Game Zone reviews

This game - for which Ms Rowling has taken stick from bookworms - claims to get you as close as you ll get to wandering the halls of Hogwarts, short of enrolling.

As Harry, you ve got to survive your first year at the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry without getting killed, or worse, expelled. You ve got to help Harry win Quidditch, sneak round the halls of the school out-of-hours and solve a series of spell-based puzzles. The aim? To stop dastardly Voldemort from gaining eternal life.

But does the game capture the magic of the book? The slick 3D engine renders the halls of Hogwarts in glorious detail, complete with ageing tomes and crooked corridors. The good guys Harry,, Ron and Hermione and baddies like Peeves,, Malvoy and Voldemort have also been detailed brilliantly, with plenty of animation and dialogue.

Sadly, little imagination has been lavished on the gameplay. Simple-to-beat boss enemies break up the ledge-jumping and basic puzzle-solving. Spells are relegated only to the area where they re meant to be used, so there s little room for invention. And as each section of the game leads seamlessly to the next, there s little scope for exploration either. Ultimately though, ankle-biters will love this.

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