your lessons within s set time limit, and you can always try and beat your score to earn more prizes.

You'd guess from the cover that the game follows the story of the Chamber of Secrets film, and - while it does feature the characters as they are seen in the film - the game features areas which were in the original novel but were removed for the film release. This will please any devoted Harry Potter fan, and should make this game reason enough to buy it. On the plus side, it's got imaginative gameplay, large areas to explore, and plenty of secrets to unlock (like the Chamber itself... hehe).
But on the minus side, it's got low quality visuals, and dreadful voice acting. Whoever decided that Harry should sound like a 9 year old child, has contributed to my decision of giving this game an overall seven out of ten.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/11/07