Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Reviewed By: Bill Stiteler

Review Computer: 800MHz iMac, 256MB RAM, GeForce 2

Review Date: June 30, 2003

Genre: Puzzle/adventure

Format: CD

Developer: Electronic Arts

Mac Publisher: Aspyr Media

System Requirements: MacOS X v10.1, 350MHz G3/G4, 128MB RAM (256M recommended if running OSX), 3D graphics acceleration (minimum of ATI Rage 128 with 16MB VRAM)

Network Feature: No

3D Support: Required

Retail Price: $39.99

Availability: Out Now

Rating: E for Everyone (violence)

Part of me is really embarrassed to be such a huge, nerdy fan of the Harry Potter books; to be taking part in the huge, cultural mob that pounced on the newest book the morning it was released, if not earlier. But I forget all that as soon as I pick up one of the stories...they're just that good.

Incredibly, that same sense of wonder has been captured in the computer games. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets actually improves on the first Potter game, and gives the player a deeper, more complex game that will still be fun for both children and adults. What's remarkable is that it manages to capture the feel of the Potter books while deviating almost entirely from the storyline of the novel from which it takes it's name.

Chamber of Secrets (CS) is a third-person adventure game based on the Quake II engine. Set on the grounds of Hogwarts—the school where Harry studies magic—CS is exponentially larger than its predecessor, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Whereas that game gave you a taste of Hogwart's creepy hallways, hidden passageways, and arcane classrooms, CS seems to put you there. The game allows you to explore the dank underground where Professor Snape teaches his potions class and the Slytherin House members plot against the rest of the school. The Great Staircase takes you up to four different floors and their classrooms, the floating sections of stairs rising and sinking to transport you. Or, you can travel about the grounds, down to the hut of Hagrid the groundskeeper, or head off to the arena for the favorite game of wizards: Quidditch.

But perhaps the most interesting and challenging aspect of the game comes from a bit that's not even in the books: the spell challenges.

First off, a word about spells, which have been greatly simplified from the first game. Instead of having to trace the spell's "shape" with an insane amount of accuracy as you did in the first game, the player is instead required to press the correct directional key as the cursor passes over it. It's like learning spells from Ulala. Once you get through your lesson, Harry gets sent through the "spell challenge" to see if he's learned it well enough to keep from getting killed. Fair enough. Climbing, casting and jumping over a variety of puzzles, obstacles and enemies, these sequences remind me of the best of the impressive Nintendo games, like Donkey Kong country. In addition, these sequences are timed, and you can play them later to improve your time and earn bonus points for House Griffindor.

Ah yes, house points. Another aspect of the game that's been improved immensely, house points now actually mean something; they determine if you'll be able to visit the bonus room, and how long you'll be allowed in there. Once in the bonus room, you'll run around trying to collect Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Jelly Bean, which is another aspect that's taken on a new significance.

Far more useful than in the original game, beans can now be used to purchase useful items in the game, such as components for healing spells, wizard cards, a faster flying broomstick, and armor for Quidditch games. Quidditch, a sort of flying wizard's soccer, gets a couple of substantial changes itself. In this game, your broom more or less follows the Snitch, which you're trying to capture to win the game. If you maneuver well while following the Snitch, your "capture bar" will fill up more quickly than your computer opponent, who's far more skilled in this game and (gasp!) might actually beat you! Fortunately, you can take matters into your own hand to prevent this from happening by applying some kinetic force...kicking the crap out of him. Now you see why you need that armor.

Your opponent can try the same on you, which is why it's good another change has been made to the game: you can increase your health, not only in terms of the health-restoring chocolate frogs found around the castle, but by making your own healing spells and by collecting as many wizard cards as you can. For every ten bronze cards you find, Harry gets another "lightning bolt," which represents a level of health.

What else is new? A dueling league where you can battle your fellow students and win beans, even more secret rooms and passages than before, new spells and enemies, and overall twice the game that you got in the first one. The plot of the game pays only lip service to the plot of the book, with a mysterious force paralyzing people and Harry hearing strange voices, but thankfully, the designers seem to have realized which bits could be adapted for a game, and did so in a wonderful way that makes for exciting play but doesn't disrespect the source, either. True, Harry didn't fight the giant spider in the book, but if they didn't change it, the whole segment would be a cut scene.

Given that the character interactions are limited to running into your buddies, Ron and Hermione, who lead you to your next class, Harry Potter is hardly an RPG. It's essentially a version of Quake with a heck of a lot more story and none of the latent homoeroticism (I'm sorry...we're talking about a game where muscle-men run around with big guns and call each other "bitch"). It's not exactly faithful to the book, but—like all adaptations—it takes what it can and invents the rest to make its format work.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

.