Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | EA UK |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Released |  June 25, 2007 June 28, 2007 June 29, 2007 |
| Genre | Third-person action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Ratings | ESRB: Everyone 10+ PEGI: 7+ |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii, Game Boy Advance, Mac OS X |
| System requirements | PC Requirements:
|
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a computer and video game that is based on the fifth instalment of the popular Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling and the film adaptation, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS, Wii,[2] Game Boy Advance and Mac OS X.[3] It was released on June 25th in the U.S., June 28th in Australia and June 29th in the UK and Europe for PlayStation 3, PSP, PlayStation 2, Windows and the 3rd of July for most other platforms.[4]
The theme of the game is to explore Hogwarts and follow the story from the book and movie. EA encouraged fan participation in the development of this game, and worked with a fan council. However, unlike prior games like the action-oriented Goblet of Fire, this time the adventure is in the style of a sandbox game. Similar to the Grand Theft Auto series and Bully, in that Hogwarts is fully explorable most of the time, and there are "discovery points" that provide rewards to the player, which can be activated by completing side missions. Furthermore, there are battles between groups of students, as shown in the game trailer.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
- For a complete synopsis see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Harry Potter Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger return to Hogwarts and discover that much of the wizard community is in denial about Harry's encounter with Lord Voldemort.
At various times during the game, Dumbledore, Fred and George Weasley, and Sirius Black become temporarily playable characters.
[edit] Features
Eighty-five locations have been included in Hogwarts (combining the movie blueprints, J. K. Rowling's drawings and books together to have a better Hogwarts experience), and other important locations such as the Ministry of Magic, Grimmauld Place and Little Whinging have been included.
Hogwarts is completely explorable. The rooms have more secrets than ever and most of them are less obvious than in previous games.
As well as the main missions, and as part of the new sandbox style of playing, players can explore Hogwarts and interact with objects, using magical spells to earn Discovery points.
You can duel Slytherins in the Entrance Courtyard, Paved Courtyard, and specific floor corridors. You can also duel throughout the story. Most of them you play as Harry. Nevertheless, near the end, you will play as Sirius Black with Harry to fight Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange. The final duel you play as Albus Dumbledore to face Voldemort. You also play as Fred and George Weasley to escape them from Umbridge's regime.
Earning Discovery points increases the power of the owned spells, and earns player bonuses, such as behind-the-scenes videos and trophies, which can be viewed in the Room of Rewards. Items in the room such as trophies can also be unlocked by taking part in the various mini games, such as Exploding Snap, Wizard chess and Gobstones.
Their respective actors and actresses voice twenty-two of the characters.
There are various missions to complete which follow the storyline of the film, such as the recruiting Dumbledore's Army members, or creating havoc when Umbridge is made Headmistress.
Occlumency is also introduced as a feature of the game.
[edit] Missing features
EA said they could not include everything, in particular:
- The taking of OWL examinations directly; although player will earn OWL grades by lessons - top marks will unlock new rewards.
- Quidditch and Flying, apart from the section of the game with Fred and George.
- Changing characters to Ron and Hermione, but the characters Albus Dumbledore, Fred and George Weasley, and Sirius Black are playable as the game progresses.
- A few areas are inaccessible, especially with there not being an option to debug; The Whomping Willow is on the Marauder's Map but can't be located, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw common rooms are nonexistent, Slytherin common room stops abruptly at the bottom of a staircase, Divination class, Gryffindor Girl's dormitory, the Quidditch Pitch, and Stadium are inaccessible and Hagrid's Hut cannot be entered, Dumbledore's office is shown in a cut scene, but not present. There are also several locked doors on the Grand Staircase leading to unknown parts of the castle.
- You cannot get in the Chamber of Secrets but you can get to the entrance
- Snape's worst memory was not featured in this, so Snape threw Harry out of Occlumency in this game for no reason.
- The series of rooms where the Philosopher's (or Sorcerer's) Stone was held cannot be found, even though you can access the third floor corridor.
[edit] Spells used in the game
While in most platforms the spells are performed by only using the directional and game pad buttons, the PlayStation 3 and Wii also make use of the special features of the SIXAXIS and the Wii Remote respectively.
[edit] Non-combat spells
- Reparo, a repairing spell.
- Wingardium Leviosa, used to lift objects.
- Depulso, used to push away objects.
- Accio, used to summon objects.
- Reducto, used to destroy objects.(The Reducto spell can not be used in mission gameplay.)
- Incendio, used to burn objects.[5]
[edit] Combat/duelling spells
- Expelliarmus, used to disarm an opponent. (It deals great damage but if opponent is kneeling, use this spell to finish off your opponent.)
- Stupefy, a slow, powerful stunning spell.
- Protego, used to deflect spells coming.
- Rictusempra, another stunning spell that is faster than Stupefy but weaker (in the books, Rictusempra is a tickling spell).
- Petrificus Totalus, paralyses the opponent. This spell proves to be a strong spell because if opponent is alone and gets hit by this spell, the duel is automatically over. The same thing could happen to you. (Though it only deals great damage against Voldemort)
- Levicorpus, used to hang the opponent upside-down. However, in the books, this spell did not appear until Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. (This is yet another spell that only damages Voldemort)
Expecto Patronum is used in the beginning against the Dementors, and again in a Dumbledore's Army (D.A.) meeting, but it is never used again.
[edit] Casting spells
The casting of spells is taught by various other characters to Harry, who practises them first, then is able to use them. In the PC version of the game, different movements of the mouse while pressing either the left or right mouse button allows Harry to cast spells.
[edit] Spell strength
During the game, you will earn discovery points by discovering various secrets in the game - when you collect a certain number of discovery points, your spells will become more powerful (ranging from level 1 to 13). As you rise in discovery levels, the following traits are going to affect your spells:
- Strength - Reparo repairs objects faster, Accio/Depulso summons/pushes objects at a greater range, combat spells do more damage etc.
- Range - Combat spells will fade out and fall to the ground at lower levels, increasing the level increases their range - eventually leading to infinite range.
- Behaviour - Stupefy, Rictusempra and Petrificus Totalus gain more spells cast in one casting; some start moving from a straight line to a random track to improve chances of hitting the opponent.
Dumbledore and Voldemort (playable in a mission) have a special level, which is not achievable by Harry. Stupefy and Rictusempra cast two more individual spells than Harry, Petrificus Totalus moves in a pattern like Rictusempra, Levicorpus waddles around, while Expelliarmus achieves a very large amount of damage.
[edit] Soundtrack
The game's soundtrack was composed by James Hannigan and conducted by Allan Wilson. Hannigan wrote themes for the various characters and incorporated "Hedwig's Theme" by John Williams into the score. IGN has given the game's music a rating of 9.5 out of 10. One or two tracks present in the Order of the Phoenix videogame were also featured in The Chamber of Secrets video game(PC version). The soundtrack is available via iTunes, Amazon.com and other digital outlets.
[edit] Character voiceover
This is the first Harry Potter game to feature cast members from the film providing the voices of their characters.
- Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley
- Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom
- Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley
- Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood
- Katie Leung as Cho Chang
- Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort
- Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks
- James Phelps as Fred Weasley
- Oliver Phelps as George Weasley
- Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy
- Alfred Enoch as Dean Thomas
- Afshan Azad as Padma Patil
- Shefali Chowdhury as Parvati Patil
- Warwick Davis as Filius Flitwick
- Louis Doyle as Ernie Macmillan (Not in the fifth film)
- Josh Herdman as Gregory Goyle
- Harry Melling as Dudley Dursley
- Tiana Benjamin as Angelina Johnson (Not in the fifth film)
- Hugh Mitchell as Colin Creevey (Not in the fifth film)
- Nick Shirm as Zacharias Smith
- Charlotte Skeoch as Hannah Abbott (Not in the fifth film)
- Jamie Waylett as Vincent Crabbe
- Luke Youngblood as Lee Jordan (Not in the fifth film)
Oddly, Daniel Radcliffe does not provide the voice for Harry Potter.
[edit] Reception
The game itself has been received with mixed opinions - although this is common with tie-ins. Most critics seem to prefer the Wii version due to the wand-like Wii Remote controls.
- ONM (Wii): 82%
- GameTrailers.com (PS3): 8.0
- 1UP.com (Wii): 8.0
- X-Play (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360): 4 out of 5
- IGN (Wii): 7.8
- IGN (Xbox 360): 7.6
- IGN (PS3): 7.6
- IGN (PC): 7.3
- IGN (PS2): 7.0
- IGN (DS): 6.0
- Gamestyle (Wii) 6.0
- PSM3 (PS2): 56%
- PSM3 (PS3): 55%
- GameSpot (All versions): 5.0
- Gamestyle (Xbox 360) 4.0
- The Wiire (Wii): C+. The Wiire also awarded the game with the Family Friendly and Ease of Use awards.
- Game Revolution: C-
[edit] PC version issues
Perhaps because the PC game is ported from a console-based game, the controls are more suited to use of a handheld controller. The PC version game has shipped with a number of issues, which have to this date not been addressed with a patch from Electronic Arts.
Mainstream manufacturers relate one issue to the use of a handheld controller whereby the game refuses to acknowledge the presence of a gaming controller even when using commonly obtainable units. A number of workarounds have been put forward in forums but no official soloution has been put forward by EA. On the other hand, an acknowledgeable portion of players prefer keyboards and mouses for controls.
The second issue is related to the game launch whereby the screen in black and music is played and the graphics refuse to appear on the screen. EA offers advice on its website for this issue (though not specifically for the Harry Potter game).
Another issue related to screen resolutions is that the game determines what resolution it will run at rather than using the settings of the operating system.
[edit] References
- ^ "The Apple Store (U.S.) - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by Electronic Arts" - http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=6C04E099&nplm=TN641LL/A - Retrieved on 8/25/2007
- ^ "EA : Harry Potter : Order of the Phoenix" - http://www.ea.com/harrypotterandtheorderofthephoenix/features.jsp?platform=ps2 - Retrieved on 7/4/2007
- ^ "EA : Harry Potter : Order of the Phoenix" - http://www.ea.com/article.jsp?id=mac - Retrieved on 7/4/07
- ^ Release DateTemplate error: argument title is required.
- ^ Elliot, Harvey (June 5, 2007). [1]. Gamespot. Retrieved on (June 21, 2007).
[edit] External links
- Official Electronic Arts website
- Yahoo! Harry Potter website including exclusive screenshots of the game
