Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Review - Wii

6

Gameplay: 6
Graphics: 8
Audio: 7
Multiplayer: 4
Innovation: 5

Introduction

Harry Potter returns for another movie tie-in adventure, developed by EA Bright Light Studio and released for every console currently on the market. Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix was arguably one of the best Potter games released so far, so expectations for the sequel have been relatively high. Today I’ll be reviewing the Wii version of the game, which tells the story of Harry’s sixth year at the wizarding school Hogwarts. So, how does this new game shape up?

Gameplay

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix impressed gamers with an expansive Hogwarts castle to explore, a competent duelling system, and a good range of spells to use. All of these features return, but the changes that have taken place between Half-Blood Prince and its predecessor are not all positive. The duelling system returns with some changes for the better, you and your opponent now have an obvious health indicator, and the duels now have a faster pace due to the ability to rapidly cast spells. On the downside, there’s now less freedom when casting spells, they are divided into two categories: duelling spells and general spells. As you can guess, duelling spells (such as Stupefy) can only be cast during duels. This means there will be no more starting duels with wandering students at will like in the previous game, which is a shame. Seemingly to make up for this though, there are now duelling clubs set up across the Hogwarts castle, with one for each school house. These allow players to start a duel against a range of opponents at will. Each of these opponents has a set pattern of attacks that they follow, and memorising them is one of the keys to victory. 

Unfortunately for the exploration aspect of the game, the Hogwarts castle on offer in Half-Blood Prince is identical to the one that was featured in Order Of The Phoenix. While continuity is a good thing, this is pushing things a bit as nothing at all has changed, meaning anyone who has played the previous game will feel rather like they’re playing the same game all over again. On a more positive note, the annoying Marauder’s map system of the previous game, which helped players find where they wanted to go by leaving a small trail of footprints for them to follow, has been scrapped. This has now been replaced by the Gryffindor House ghost Nearly-Headless Nick, who can be summoned at any time and will automatically guide players to the next location they need to get to in order to advance the story. This system works much better as Nick is clearly visible, and will kindly stop and wait for players if they fall behind.

One of the things that made exploring the Hogwarts castle in Order Of The Phoenix interesting was the fact that players could hunt for Discovery Points. These could be found by shaking suits of armour, uncovering hidden chess pieces, and solving simple puzzles scattered across the castle. Collecting ...