Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

                      Reviewed by Sue

I've read the books, listened to the audio tapes and seen the
trailers though not the film. But I couldn't resist buying the
game when I saw it in PC World, despite it being full price.

I'm sure everyone knows Harry Potter. Orphaned and brought up by
his horrible aunt and uncle, he finds out that he is a wizard when
he is invited to join Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Suddenly his life is totally changed. Not only is he a wizard, but
he's famous for being the only person to survive an attack by
Voldemort, more usually called You-Know-Who because you should
never say his name. It was this attack which killed his parents,
Lily and James Potter, not a car accident as he'd been told, and
gave Harry the distinctive lightning shaped scar on his forehead.

The books follow Harry's life at Hogwarts, his friends and his
enemies, and all his adventures. His love of quidditch, a sport
played on broomsticks, also plays a big part. In the book he is
chosen for his house's team. Hogwarts has four houses and Harry is
pleased to be chosen for Gryffindor, together with his closest
friends Ron and Hermione. Luckily he gets on with most of the
other children in the school, but those who don't like him are
in Slytherin house. The philosophy behind Slytherin couldn't
be any more different from Gryffindor - Slytherin is all about
power whereas Gryffindor is an honourable house. But the Sorting
Hat which picked Harry for Gryffindor dithered between that and
Slytherin so maybe Harry has a darker, harder side?

Like the book, the game also follows Harry's life through school,
starting from the moment he arrives and is greeted by the
headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Ron meets him at the top of the main
staircase and introduces him to his twin brothers Fred and George.
They are great schemers and planners and the currency they deal in
is Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.  Harry collects these as he
explores the school and its surroundings during the course of the
game. Every so often, Fred and George will turn up, usually
through a secret passageway (they know all the shortcuts) and ask
Harry for some beans ... for an experiment. If he agrees and hands
them over, they'll give him a bonus of a wizard card.

Wizard cards are also found in other places such as chests.  Harry
can find goodies hidden all over the place, in vases, cauldrons
and secret rooms revealed by rotating statues or opening locked
doors. He doesn't do this by brute strength. As the game
progresses he has to go to Defence Against the Dark Arts classes
where he learns to cast various spells. These include flippendo
which turns or slides objects and lumos which not only casts light
but creates magical light bridges.

The game is an action adventure where puzzles must be solved using
the spells Harry knows. There is also a certain amount of
dexterity involved in jumping, running, flying broomsticks and so
on. This is not usually one of my strong points so it is just as
well that the game is aimed at the younger end of the market
because in general it is fairly forgiving. This doesn't mean that
it's a doddle. The way I play it will be a miracle if Harry
reached adulthood. Come to think of it, it's also amazing that any
child survives life at Hogwarts as there are so many ways in which
he or she can be killed or maimed. Though in the game Harry never
actually dies, he just faints!

There are six game slots but you can only save your game at
certain predetermined points when Harry finds a book. I found this
rather limiting because at some points I could have done with an
extra opportunity to save my progress as I had to keep replaying a
particular section. It's frustrating to be able to see the next
save book, but not be able to reach it because you keep dying.

You can't save an ongoing game in a different slot than the one
it's currently saved in either, unless I've missed something.
What you can do is overwrite the current save game with a new game
which is VERY annoying if you do it accidentally, as I did once. I
found this frustrating because it would have been nice to
occasionally go back to a previous save, if you'd played badly so
that Harry is low on health, for example. You can't do this and I
didn't like it!

You're eased into the game in the first section where Fred and
George Weasley teach you how to climb and jump. There's even an
autojump option which makes the whole task easier. At the first
section you're told your aim and how many cards and secret areas
there are to find. It's all very user-friendly.

I have enjoyed the game very much. It vaguely follows the first
book and I'm currently at the end game. I think I have missed
several secret areas because I haven't collected many wizard
cards. The cards you've collected can be viewed in a kind of album
but the only way you can collect the final, secret one is to
collect the other 24, amass 250 Bertie Bott's beans and defeat
You-Know-Who. I've only got 12 so a replay might be necessary 
if I want to see what's on the card and feel I've TRULY
finished the game!

I'm not looking forward to replaying a few bits. One is a
broomstick chase that you have with Malfoy through a cavernous,
mountainous landscape. But until I played my first quidditch
match, I didn't know the meaning of the word 'difficult'.
Broomstick practice is okay. You 'only' have to fly through a
series of smoky circles in various colours, of ever smaller sizes
and at different heights. In quidditch the snitch leaves a trail
like this which you have to follow at quite high speed and
twisting in different directions like a Star Trek wormhole. As you
follow it, a bar fills up the closer you get and the longer you
stay close to it.  Only when the bar is full can you grab it using
the CTRL key or right mouse button. But while you're trying to do
this, you're contending with other players and also avoiding the
bludgers, vicious balls which home in on you and try to knock you
off your broomstick.

Though the earlier parts of the game centre round exploration and
solving puzzles using spells, the later stages were more oriented
towards arcade sequences - quidditch, catching the flying key and
so on. I would have preferred fewer of these though I did manage
to solve them eventually.

The graphics are great and all the characters from the film are
included and recognisable, facially and by voice, such as John
Cleese as Nearly Headless Nick and Zoe Wannamaker as Madame Hooch.
I found it rather disturbing, though, that none of the characters'
mouths move as they talk. I also noticed a few occasions where
Harry has got stuck in the scenery or edges of some objects have
gone blocky.

If I had to have one major moan about the game, it would be that I
had problems getting it running. The first time it was ok, but
subsequent times it would crash with an error. Sometimes
reinstalling helped, but I was getting very frustrated. I checked
out the EA site to see what they said and though I couldn't find
my exact problem, I did find a file which helped a bit and I've
included it this issue. But the final solution for me was to run
the 3D setup each time before running the game. This was a pain
but it was worth it to play the game. I also made sure my drivers
were up to date.

Great fun and highly recommended. But those who are more adept at
action oriented game might find it too easy.
                              - o -