Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Review - PC

The gang at X-Play has suddenly discovered it’s attending the same school of witchcraft and wizardry as the famous (and very profitable) Harry Potter. Fancy that! In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, you’ll guide Harry and his friends through magic classes, extracurricular activities, and harrowing situations involving creepy creatures known as Dementors. It doesn’t quite deliver all the excitement of the movie, but it does deliver all the excitement of an unremarkable but enjoyable adventure game.

Potter, Party of Three

In Prisoner of Azkaban, you’ll slip into the robe of not only the esteemed Harry Potter, but his friends and classmates Ron and Hermione. The three young students of the arcane arts all have different abilities and a few exclusive spells, which, properly used, will let you overcome the various obstacles that stand between you and completing your third year at Hogwart’s alive. You’ll also get a bit of help from the white owl Hedwig, provided you have a tasty owl treat to feed him.

The game begins at the start of the school term, and your goals are broken up into days. Most days involve your attending a class of some sort, such as defense against the dark arts or transfiguration, but you’ll also find yourself rubbing up against your rivals (Draco and his pals) and helping friends out of a jam. Most of your time will be spent on campus, so to speak, although activities like hippogriff riding that take you outside the castle walls.

While loitering about the commons room or looking for your next class in the grand staircase, you’ll get a few clues to let you know you’re in a magical place, what with books routinely springing to life and objects randomly wobbling about. The school has a fairly handsome look to it, but one that’s well short of breathtaking. Given the richness of the atmosphere in the movie and books, the game really could have used a few more whimsical touches. The halls are a respectable size, but it’s laid out in a fairly standard way with not-so-secret secret passages and a lot of waiting as you travel from section to section.

Trials on Trial

The Prisoner of Azkaban tends to fall on the lower end of the difficulty curve, and dungeons and such will test you with a lot of puzzles that require you to use your different abilities. Ron is adept at spotting secrets and opening hidden doors, Hermione can squeeze herself into tight places, and Harry can make daring leaps and has the gym-class ability to climb ropes. Switching between the three does help make the game a bit more interesting. Fans of the supporting cast will appreciate a bit of interactive screen time with their favorite characters, but having three characters fails to translate into inventive puzzles. If you’ve ever finished a Zelda title, you’ll be in very familiar and much less demanding territory. If you do get stuck, your friends will chime in with helpful suggestions. Don’t worry, it doesn’t feel like cheating. That’s what friends are for, right?

Outside the structure of the story, you’re free to explore the academy. Unfortunately, this basically boils down to waiting for the next area to load, opening treasure chests, and searching bookshelves for Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. You can listen to what the other students and your professors have to say, and as a general rule, you should be ready to run into a lot of foul smelling green clouds of various origins. You’ve been warned.

Class Notes

There are a few other things to report about our experience at Hogwart’s. Firstly, while everyone doesn’t look and sound exactly the way they do in the movie, they still manage to be very convincing. Secondly, while it’s fun to learn new spells and discover their effects on various creatures, they could be a bit more fun to cast. Casting glacius is as simple as holding down a button, and the effects are definitely grade-school level. As far as extracurricular activities go, the minigames are nothing more than mere diversions from the main game. Owl racing and hippogriff riding are rather droll and terribly taxing on one’s thumbs. Dueling club is just a bit too unstructured for our tastes, and the Eye Toy games in the PlayStation 2 version are nice, but not nice enough to sway our opinion.

Final Exam

This interactive version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a way for fans to enjoy hanging out with their favorite characters, casting a few spells, and being able to virtually attend the school of many a fanciful dream. In this respect, the game does a passable job. Those without pixies and muggles dancing in their heads beforehand are going to find the game a lot less enchanting, but fans of the Potter series will want to consider a brief stay in a reasonable facsimile of the hallowed halls of Hogwart’s.