Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

"A simple and easy game"

Harry Potter

This is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in some places). This game is based on the second Harry Potter movie.

Improvements

Well, there are almost no improvements at all over the first game. The game is almost identical. Only the stages and a few things are different. There are even certain stages that are totally identical in the two games! The hall and the city comes to mind. A lot of the monsters are identical and look like they were loaded straight from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. A lot of textures from the first game were re-used. It would have been a bit better if the developers changed a few things to add originality. If you played the first game, you know exactly what to expect.

Gameplay

This is an action adventure game. You control Harry Potter in a 3D world. You can shoot magic to kill enemies and you can jump. There is no jump button. Instead, the character automatically jump when you move over a cliff.

Except the standard game mode, there are a lot of other game modes. These include : piloting a flying car, shooting things with a crosshair, running after people, piloting a flying broomstick, dueling with magic, and many others.

You can learn a few new spells along the way, and you'll need them for certain parts of the game.

The action rarely stops. The moment you reach your goal, a character appears or something happens and you have a new goal. Its not the kind of game that you don't know what to do next. Its usually easy to guess where to go.

Difficulty level

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a very easy game. In fact it is even easier than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The challenge rises a bit in the later stages, but not much. For example, the final boss takes long but is very easy to kill. I killed it on my first try without being hit ONCE. He really is that easy.

The game takes a few hours to complete. You can easily finish it in one day.

Graphics

This is a PSX game with rather good graphics. The animations are well done. There are no FMVs (for a change). They are not needed anyway.

Music

The music is pleasant too. Judging from the sound of it, it must be the music of the movie. It sounds like a big orchestra with many instruments.

Languages

You have the choice between three different languages. This is a thing that is very rare for the games in my area. I speak French so I was pleased to play the game in French. All the voices (and there is a lot) were in French when I played.

Let me explain something there: I think there is a lot of games translated in French in France. In Quebec, where I live, there are a lot of French people but we always get the American version. This game is a rare exception.

Bottom line

This is an excellent game for those who liked Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is very similar. Those who want to play an easy and fun action game will be pleased. Just one thing, if they ever make a game about the third movie, they better add something new and original or the concept may start to stale.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/02, Updated 12/08/02