We get our grubby mits on a near-final version of the upcoming Harry Potter game.
Another summer, another Harry Potter movie. This year, JK Rowlings' Order of the Phoenix is getting the big-screen treatment, and it'll be hitting move theaters nationwide in a matter of weeks. As EA prepares to release its game adaptation of Order of the Phoenix, we took a run through the first few hours of the PlayStation 3 version, and it's shaping up well.
It's been a while since we read The Order of the Phoenix. Fortunately for us, we had forgotten what a whiney brat Potter is in this book. It's not the game's fault, but we still found ourselves gritting our teeth a couple of times during the game's first few missions at his petulant outbursts. Sadly, despite the game's nifty physics system, you can't drop a few hefty items of furniture on him to teach him a lesson. Shame.
Our gripes about the irritating book aside, Potter's visuals are shaping up impressively. All the early game takes place in the halls of the movie's school, Hogwarts, and the team has the look down perfectly. The school's main staircase looks just like its movie representation, rotating staircases and all. As you hustle from floor to floor, you're harangued by moving paintings, passing ghosts, other students: it's packed with atmosphere.
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And it's a big place. So big, in fact, that you'll need some help to find your way from one place to another. In true Potter style, Harry carries the Marauder's Map - a singularly cunning device that not only shows you the layout of Hogwarts', but can also highlight the location of anybody in the building. Once you drop back to the game, you'll see a little line of footstep symbols that point the way toward the target you selected.
Very little gets in between the player and the world, too. Besides the footsteps, there's no HUD - no on-screen interface of any kind, save a quick animation of the right controller motion when learning a new spell. That means no health bars, no mana, no minimap, no nothing: you and your wand are on your own.
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Posted: 22 Jun 2007
