LEGO Harry Potter, the first several years seem to go by so fast.
Man I’ve had this game on the backburner for a long while. I know I got it as part of a big bundle regarding LEGO games, and a lot of those games have been a riot and a half, but I think when I tried this way back when, it hit me there wasn’t any voice acting and I kind of left it as is.
But I’ve decided to play the game in full and here we are.
Also, this review encompasses the entire years of LEGO Harry Potter, since it’s all basically the same. I didn’t see any sense in creating the same review twice with maybe some changes here and there.
- Developed by TT Games
- Published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
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Is there a supporter’s playthrough of this game?
There is no supporter’s playthrough of LEGO Harry Potter, but if you’re looking for a supporter’s section, our no-censored NSFW videos are available over on our Podia courses.
Who is this game for?
Explanation to Negative Feedback
Combat is just…no
If there was anything LEGO Harry Potter was not prepared for, it was battle. Our boy wonder is much better suited to learning the spells and not actually using them against people or anything else hazardous to our health.
This is mainly because when we cast a spell, the wand’s attack will sometimes veer off and hit something else entirely.
A counter to this is to manually target, but that takes too much time anyway.
As a result, we’ll die from time to time. Which isn’t a game over–it just means we’ll be losing a bunch of studs that you might or might not have worked hard to get and can get annoying after a while.
Luckily during certain attacks–such as spinning enemies with our Wingardium Leviosa–we’re protected by iframes and don’t take damage during this time. But that’s kind of few and far between.
Confusing fights
Maybe it’s just me, but there were some fights that you were forced to take part in that just…confused the crap out of me. I can’t even remember the fight at this point, but it was in the Years 1-4 game with tentacles coming out of sewer holes or something? I remember there being a fish puzzle.
Bah! Like I said, I can’t recall, but I’m sure it was near the basilisk’s location.
LEGO block building is clunky
When I first started building the LEGO blocks on a platform so I could do my climbing thing, I thought it’d be fun to make them, because, hey, childhood days.
Oh, no.
This system is so clunky.
Half the time those blocks do not want to fall where you want to place them, even when you place them extra carefully where they need to be. They tilt and fall and don’t click into place like they should. And then when they do, you grab the next piece, and it messes everything up!
Sometimes the building blocks work, but other times, they’re just a pain.
No voice-acting
Probably one of the biggest let-downs of playing this game (especially since I’d already played LEGO Ninjago and LEGO Jurassic Park, which both had either voice acting, or lines clipped from the movies). Instead of saying anything, the characters just kind of grumble and mutter nonsensical things within the cutscenes.
Object interactions are bothersome
An annoying aspect of the game is interacting with certain objects to jump into them–such as the Womping Willow.
Let’s say you have to jump in a barrel. That same button also switches you to another character. So if the game doesn’t let you interact with the object, instead, you’ll switch to another character.
Really annoying.
Explanation to Positive Feedback
Play as the characters you love
Or hate, depending.
The soundtrack you love
Or at least I would hope that you have some kind of affection in listening to it, because you’re definitely going to be hearing it.
You might be in a school, but there’s no Schoolhouse Rock around here.
Links Worth Checking Out
- I’ve got nothin’
Gameplay
Achievements
No achievements for you
Plot
Build the adventure from Privet Drive to the Triwizard Tournament and experience the magic of the first four Harry Potter stories – LEGO style! Explore Hogwarts™ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learn spells, brew potions and relive the adventures like never before with tongue-in-cheek humor and creative customization that is unique to LEGO videogames!
Game Length
I suppose you could hit the 10+ hour mark if you’re trying to get everything you can out of it.
Replay Value
Really not much if you’re an achievement junkie, but otherwise you can come back to it
Genre(s)
You’ll be battling some creatures as well as people during playthroughs of LEGO Harry Potter, so that’s where your action comes into play. As far as adventure–well, you’re a wizard, Harry! Now go bring down Voldemort!
It’s certainly not centered around puzzles, but there are some puzzle areas where you gotta think how to place things and where. Nothing too huge with a lot of brain-power needed.
LEGO Harry Potter Review
I’m not saying this game is bad with all those cons, but it’s also not very good. I’m sure there were even more cons that I missed out on that other people could point out–specifically a whole lot of bugs–but this game is pretty old, and by saying that, I mean outdated. You can especially see that if you play a lot of the newer LEGO games that don’t feature voice-overs from movies, but rather have their own voice actors for the characters.
But because this is Harry Potter, it’s definitely a family-friendly game; it has its humor, and pretty simplistic gameplay.
Some of the gameplay can be a bit obnoxious and hard to figure out for some, as LEGO pieces don’t construct properly where they should, or your spells could go in a different direction than what you want to hit, forcing you to manually choose something for the spell to hit.
The cutscenes are fun.
I don’t know, it’s hard for me to put it in a good light, despite my enjoyment of the series–specifically the movies as I never read all the books–due to their being so many problems overshadowing the good.
But if you don’t mind bugs that have a possibility of breaking the game, no voiceovers, and some clunky mechanics, this is indeed a good game to get into.
