Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

"Booo-ooring"

I was looking foward to this. I had seen the graphics, heard how much better it was than the Philosopher's Stone and the GBC version (The GBC version of the chamber of secrets is 10 times better.) So when it was out I went out and bought it

Edinburgh streets can get very cold, so I got flu buying this game. I was hoping the game was worth it. It wasn't.

The beginning starts off great. There were some nice cut scenes and there you are in Knocturn Alley. But it all goes downhill from there. Read out to find why:

Graphics
I'll admit it. The graphics were very good. You could've mistaken the cutscenes for a late PSX game. The animation is very nice and it is all presentated very neatly.

Audio:
The music is OK, but will get on your nerves, after a few hours. The sound effects are nice, with the sound of the spells whooshing through the air, and doors creaking open.

Gameplay And control:
This is where it begins to fall apart. The control system is botched. The new jump feature is nice, but it takes ages to position Harry to jump. When you're attacking enemies and as you charge up your spell, the enemy might run into you. Now, instead of being knocked out by charging into a fully-charged flipendo, you lose your spell and a bit of health.

The gameplay is boring. You have to collect and find items throughout the game. Sneaking is fun, but I found easy without the invisibility cloak. All you have to do is throw a dungbomb and voila! you can go from room to room, easy as pie.
However, there is one good point, which saves this game getting a 1/10. Quidditch. It's in full-3D and easy to play. the sprites are very well-animated and colourful, unlike the ridiculously dark Philosopher's stone.

Lifespan and Story:
I got 100% on this game within 5 hours! it is very easy to complete this game, veteran gamers should find it no problem at all to collect the Famous Witches and Wizards cards. The cards add extra abilities, but none of them are vitally important.
In the story, it misses vital parts, and skips out on all the funny parts, unlike the GBC version.

Dont Buy This, Buy...
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (GBC). It is longer, more challenging, lots of sidequests, tons of dialogue from the book and funner to play.

Buy it or Shelve it?
Shelve it.

Overall:
Unless you are a Potter freak, and want both handheld games, don't buy this game, I exchanged this game for the GBC version, and I am finding it a lot better, than the pathetic excuse for the game this is.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/06/02, Updated 12/06/02