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Genre: Third-person action/adventure

Format: DVD

Developer: EA Games

Publisher: EA Games

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.4.9, 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 1GB RAM, 6GB free hard disk space, ATI X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7300 video card (Intel GMA950 chipset not supported)

Review Computer: 2GHz 20" Intel Core Duo iMac, 1GB RAM, 256MB ATI Radeon X1600

Network Feature: No

Processor Compatibility Intel only

Price: $29.95

ESRB Rating: E 10+ (fantasy violence)

Availability: Now

Demo: No

Official Website: harrypotter.ea.com

Note: The screen captures featured below are taken from apple.com.

I've never read a Harry Potter book, and I only saw one of the movies. I think it was the first one. I recall John Cleese floating over a table, and that's about it. None of this is because I have anything against the Harry Potter franchise. Rather, I'm quite looking forward to enjoying the series by reading it to my daughter when she's old enough to sit through a story without hitting me in the face. Until then, though, I just have the games.

Well, for the sake of accuracy, this game, because this is the first Harry Potter game I've played. Out of respect for our staff members who are fans of Harry, I've passed the previous Mac compatible Potter games off to other reviewers. This one was mine, though, because I'm the one with the machine powerful enough to run it. That's worth mentioning, as all of the Electronic Arts games are compatible with Intel-based Macs only. It's a fair request by EA—seeing that they're using the Intel only Cider engine to complete the ports—but one that will leave many Harry Potter fans disappointed.

Those who can play it, though, are in for a pretty good time, provided they can deal with some annoyances and aren't really looking for a challenge. It'll also help if you're already a fan of Harry Potter, but that should be obvious. The game isn't out to win over new readers, but to cater to those who already know and love the characters.

That's what you get in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, after all, is characters. Pretty much everyone is crammed into this game, or so my wife tells me. She's read the books, and had to tell me who some of the people are. I'll guess that they're all in the book, and fans of the characters would be disappointed to not see them in the game, but I would've liked to see the developers focus more on the action and less on meeting the familiarity quota.

Thankfully, the setting for the game is huge, so there's certainly room for all of these characters in the school, if not in the plot. I found it easy to submerge myself into Hogwarts, as it really felt like a place one could visit, as opposed to most game settings that push you from one location to the next so you don't even see half of the world you're in. Fans of Harry Potter will have a lot of fun exploring Harry's universe.

At least, I hope they do, because there's a lot of exploring to be done in this world. It's so large that it's easy to get lost. The more you get into the game, the easier it'll be to remember how to get to certain locations. Until then, there are devices that'll help you on your way. A map can be pulled up to show your goal, and when you select it, footprints will appear before you to guide your way. However, this only works when you know where you're going. In some quests, such as hunting down the five talking gargoyles, you have to find them on your own. No footprints, no guidance from your friends. In fact, your friends (Ron and Hermione) are with you throughout most of the game, but they tend to be a nuisance more than a help. They were constantly getting in my way, forcing me to run in circles until they'd move to a different area so I could proceed. Even worse, they were constantly badgering me about my current mission. "Have you found the gargoyles yet?" "Have you found the gargoyles yet?" "Have you found the gargoyles yet?" Ron, you've been standing beside me the whole time. You know damn well I haven't found the gargoyles yet. Quit being a jerk.

Also, there seemed to be a glitch in the system with this particular quest, which may be why I'm referencing it so much in this review. After searching around forever trying to find the last gargoyle, I eventually gave up and consulted a walkthrough only to learn I already had found them all. In order to progress, I had to go back to a previous saved game point and start over. It's possible I did something wrong in there, but the end result was still that the quest was more annoying than fun.

The game isn't all just running around looking for stuff, though. There are numerous mini-games sprinkled about, such as wizard chess and gobstones, which I'm told are games referenced in the books. These are fun diversions that do a good job of breaking up the monotony of running around Hogwarts trying to solve your current mission.

Then, there are the magical duels. Controlling your wand with a fairly fluid mouse movement system, you'll periodically engage in magic battles with your adversaries. These were pretty fun at first, but they did get repetitious after a while. Plus, there's no real tension behind them because Harry can't die in the game. That's a logical decision by the developers—you wouldn't kill off Shrek in a video game, either—but it just hammers home the fact that this game is geared more towards the younger Harry Potter fans than, say, my wife.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a big, gorgeous, well detailed game that unfortunately doesn't have too much going on inside of it. Although there are some fun diversions here and there, the main action of the game simply involves running from here to there, shoving Ron and Hermione out of your way as you try to figure out where to go to complete the current quest. Whether you'll be able/willing to keep this up for an entire game depends upon how much you enjoy being in Hogwarts and how much enjoying the company of those in there with you. I imagine this'll be more than enough for Harry Potter fans, especially the younger ones, but older gamers will want to sit tight to see what else Electronic Arts throws our way.

Buy Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix