As you'll have noticed if you've strolled down your local high street recently, there's a new Harry Potter book coming out soon. Not just any new book, either: it's the seventh and last one. They all die, by the way, after Ron Weasley turns into a dragon and goes a bit rabid. Oh, SPOILER ALERT. Er, sorry.
Anyway, in cinemas we're only just getting to the fifth installment,
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; EA Mobile bagged the rights to release games based on the film, including this, the first Harry Potter mobile game.
The game follows the movie's plot, revolving around Harry's membership of a new secret society, Dumbledore's Army, which aims to teach students Defence Against the Dark Arts, and unseat the wicked Dolores Umbridge. If this isn't making much sense, consider: a) why you are considering buying a Harry Potter mobile game, and b) Wikipedia plot summaries your friend.
Anyway, here the plot translates into an isometric action-adventure where you mainly play as Harry, exploring the corridors and magic rooms of Hogwarts. And, right from the start, you can tell EA's developers have put bags of effort into creating visuals that'll delight hardcore Potter fans.
Okay, so it can't live up to the film's sets and special effects, but mobile Hogwarts looks a treat, with detailed backgrounds and all manner of atmospheric lighting and shadows. And you'll have time to goggle at it, too. By which we mean you spend a helluva lot of time sneaking around Hogwarts, and precious little time duffing up enemies.
The core of the game involves walking from A to B, while avoiding watching students. Stay in the shadows and you won't be seen, but when you have to break cover into the light, you have to either make sure they're looking the other way, or use your wand to extinguish the light for a few minutes.
In concept, it's very similar to Rovio's top-down
Darkest Fear mobile games, which make a similar use of lighting and sneaking about. In
Harry Potter, the difficulty level is occasionally on the wrong side of frustrating, with you blundering into an enemy's view and getting pole-axed, being sent back to the last restart point, and then doing it again until you succeed.
Variety is provided by new elements introduced as you progress through the game. Hedwig the owl pops up for one section, for example, enabling you to fly him ahead of you to scout. Another section sees you finding Fainting Fancies sweets, which have to be dropped in the right places to tempt (and then knock-out) enemies.
Further variation is offered via the mini-games, which are triggered when you need to use magic – to duel another character, shift a bookshelf to block a door, or brew up a potion for example. They involve a wand spinning around the screen, with you having to press a button when it's over one of four circles. They work well, and you can play them individually from the Main Menu if you want to practise.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix can be frustrating due to its occasionally stop-start nature, but overall it's a well-crafted game that'll please Potter fans no end, and has enough variety to make it more than just another movie tie-in.
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