How much rope does not curl
Hello, fans and fans of Harry Potter games. Well, I went a little too far, they tell me that:
- Common sense;
- EA logo on the cover;
- Seven years of experience in the video game industry.
Today I will try to give a small review of the recently released game, as you guessed, about the Boy-Who-Survived. It so happened in our world that many movie epics get their continuation in computer games. And let’s be honest with each other, such games are not always… they were more successful than films, let’s say. Of course, I don’t take into account such rare exceptions as “X-MEN: Wolverine” or “Terminator: May the Savior come.”
In general, I do not want to overload you, readers, with unnecessary lyrical digressions, but I will immediately proceed to a brief review.
I purchased a licensed CD and first of all, as an experienced person, looked at the back of the cover. For me personally, one of the main criteria for selecting games is its requirements. Of course, no one is immune from mistakes, or from the fact that the game can be beautiful and resource-intensive, but at the same time empty in meaning, for example, the sensational Crisis So what does EA offer us.
2.2 GHz processor (2 cores of course), 1 GB of RAM and 5.5 GB of hard disk space, video card ATI Radeon X1300 with shader 3.0 support and 128Mb of memory. For people who don’t quite understand, I’ll say right away: the requirements (except for the video card) are above average. Whether they justify themselves or not, we will consider further.
The irony of fate
After a short process of installing the game, I impatiently clicked on the label with the game, but what was my surprise when I saw … GP and the Order of the Phoenix! Then, looking closer, I realized that I was wrong, but a little. The logo of the menu has changed, and the hierarchy of it has remained unchanged. The picture, to be honest, was so disgusting on a 23-inch screen that I immediately got into the graphics settings and – oh! miracles, – EA finally made a more or less intelligible graphics management system, which, I remind you, was not in sight in past games. Boldly setting all the settings to the maximum, I went to the button with the resolution and immediately got upset: the developers assume that this game is not played by people whose monitor has more than 19 inches of diagonal. Namely, the permissible maximum is 1280×1024… it’s a shame, because such a limit was set 2-3 years ago.
So, without lingering on the menu any longer, I clicked on the “New Game” button. As I expected, a fit of nostalgia shook my soul. More precisely, I was confused, because the game engine remained unchanged. After the first 5 minutes of the game, it becomes clear that no one was going to reinvent the wheel, and the creators just followed their own, in their opinion, ingenious footsteps and made an addon to the GP and OF. So to speak, an ordinary sequel. But let’s go directly to the gameplay.
Potter and Co
As always, we are greeted by a script video on the engine, which could not demonstrate anything worthy. I’ll reveal the secret a little bit and say that these are digitized footage from the movie, the moment when Snape swears to finish the Draco case. Such scenes will accompany all our pastime in the game. Speaking of characters. I’m surprised, but the detail of the faces is on top. Movie actors can be proud, now their alter egos in the game will not be like that… deprived of nature and the imagination of programmers. The characters are perfectly made: Harry himself, Snape, Ron, Bellatrix… Well, among the losers, alas, were Hermione, Lucius and Slughorn. In addition, it is worth noting that the characters’ faces have finally come to life: they move their eyes, move their lips, wrinkle their forehead… in general, it turned out quite nice.
Now we smoothly move on to the level design. If I do without unnecessary criticism, then I will put a solid 7 out of 10. The locations are dull: there are few colors, a lot of textures are simply added on the Copy-Paste principle… But great news: for the first time the castle has remained almost unchanged, that is, you will be able to nostalgic (although unlikely) about the adventures of the last academic year… and here I lit a torch, and here I found a hidden bonus… by the way, all this awaits us in the new game. Harry was given a mouse-controlled wand, but his arsenal of spells was curtailed. That’s the idea.
In general, we are given quite understandable tasks: now we collect tokens with the Hogwarts coat of arms and their mini-copies, earn tokens and the like…
Our Russha (features of the Russian version)
Localization deserves separate lines. HP and H-P is the first game in the series where they approached the issue of voice-over so well and seriously: not a single repeating voice, even schoolchildren in Hogue communicate with each other in Russian and this is, damn it, fine. Moreover, we are offered hints right on the castle walls in the form of pop-up letters, also in Russian. Although there are moments where the translation smeared some scenes, we observe this at the very beginning: Ron’s joke about fish getting drunk on a love potion made me want to cry. And believe me, not from laughter.
Sentence
Alas! we were given another adventure game: collect everything… although the makings of the series were from the very beginning, a developer like EA does not rely on a hardcore audience, but on children and teenagers, fans of Ro’s creativity. Honestly, my personal subjective opinion is this: it’s great that there are meditation games like this, but believe me: it’s impossible to be a fan, read all the books and watch movies and at the same time remember the developers with a gentle quiet word. I’m not saying that the game is a failure. It just wasn’t given enough attention, and funding played a role, EA is now on the nose of the frigates of the industry, so in their eyes, GP is a second-rate game. But nevertheless, we will have something to do, and the prospect of spending a couple of evenings pleasantly (the game is very short) in the company of our favorite characters is provided for us.. It’s Harry Potter! And everything that bears its name, whether it’s a game or a movie, truly shows magical properties (in terms of the amount of money collected from the sale).
So, the last word: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a classic adventure with bright inserts of arcade elements (levels such as a Quidditch game or a potions lesson wonderfully dilute the gameplay), fans play, and those who can’t bear to watch the movie, you won’t notice much difference.
P.S. Wait for the continuation of the article with a detailed walkthrough and comments on your favorite HpGames site.
P.P.S. Still, there was no continuation 😉
Exclusive for the Russian Harry Potter fan club (old version of our site, the original article was written in 2009), Altair Bergadler (D.O.N.)