Description
Be Harry Potter in a new adventure with more magic,
friendship and danger. Learn new spells, undertake new quests, make new
friends and challenge new adversaries to confront the powers at the heart of
the Chamber of Secrets. Do you dare take the chance that you might face
You-Know-Who again?
Review
You never know what to expect from a videogame based on a
popular license. But, to me, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets hasn't
fallen victim to any of the unfortunate failings that become so many of
these types of games. It's, in fact, a very well done 3D adventure game
filled with a fun quest, challenging puzzles and an intuitive control scheme
and magic system. It reminds me a lot of Zelda, actually, which is a great
thing. That's not to say it's perfect. Some of the puzzles lack the
intensity of those in Zelda and there is a level of redundancy in some of
the challenges, but for the most part it's all still something of an
addiction.
I think that just about anybody will get his or her money's
worth with this game. But for genuine Potter fans, this is an absolute must
buy. The way in which developer Eurocom has brought Diagon Alley, Hogwarts,
Quidditch and the cast of the Potter books to life in videogame form is
brilliant. There is so much to see and do in the Harry Potter universe here
that the game is practically a virtual library of Potter related locations,
items, and characters. And the topper is that the Chamber of Secrets
storyline is presented with equal flair and detail.
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Even though they were clearly aimed at children, the first
Harry Potter games nevertheless managed to be quite good--an extraordinary
feat considering that film-license games are usually awful. For this second
crack at the gaming wand Harry moves to next-generation consoles too, and,
from the two-level demo we played, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
is looking even better than 2001's efforts.
Looking and playing similarly to Nintendo’s The Legend of
Zelda, the first level has you zapping gnomes with a stun spell and ejecting
them from the garden they're roaming around in. Although simple in gameplay
terms, this first little section allows you to get used to the pleasingly
intuitive and flexible controls. A subsequent level is based on more
traditional action set pieces, with you as Harry jumping about on platforms,
avoiding elves, and using a magic spell to chop down ropes. It’s a real
surprise to see a game this high profile, which would easily have sold a
million if it’d been a blank disc with the Harry Potter logo, being made
with such care and imagination. In fact, so good does it look so far that
the old lie about nonfans of the movie/book being able to enjoy it might
actually be true. --David Jenkins
