Harry Potter and Order of Phoenix Demo Impressions

[SwaroG]

So, I downloaded the above-named demo. My sister owns all Harry Potter games and I just had to download the next one.

First of all, its a timed demo. That's right, you can only play for like 5 - 7 minutes.

NOTE TO EA. IF I SPEND 10 MINUTES DOWNLOADING A DEMO, I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO PLAY IT TILL I QUIT, NOT TILL YOU MAKE ME.

Moving on. Graphics and music are gorgeous and amazing.

Now for bad....Unlike all previous Harry Potter games where Harry Potter automatically chose which spells to cast depending on situation, in this game, you actually have to press combinations of buttons in order to cast a spell.

Ok, so imagine this, you are assaulted by some damn pixies, and you have to press UP UP DOWN RIGHT UP DOWN to cast a spell. And heaven forbid you screw up. Yes, on a PC.

OR, someone in EA had a great idea of using a mouse to cast spells. So, you can either assault the keyboard tapping out spell combos.... or you can wield your mouse to perform ridiculous moves in order to cast the spells. Either way you choose to do it, it SUCKS. Its complicated, unnecessarily and its effing hard to try to do what you want it to do. I'm sure it works great on Wii with gesture-based spells, but on PC... it sucks....

Thank you EA, for limiting the demo to 5 minutes. If I struggled with controls for longer, I'd have to kill somebody.

[Adew]

If players can cast the spells by moving the mouse as in Balck&White, That's kind a cool.

But i'm not HP fans so may be i will pass this game.

[Nyghtfall]

I wouldn't mind trying it out, once I download a copy that isn't corrupted.

:mad:

:: checks FP download manager, and notes that I'm #10 of 30 again, on a public server for a site that I'm supposed to have a year-long premium membership to ::

And still no reply to that f'ing email I sent to FP customer support four days ago.

:: checks ticket status and notes that it's still in the support queue ::

:mad: :mad:

[SwaroG]

If players can cast the spells by moving the mouse as in Balck&White, That's kind a cool.

But i'm not HP fans so may be i will pass this game.

It SOUNDS good... on practice, it sucks. You have to mouse it up and remember exact patterns for each spell... as well as remember which spell does what... annoying as hell.

[Rob]

Not only that, but the Harry Potter games are meant for kids. I haven't played the other HP games, but doing the key combination mentioned above would seem a bit out of my league.

We need more of these impression/review threads.

[Nyghtfall]

Well, FP's a bust. Two downloads, both corrupted. Trying again, with a free account I just set up at http://www.fileshack.com and a capped 500kb/sec download limit. Had to wait just one minute for download to begin.

[SwaroG]

Yah, its way too complicated for kids. I don't have the patience to remember the combo's for all the spells. My sister, 17, was confused as hell and she gave up on the game. And there's a lot of them spells for every situation. Granted, you can always hit ESC and look them combo's up, but that's just stupid and way too awkward.

Plus, they want you to use keyboard WASD for moving, SHIFT for running while moving ... AAAAND! use the UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT keys to cast spells.... most awful control scheme ever... The simplest spell for pushing objects is UP LEFT RIGHT UP or smth like that... Its just ******.

I'd understand if they had a pull-down menu in which you select which spell to cast with left mouse button, like in any first/3rd person shooter. But noo, they had to take away all the fun in HP games by making casting spells near impossible...

Or, they just ported a Wii version and forgot that PC doesn't have a wii-mote, so they just gobbled up some wacky, awkward control scheme and shipped the game out.

[Nyghtfall]

Finally got the demo installed, and was just booted out after 10 minutes (timed demos, really bad idea there, EA).

O... M... F... G... that is the single worst control scheme I have ever encountered in 25 years of gaming.

You have zero control over the camera, and mouse-look is non-existant. There were highly frequent moments when I wanted to face forward, looking over Harry's shoulder from behind, and the camera wouldn't budge. Even when I tried turning Harry around, he'd pivot but the camera remained fixed on the direction the game wanted it facing. You're supposed to right-click to switch targets, but the game was unresponsive. Targets were highlighted depending on which one he was most directly facing. And it doesn't matter which direction you want to face, Harry seems to have a mind of his own in. Once you've got him walking in one direction, he will inexplicably turn. Simply put, the developers want fans to feel like they're living the movie, so the camera does want it wants. All you do is act as a guide, pressing the appropriate keys to move Harry along to the next pre-determined path and scripted scene. Upon entering a room, the camera automatically pans to the most cinematic viewpoint to capture the room in all its splender, and stays there. And forget about zooming in and out of whichever character you're controlling.

And the wand-work... yeah.. right... good luck getting used to that. The mouse does nothing but control the motion of Harry's right arm (all... the time...) - the arm he carries his wand in. That's what I mean by their not being any mouselook. Left click and move the mouse in the appropriate combination of up-down-left-right to activate any one of his arsenal of spells - provided you can remember them all - and Harry will shout out the spell while casting it. Unfortunately, even getting the movements down is an exercise in frustration. The first spell you learn is levitation. More often than not, when I tried levitating something, I accidentally fired upon it instead.

The graphics are top-notch, save for the character models, which are nothing more than expressionless, 3D cut-outs of the characters from the movies. Dialogue is spoken, but no one's mouths move. The demo doesn't allow any resolution higher than 1280x960, either. That's a huge no-no in my book, as I don't play anything in less than 1600x1200 anymore.

I understand this is a kids title, but I wouldn't even buy it for mine if I *had* any.

[Adew]

Seem like "Another so so game from the movie" :sleep:

[Joe Cool]

I'm a big fan of both the books and the films. That said I have never played any of the games, as Rob said their for kids. Even still its a pity that developers are putting out this ****, it seems to cheaping the HP world, just my two.

[gorilla325]

nyghtfall...that's one of the funniest thing i ever read..."his right arm moves...all the time..." rofl!!!

no camera control, no games. i will just wait for the new book...and wish good luck to Wii owners. hope they really get a great experience out of it. i thought you could walking around the school freely...

[Cotterik]

this game looks friggin awesome. a real representation of the hogwarts world. graphics are great and puzzles are cool. cant wait to buy it for my sister so i can play it :p

[Kane]

The graphics are top-notch, save for the character models, which are nothing more than expressionless, 3D cut-outs of the characters from the movies. Dialogue is spoken, but no one's mouths move. The demo doesn't allow any resolution higher than 1280x960, either. That's a huge no-no in my book, as I don't play anything in less than 1600x1200 anymore.

I understand this is a kids title, but I wouldn't even buy it for mine if I *had* any.


It's 2007 and they still have talking heads....WITH NO LIP MOVEMENT?! :mad:
Frankly it's better to off to play it on the Wii version. The controls are much easier to perform.

[SwaroG]

this game looks friggin awesome. a real representation of the hogwarts world. graphics are great and puzzles are cool. cant wait to buy it for my sister so i can play it :p

For your sister's sake, I hope you're getting it for Wii. Seriously, for this game, its Wii or nothing.

[gorilla325]

yeah, i saw the PS3 version and 360 version, they both have some awkwardness in them... Wii's trailer showed the most promise.

[yummyzebra]

It really annoys me when developers create a game for one specific platform and then port it to other platforms sort of as an afterthought.

My view is either do it right and develop it with several platforms in mind or not bother porting it.

Metal Gear Solid 2 on pc, what a disaster! The Esc key ends the game instead of bringing up a menu as youd hope, the controls are even laid out on the keyboard in a layout youd expect on the playstation!! I bought the game, got half way through a level and quit on it!

[Cotterik]

well i tried the demo with the 360 controller and it works fine, all except a little awkwardness in using the wand. (having to move the directional pad around alot to wave your wand) i can under stand how this will work amazingly with the Wii.