Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix

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Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix

...

the particular player would have based upon which three cards the player chose to use at a particular time. While the first three games had players wandering about Hogwarts (and sometimes other locations), the fourth game was more restrictive in that a player could not just wander anywhere.

What, then distinguishes the fifth game ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") from its predecessors? First, it is the first Harry Potter game available for next-gen video consoles. Second, more than any previous game, the rendition of Hogwarts Castle is the most accurate to any of the films and permits a player to go anywhere within its walls. Third, no beans or collector cards: but not to worry: there are plenty of other types of achievements that impact game play. Fourth, programmers went out of there way to ensure that game achievements are very closely related to the film: so (for example) no battling of monsters that are unrelated to the film and/or book, and no unusual tasks for obtaining spells. In the fifth game, spells are learned as needed. Finally, the player cannot choose which character to play as. Though this sounds as though fifth game programmers went backwards, quite the contrary is true: for the first time, a player can play as characters that have never been permitted before: as Dumbledore, Sirius, or even as one of the Weasley twins; albeit, at precise moments during game play to match similar moments in the film and/or book.

As a very task-oriented game, a player will find himself (among other things) seeking out the Room of Requirement, finding secret passages, putting together & training "Dumbledore's Army", coping with Delores Umbridge, carrying out "OWL" tests for specific professors, battling students, playing a myriad of games (chess, gobstones and card games) against other students and cleaning up Hogwarts. Yes, in the fifth Harry Potter video game, you will find yourself making beds, sweeping, mopping, repairing broken objects and turning on lamps & heaters. Why, you may ask? Simple: to earn points & achievements. As you complete various tasks, you not only earn points and achievements, you increase Harry's magical powers. You also get to unlock hidden rewards that include interviews with actors who participated in the film & game, as well as other information about the fifth film. The rewards are made available to you in the "Room of Rewards" and you will be visited by Moaning Myrtle each time you earn another reward. You'll learn something about occlumency from Professor Snape and you might get to help create a bit of havoc around the castle to upset a certain woman in pink.

With superb graphics, fun & engaging tasks, a ton of interaction with lots of characters around Hogwarts (including the paintings), and more, the "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" video game is sure to please any Harry Potter/video game enthusiast. My overall rating for the game is 5 out of 5 stars and I highly recommend it.

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix

...

the particular player would have based upon which three cards the player chose to use at a particular time. While the first three games had players wandering about Hogwarts (and sometimes other locations), the fourth game was more restrictive in that a player could not just wander anywhere.

What, then distinguishes the fifth game ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") from its predecessors? First, it is the first Harry Potter game available for next-gen video consoles. Second, more than any previous game, the rendition of Hogwarts Castle is the most accurate to any of the films and permits a player to go anywhere within its walls. Third, no beans or collector cards: but not to worry: there are plenty of other types of achievements that impact game play. Fourth, programmers went out of there way to ensure that game achievements are very closely related to the film: so (for example) no battling of monsters that are unrelated to the film and/or book, and no unusual tasks for obtaining spells. In the fifth game, spells are learned as needed. Finally, the player cannot choose which character to play as. Though this sounds as though fifth game programmers went backwards, quite the contrary is true: for the first time, a player can play as characters that have never been permitted before: as Dumbledore, Sirius, or even as one of the Weasley twins; albeit, at precise moments during game play to match similar moments in the film and/or book.

As a very task-oriented game, a player will find himself (among other things) seeking out the Room of Requirement, finding secret passages, putting together & training "Dumbledore's Army", coping with Delores Umbridge, carrying out "OWL" tests for specific professors, battling students, playing a myriad of games (chess, gobstones and card games) against other students and cleaning up Hogwarts. Yes, in the fifth Harry Potter video game, you will find yourself making beds, sweeping, mopping, repairing broken objects and turning on lamps & heaters. Why, you may ask? Simple: to earn points & achievements. As you complete various tasks, you not only earn points and achievements, you increase Harry's magical powers. You also get to unlock hidden rewards that include interviews with actors who participated in the film & game, as well as other information about the fifth film. The rewards are made available to you in the "Room of Rewards" and you will be visited by Moaning Myrtle each time you earn another reward. You'll learn something about occlumency from Professor Snape and you might get to help create a bit of havoc around the castle to upset a certain woman in pink.

With superb graphics, fun & engaging tasks, a ton of interaction with lots of characters around Hogwarts (including the paintings), and more, the "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" video game is sure to please any Harry Potter/video game enthusiast. My overall rating for the game is 5 out of 5 stars and I highly recommend it.

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix

...

the particular player would have based upon which three cards the player chose to use at a particular time. While the first three games had players wandering about Hogwarts (and sometimes other locations), the fourth game was more restrictive in that a player could not just wander anywhere.



What, then distinguishes the fifth game ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") from its predecessors? First, it is the first Harry Potter game available for next-gen video consoles. Second, more than any previous game, the rendition of Hogwarts Castle is the most accurate to any of the films and permits a player to go anywhere within its walls. Third, no beans or collector cards: but not to worry: there are plenty of other types of achievements that impact game play. Fourth, programmers went out of there way to ensure that game achievements are very closely related to the film: so (for example) no battling of monsters that are unrelated to the film and/or book, and no unusual tasks for obtaining spells. In the fifth game, spells are learned as needed. Finally, the player cannot choose which character to play as. Though this sounds as though fifth game programmers went backwards, quite the contrary is true: for the first time, a player can play as characters that have never been permitted before: as Dumbledore, Sirius, or even as one of the Weasley twins; albeit, at precise moments during game play to match similar moments in the film and/or book.



As a very task-oriented game, a player will find himself (among other things) seeking out the Room of Requirement, finding secret passages, putting together & training "Dumbledore's Army", coping with Delores Umbridge, carrying out "OWL" tests for specific professors, battling students, playing a myriad of games (chess, gobstones and card games) against other students and cleaning up Hogwarts. Yes, in the fifth Harry Potter video game, you will find yourself making beds, sweeping, mopping, repairing broken objects and turning on lamps & heaters. Why, you may ask? Simple: to earn points & achievements. As you complete various tasks, you not only earn points and achievements, you increase Harry's magical powers. You also get to unlock hidden rewards that include interviews with actors who participated in the film & game, as well as other information about the fifth film. The rewards are made available to you in the "Room of Rewards" and you will be visited by Moaning Myrtle each time you earn another reward. You'll learn something about occlumency from Professor Snape and you might get to help create a bit of havoc around the castle to upset a certain woman in pink.



With superb graphics, fun & engaging tasks, a ton of interaction with lots of characters around Hogwarts (including the paintings), and more, the "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" video game is sure to please any Harry Potter/video game enthusiast. My overall rating for the game is 5 out of 5 stars and I highly recommend it.

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix

...

the particular player would have based upon which three cards the player chose to use at a particular time. While the first three games had players wandering about Hogwarts (and sometimes other locations), the fourth game was more restrictive in that a player could not just wander anywhere.





What, then distinguishes the fifth game ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") from its predecessors? First, it is the first Harry Potter game available for next-gen video consoles. Second, more than any previous game, the rendition of Hogwarts Castle is the most accurate to any of the films and permits a player to go anywhere within its walls. Third, no beans or collector cards: but not to worry: there are plenty of other types of achievements that impact game play. Fourth, programmers went out of there way to ensure that game achievements are very closely related to the film: so (for example) no battling of monsters that are unrelated to the film and/or book, and no unusual tasks for obtaining spells. In the fifth game, spells are learned as needed. Finally, the player cannot choose which character to play as. Though this sounds as though fifth game programmers went backwards, quite the contrary is true: for the first time, a player can play as characters that have never been permitted before: as Dumbledore, Sirius, or even as one of the Weasley twins; albeit, at precise moments during game play to match similar moments in the film and/or book.





As a very task-oriented game, a player will find himself (among other things) seeking out the Room of Requirement, finding secret passages, putting together & training "Dumbledore's Army", coping with Delores Umbridge, carrying out "OWL" tests for specific professors, battling students, playing a myriad of games (chess, gobstones and card games) against other students and cleaning up Hogwarts. Yes, in the fifth Harry Potter video game, you will find yourself making beds, sweeping, mopping, repairing broken objects and turning on lamps & heaters. Why, you may ask? Simple: to earn points & achievements. As you complete various tasks, you not only earn points and achievements, you increase Harry's magical powers. You also get to unlock hidden rewards that include interviews with actors who participated in the film & game, as well as other information about the fifth film. The rewards are made available to you in the "Room of Rewards" and you will be visited by Moaning Myrtle each time you earn another reward. You'll learn something about occlumency from Professor Snape and you might get to help create a bit of havoc around the castle to upset a certain woman in pink.





With superb graphics, fun & engaging tasks, a ton of interaction with lots of characters around Hogwarts (including the paintings), and more, the "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" video game is sure to please any Harry Potter/video game enthusiast. My overall rating for the game is 5 out of 5 stars and I highly recommend it.

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix

...

(points recieved for finding new things, ways to interact with your environment, etc) being the way to level up really keeps in the spirit of the franchise. There's just a huge abundance of "neat" stuff to do in every area, from changing the house flags in the great hall to hunting down hidden plaques and statues, to finding painting passwords (which lead to shortcuts) to playing HP "lore" minigames like Wizards chess, gobstones and Snaps!.

Next up, the story is compelling (which is no surprise considering the source material). This is actually my ONE beef with the game,though I completely understand WHY they do it: The cut scenes give you snippets of the plot, but leave whole swaths of the story untold. If you're an HP fan, you won't really care because you've read the books (and seen the movies), so the "glossing over" is forgivable because you know the story already. If you're not as much of an HP fan, or your exposure to the material is limited (like, you've been living in a cave for the past 8 years or so), you might be a bit "muddled" until you see the next movie or pick up the books. It's not too bad, though...certainly not bad enough to lower my rating below a 4.

In addition, the graphics and sound are just stupendous. The music in the game is licensed HP stuff (including Hedwig's theme) from the movies, and sounds great. Voice acting is left to a LOT of the cast (though, noteably, Daniel does not do Harry and Emma does not do Hermione) from the movies, so sounds authentic. The quality of the sampling on the sound effects and voices is top notch, and the Dolby Digital does a great job of positioning the background noise where it should be in the 5.1 mix. The visuals are similarly well done, with so much detail added into the backgrounds, you'd swear you were at Hogwarts. The character models are well done, the skins look appropriately like the characters they're supposed to.

Control is tight, though there are some slight camera issues that will crop up (mostly when in tight quarters with "scenery" around you). Spellcasting is done with the Right Stick (with specific movements assigned to each spell....like a clockwise circle for "Reparo", the repair spell). Movement is done with the left stick. The buttons control running (A button) and "exploring" (X button to interact).

Ron and Hermione can be a bit tough to deal with when running around, especially in tight corners, because you have to maneuver AROUND them to get by them (rather than just shove them out of the way), but that's more of a nitpick than anything else.

I'd recommend this game to pretty much anyone, but ESPECIALLY HP fans. It's a good game in it's own right, but the ability it affords you to explore Hogwarts is going to be a Potter fan's dream...and about as close as you'll come to getting into the world of HP until Universal opens The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida around 2010.

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix

...

(points recieved for finding new things, ways to interact with your environment, etc) being the way to level up really keeps in the spirit of the franchise. There's just a huge abundance of "neat" stuff to do in every area, from changing the house flags in the great hall to hunting down hidden plaques and statues, to finding painting passwords (which lead to shortcuts) to playing HP "lore" minigames like Wizards chess, gobstones and Snaps!.



Next up, the story is compelling (which is no surprise considering the source material). This is actually my ONE beef with the game,though I completely understand WHY they do it: The cut scenes give you snippets of the plot, but leave whole swaths of the story untold. If you're an HP fan, you won't really care because you've read the books (and seen the movies), so the "glossing over" is forgivable because you know the story already. If you're not as much of an HP fan, or your exposure to the material is limited (like, you've been living in a cave for the past 8 years or so), you might be a bit "muddled" until you see the next movie or pick up the books. It's not too bad, though...certainly not bad enough to lower my rating below a 4.



In addition, the graphics and sound are just stupendous. The music in the game is licensed HP stuff (including Hedwig's theme) from the movies, and sounds great. Voice acting is left to a LOT of the cast (though, noteably, Daniel does not do Harry and Emma does not do Hermione) from the movies, so sounds authentic. The quality of the sampling on the sound effects and voices is top notch, and the Dolby Digital does a great job of positioning the background noise where it should be in the 5.1 mix. The visuals are similarly well done, with so much detail added into the backgrounds, you'd swear you were at Hogwarts. The character models are well done, the skins look appropriately like the characters they're supposed to.



Control is tight, though there are some slight camera issues that will crop up (mostly when in tight quarters with "scenery" around you). Spellcasting is done with the Right Stick (with specific movements assigned to each spell....like a clockwise circle for "Reparo", the repair spell). Movement is done with the left stick. The buttons control running (A button) and "exploring" (X button to interact).



Ron and Hermione can be a bit tough to deal with when running around, especially in tight corners, because you have to maneuver AROUND them to get by them (rather than just shove them out of the way), but that's more of a nitpick than anything else.



I'd recommend this game to pretty much anyone, but ESPECIALLY HP fans. It's a good game in it's own right, but the ability it affords you to explore Hogwarts is going to be a Potter fan's dream...and about as close as you'll come to getting into the world of HP until Universal opens The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida around 2010.

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix

...

(points recieved for finding new things, ways to interact with your environment, etc) being the way to level up really keeps in the spirit of the franchise. There's just a huge abundance of "neat" stuff to do in every area, from changing the house flags in the great hall to hunting down hidden plaques and statues, to finding painting passwords (which lead to shortcuts) to playing HP "lore" minigames like Wizards chess, gobstones and Snaps!.





Next up, the story is compelling (which is no surprise considering the source material). This is actually my ONE beef with the game,though I completely understand WHY they do it: The cut scenes give you snippets of the plot, but leave whole swaths of the story untold. If you're an HP fan, you won't really care because you've read the books (and seen the movies), so the "glossing over" is forgivable because you know the story already. If you're not as much of an HP fan, or your exposure to the material is limited (like, you've been living in a cave for the past 8 years or so), you might be a bit "muddled" until you see the next movie or pick up the books. It's not too bad, though...certainly not bad enough to lower my rating below a 4.





In addition, the graphics and sound are just stupendous. The music in the game is licensed HP stuff (including Hedwig's theme) from the movies, and sounds great. Voice acting is left to a LOT of the cast (though, noteably, Daniel does not do Harry and Emma does not do Hermione) from the movies, so sounds authentic. The quality of the sampling on the sound effects and voices is top notch, and the Dolby Digital does a great job of positioning the background noise where it should be in the 5.1 mix. The visuals are similarly well done, with so much detail added into the backgrounds, you'd swear you were at Hogwarts. The character models are well done, the skins look appropriately like the characters they're supposed to.





Control is tight, though there are some slight camera issues that will crop up (mostly when in tight quarters with "scenery" around you). Spellcasting is done with the Right Stick (with specific movements assigned to each spell....like a clockwise circle for "Reparo", the repair spell). Movement is done with the left stick. The buttons control running (A button) and "exploring" (X button to interact).





Ron and Hermione can be a bit tough to deal with when running around, especially in tight corners, because you have to maneuver AROUND them to get by them (rather than just shove them out of the way), but that's more of a nitpick than anything else.





I'd recommend this game to pretty much anyone, but ESPECIALLY HP fans. It's a good game in it's own right, but the ability it affords you to explore Hogwarts is going to be a Potter fan's dream...and about as close as you'll come to getting into the world of HP until Universal opens The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida around 2010.

Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix

...

once you start learning your Defence against the dark arts magic, you can approach certain characters and challenge them to a duel so to speak, you can recruit lots of people and have them trained into Dumblerdores Army, Which goes into the story line of the Order of the Phoenix, You can attend classes and learn lots of HP universe stuff, you can play HORDES of mini games, from Chess, to Memory Cards etc... The list goes on, Not to mention this type of game is PERFECT for the Xbox 360 Achievments, there is alot to do and achievments to push you to do them.

Graphically the game is quite impressive, there is excellent use of architecture throughout the game, the lighting and character models are top rate, and not to forget Its all in HD (1080p for me), The game has no loads times what so ever and never really has any problems with the framerate ever.

Sound is well produced with the already famous HP themed music, and all the voice acting is done professionally by the actual Movie Actors and Actresses. A very nice touch to the game original Authenticity. Everything is produced in a loud bass pumping Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, so crank it up and enjoy.

The games overall lasting value is quite high if your a Potter fan because you will want to collect and find everything the game has to offer and unlock all the extra content which is load upon loads of movies, story boards, pictures, interviews etc.. Now i see why they didnt' release a Special Edition of the game because they were smart and kind enough to load it all in the game as part of the accomplishments pursued in the game.


I highly recommned the game to anyone that enjoys a solid adventure style of game, as well as a great story telling or fantasy style of story.
Of course if you area Potter fan passing this game up is like passing on reading the last book. So if you have any doubts get it, if you see the movie and then play the game it will make it all that much better. But remember the game does reveal the story so if you don't already know what happens then be fore warned.

Pros:
+Graphics are well suited for a HP game
+The sound is Crisp and Well pronuounced in DD5.1
+Loads of things to do, Huge School to exlore
+Story holds true to the book and the movie
+No Load Times
+Lots of Unlockables
Cons:
-No Multiplayer
-No Xbox Live content to be found?