First as I attempt to write a review of this game, I should note that this has already been done through the review of the next game, Chamber of Secrets. However, I have some things to say here that I didn’t particularly want there, because it’s quite long enough as it is. This game is very simply made, though in that respect, it quite reflects the movie I think. Perhaps the technology wasn’t there at the time it was made, I don’t know, but the graphics weren’t that great in the game, and I didn’t think it was altogether too long either. It’s longer than Prisoner of Azkaban for sure, but still shorter than Chamber of Secrets.

Some things that particularly annoyed me with this game were the changes in storyline, which match my gripes with the first movie as well. I suppose those working on the movie wanted to save on time, but once you’ve strayed away from the story as it was originally written, why stray away from the movie even more then with the game? Perhaps I’m not giving EA enough credit. They actually brought the story closer to the book with the addition of sneaking to the tallest tower with Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it combined that part of the story with sneaking through the library, which Harry did in the movie. However, not long after the three visited Hagrid for the hatching of Norbert, in the movie they were caught and as punishment were assigned to Hagrid who was investigating the killings of unicorns in the Forbidden Forest. That said, I would like to point out that this part of the story does not exist in the game, but in the movie Hagrid says that Dumbledore just sent the dragon off to live with others in Romania. Do you see the discrepancies between the book, movie, and game here? I was somewhat annoyed with these differences, but the movie and game did stick pretty close to the book. However, in both the movie and game in comparison with the book, there are some not very well written lines. I just think they could have done better.

I did rather enjoy cheating in this game, an option not available in the others. It gave me an opportunity to skip over certain levels I didn’t care much about, or to explore areas of Hogwarts grounds that you wouldn’t normally be able to see. Mainly I used harrysuperjump to maneuver around places and people, though harrynormaljump is also of use, as well as harrygetsfullhealth if you’re near death, or are about to faint. More specifically, I generally used these cheat codes to skip the confrontation with Malfoy in the Entrance, the confrontation with Filch just outside the tallest tower by jumping straight up from the nearest light platforms to the other side, and finally, the confrontation with Quirrell, by simply jumping up right into his face so that he will go away and let you collect the six Chocolate Frogs in that room in peace.

Just for fun, I also liked to jump outside the confines of the game while outside of Hogwarts castle itself. When you talk to Hermione about Neville, it’s possible to jump right over her and the Herbology entrance to find him, for example. Also, you can find McGonagall right after you talk to her by following her and jumping over the same entrance. Right before the encounter with Malfoy concerning Neville’s Remembrall, you can also find them in the background of the game by jumping over the Broomstick training entrance. Heck, you can even jump around on all the buildings up to the topmost towers of Hogwarts if you want to. I’ve done it. Really not that difficult actually, once you get the hang of it. My favorite spot to explore, though, is the waterfall you encounter shortly after you’re given the task to collect Fireseeds. You can jump all the way to the top of the waterfall and walk around underwater!

I also didn’t really like the randomness of the game. Overall, it seemed too straightforward and not allowing for further exploration around Hogwarts. Even though you attend various classes there, and sneak through the library there, you can’t “navigate” to any of those places on your own whenever you want to. This was changed, thankfully, with future games. But for the sake of graphics, storyline, and general layout of Hogwarts and the surrounding grounds, I’m almost tempted to tell EA to go make another better version of this game and re-release it. Almost. But as long as I’ve got more games to play as they come out, I guess I can live with this one. Anyway, if you’re reading this review to decide if you want to buy the game or not, I would definitely suggest going for it, especially if you’re a big Harry Potter fan!