Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince review

Measly wizard wheezes in a half-dead world

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Hogwarts is pleasantly detailed and realistic

  • +

    Typically great Potter soundtrack

  • +

    Mixing potions is fun

Cons

  • -

    Lots of wandering

  • -

    not much doing

  • -

    Main 'activity' is pointing with the remote

  • -

    Some of the characters look a bit strange

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What EA giveth, EA taketh away. For every improvement or addition to the Harry Potter series there must be a subtraction – presumably to keep the universe balanced or something. Order of the Phoenix introduced a sprawling, detailed version of Hogwarts, for example, but scraped out every shred of ‘game’ as a result. The great hope for Half-Blood Prince was that the pretty, but pretty empty, castle of Phoenix would now be filled with stuff to do. Admittedly, there are more activities, but quite a lot hasbeen taken out as recompense.

Still, Harry should be used to sacrifice. Now in his sixth year, the grumpy magic orphan has to balance his studies with the prophecy of him offing Voldemort, all while figuring out how that blonde dick Malfoy keeps disappearing off the Marauder’s Map. It’s one of those licensed games that presumes you have an intimate knowledge of the story already, as evidenced by the fact that the delivery is consistentlyterrible. Major scenes are rushed and often incomprehensible, treated primarily as inconveniences that get in the way of the structure of the game.

It’s a narrative the player has almost no role in, except in the few situations where the story intersects with one of the three – yes, three – activities at the game’s core. ‘So-and-so needs this potion, go and make it will you.’ ‘It’s time for Quidditch practice.’ ‘Potter, I’m gonna duel you silly.’ There are a couple of out-there moments that offer variety and engage with the story properly, but most of the game revolves around potions, dueling and – sigh – Quidditch.

Let’s start with potions, as it’s the Big New Thing in Half-Blood Prince. It’s brilliant. You use the remote to pick up bottles and other ingredients, and then tip it sideways to pour them into your bubbling cauldron. The remote also stirs the gloopy mixture, and in tandem with the Nunchuk you can do a fist-pumping motion to heat the potion up. Not having ever made a potion we can’t judge how accurate it all is, but the gestures are spot-on and fun to perform – it’s a truly great minigame.

But it is still a minigame though, and like all the others it’s overused to the point where the thought of making another vial of magic juice makes you want to punch Jim Broadbent (the new Potions master) in the back of the head. Dueling, returning from the previous Potter game, similarly outstays its welcome even if in the short term it’s a pyrotechnic blast. New to this edition is two-player competitive dueling, which should keep you diverted for a while.

More info

GenreChildren's
DescriptionSeven months. That’s how much extra time EA Bright Light has had to tweak and polish Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince after its release date was pushed back thanks to the movie’s theatrical slippage. The time could have been spent perfecting one of the most valuable game licenses. Instead it seems as though Harry and company were dumped in the Vanishing Cabinet since the game’s completion last year and left to gather cobwebs.
Franchise nameHarry Potter
UK franchise nameHarry Potter
Platform"Xbox 360","PS3","Wii","DS","PSP","PC","PS2"
US censor rating"Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+","Everyone 10+"
UK censor rating"Rating Pending","Rating Pending","Rating Pending","Rating Pending","Rating Pending","Rating Pending","Rating Pending"
Alternative names"Harry Potter 6"
Release date1 January 1970 (US), 1 January 1970 (UK)
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Tom Sykes
When he's not dying repeatedly in roguelikes, Tom spends most of his working days writing freelance articles, watching ITV game shows, or acting as a butler for his cat. He's been writing about games since 2008, and he's still waiting on that Vagrant Story 2 reveal.