Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [PS3]

Now, the map isn't exactly what's shown in the movie -- when you select the list of folks in the school, you're just seeing people with tasks for Harry. Ginny Weasley might need you to help her pull off a prank with Fred and George, Professor McGonagall might need you to round up some first years, or Colin Creevey might need you to help get his camera back. During the first half of the game -- set before Christmas break -- you'll have around 30 tasks to finish as you assemble members of Dumbledore's Army. After the break, you'll have a dozen or so to finish up as you try to make Professor Umbridge's life a living hell and get ready for He Who Shall Not Be Named.

Order of the Phoenix isn't tasks, class and footprints -- you will have to pick up your wand and kick some ass. Throughout the roughly 10- to 15-hour story, you'll need to battle unruly kids, Slytherin punks and the dark lord himself with the six combat spells you've picked up with Hermione's help. Stupefy stuns your opponents, Expelliarmus will disarm them and Petrificus Totalus will paralyze them. Because there's no HUD, the only way you'll know if you're hurt or hurting your opponent is by watching them. If Harry's hurt, he'll clutch his side or drop to one knee. When he's defeated -- although it's more likely to be the bad guy who goes down -- Harry will sprawl out face down in the dirt.

Yay, Harry Potter, right? Well, I never said the game was perfect.

Although it's thankfully limited, combat is flat. In battle, you'll need to maneuver side to side and alternate between tossing attack spells at your enemies and protection spells around you. It's slow-paced and generally not interesting -- plus jerking the joystick up and down for an extended period of time wore out my thumb (my wrist was okay) practice makes perfect, y'know?

Oh, have I forgotten to mention that this game features Sixaxis controls? Well, you'll forget too. Although moving the controller to wave your wand and beat up Draco Malfoy is a neat idea, the notion never matches the accuracy and natural fit of casting charms with the right joystick. When I played with motion -- a device that can be turned on or off at the options screen -- I felt like I was just waving my hands around willy-nilly and Harry Potter don't play that way. Never pulling a player out of the videogame experience is something this game strives and suffers for. Six-hundred bucks is a lot of money, and you probably expect pumped-up visuals for that price tag. Although there's no denying that the in-game action in the Order of the Phoenix looks great -- detailed vistas surround the school's stone bridges and the institution's insides look great -- but the cutscenes don't pass muster. Rather than create new models for the cutscenes, it looks like EA used the same ones from in-game action.

It makes sense -- rather than pull you out of the experience by suddenly changing models, stick with the same images the players have been seeing -- but the implementation suffers. Although the characters look fine running across the screen and interacting with one another, they look downright pale-faced and creepy in the cutscenes. I was happy enough with the overall experience to look past it, but anyone who glanced at my TV while passing by my desk began shouting about zombie children with jagged teeth.

©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved