adventure

I'm going to start off by coming right out and saying that I played the first two titles in this franchise, and enjoyed them both. I've read the books, seen the movies, and have enjoyed (for the most part) the games. So as you read this review, appreciate that I'm not coming down on Harry Potter himself, nor am I slighting the world that Rowling has created in the books, and Warner Bros. have put to the screen. Nor am I even taking undo shots at the great and mighty Electronic Arts, although they deserve a few for getting a little lazy with this most recent addition to the line of Potter gaming titles.

First and foremost, let me air my chief complaint. You don't play Quidditch. Not once. In fact, you never touch a broom. The Quidditch matches are reduced to a static cut scene, where you're simply holding the Quidditch Cup. The cynic in me suspects that EA left it out to help drive sales of their stand-alone Quidditch title. But none of the speculation matters, it's simply not there.

My second issue is this game is exceptionally short. I'm not sure how long it took me to finish each of the first two, but it was longer (in each case) than the 5 hours or so it took me to play this one from start to finish. That's not braggadocio. I mean, for one, we're talking about a game in the Harry Potter franchise that has to be something that can appeal to, and be completed by, a wide age and ability range of gamers. So 'easy' isn't an issue here, particularly since a game like this isn't so much something you get for a challenge, but rather an opportunity to sort of live a little bit of Hogwarts. For another, I enjoy getting off the beaten path a bit in games. So this wasn't a case where I just raced through, I collected the pages, cards and beans (although there was really no point to it -- in the last title you spent beans on trinkets Ron's brothers had for sale, not so here). I played the side games, made sure I had A+ in each of the 3 'minigames', Buckbeak's bat chasing, owl racing, and dueling club. The point is, even if you allow yourself to be sidetracked, there will quickly come a point in the game where Dumbledore tells you to speak to him when you're ready to hear who won the House Cup. Make no mistake, that's the end. With no final cut scene, save a grimacing Snape as confetti falls, and some jumping around by the winning house, the game simply drops you out to the main menu. I'm not sure I've ever seen a more abrupt ending, it's a bit like the developers meant to do more, and simply ran out of time.

To wrap up my gripes, the control is a little wonky in this one, some sloppy camera angles allowing you at times to lose site of everything as you stare into the woodgrain of a bookcase, or a stone wall that has blocked your field of view. Games with this perspective have been around long enough that this should have been much cleaner.

I'm not all complaints though. This is, by far, the best visual presentation the franchise has enjoyed so far. There's a level of artistry in this game that really jumps out at you, and there are times when you'll find yourself admiring the composition of different scenes. They clearly went out of their way to make it look good.

So that's the quandary here. The game looks good. It plays adequately, and while brief, it's true to the story. So is it good? I'd have to shrug and say 'yes', and I'll give it 3 stars for the sake of this review. It's certainly worth a rental, and while I know some will scoff and flap their Hogwarts robes in outrage at the suggestion that this isn't worth buying -- I think that's an important point to make here, and one that I wish I had considered before plunking down cash for this game. Really, don't buy it unless you're making a point to collect.

I sort of imagine the development team for this game sitting around a table some time ago, in a meeting intended to lay the groundwork for the game. And in my imagination, a lot of great ideas are tossed around, but then someone in a suit with insectile eyes speaks up and says "Look, that's all great, but toss it out. What's important is the cover. As long as it says 'Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban', it will sell. Make it look pretty, but don't spend just a ton of time on this. Create a linear gauntlet of 'Point A' to 'Point B' light puzzle solving, use the voices of at least some of the actors from the movie -- and it will sell, and sell well." I don't know if that's how it happened, but this game falls well short of expectations driven by the first two titles. It's always those people in the suits...

You do play as Harry, Ron and Hermione. There is "new" action, such as flying Buckbeak, and Hedwig. But there's no depth to any of that. Some of the puzzles are clever, the visuals are terrific, the sound is solid. It is, in the end, a Harry Potter title, true to the book and the movie, and for that alone, this game will find its way into people's libraries. I simply hope EA gets its act together and really does something with the next title, so that I don't again feel like the game was merely an afterthought. The first two didn't feel or play like that, there's really no reason the third one should have.

No Quidditch. How could they?

Harry Potter Game series are one of the games I'm looking forward to play and of course when PoA gam is out, I thought, what the heck, lets try it. And try I did.

Graphics are the well satisfactory but I like to turn around and see my enviroment more than it can offer me. Storyline is well along the line of the book and I don't have to tell you about that, or I would spoil you from reading the books.

The most let down of this game is that it is too damn short! It's shorter than what they have done to the movie itself, I don't have to tell you how many scenes they cut from that book *winks* There are only a few tasks and not much exploring in this one, as I would compare to the CoS game. It's much more fun playign the last game than this one. But it's quite awesome for kids though, but not for us hardcore fans.

this game is fun to play,but way to short!!!!!!!it's cool when you swap characters.oh and there's NO quidditch...who in their right mind would exculde quidditch from harry potter??quidditch is one of the things that's sets harry potter apart from everything else.when you do a spell the person your playing as doesn't even say the word to do the spell,like flipindo or something.can your wand read your characters mind or something???also there's some parts in the game that isn't in the book or movie.like swap the jinxed quidditch balls or when malfoy makes a pollyjuice potion and makes himself look like ron,and then tell harry that sirius black is in the dungeons.i wish that EA games could make a harry potter game that makes sense and is true to the story line.they'd better make the goblet of fire game a whole lot better,longer,and harder.this game is not that hard to beat.the part where you save sirius black is really short.the ending of the game could have way better to.what were EA thinking?????????????