Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

THE BAD:
~The gameplay doesn't allow for wandering around, as in past games.
~The cutscenes aren't interesting to watch.
~The camera angle is often awkward.

SUMMARY:
Well, here we are again, with another Harry Potter game, which is, of course, part of the larger Harry Potter enterprise. What makes this game different from the others? Well, in my opinion, it's about the worst one yet. I admit that this is the first game I reviewed that I just could not finish. Why, you may ask? Well, let's discuss this.

Basically, all you have to do in this game is run around and defeat monsters. Also, you're on the lookout for 'Triwizard Shields', which are used to get you to the Triwizard challenges (if you've read the book or seen the movies, you know what those are). Of course, these add another degree of frustration, as you cannot go on in the game until you've collected a certain amount. On my game, I must have gone through the levels three of four times each, and still hadn't found enough shields. It's disheartening to know you're stuck in the game, and that even the genius Hermione Granger can't help you out any.

The spell system retains all of the old favorites, but adds a few new ones that are seen in the book (and some that aren't). However, these spells all seem to work the same, that is to say, they're all jets of light shot out of the wand at objects or monsters. There's no variation, and often, objects will respond the same way to several spells.

Now for the positives. The graphics are better and more detailed than before. It was a pleasure to see that the walls looked more like walls, and the gates looked more like gates. In past games, the walls and gates looked the same, which is to say like surfaces in a game development program. Also, the ability to switch the player you play as is a welcome feature.

Now, the negatives. Unfortunately, the ability to roam around that was present in past games is missing here. Now, you must choose the 'level', and can only roam around in whatever space you're in. This limits the developers' chance to show how much they can do to reconstruct the world of Harry Potter. Also, the way the game plays positively butchers the storyline we all know.

Another bad point is that the cutscenes seem to consist only on zooming into people and flying around. No one's mouth even moves! It's like watching paper dolls of the characters interact with each other. And that's just sad. With all the technology available to us today, this is the best we can come up with? Come on, man.

The camera angle used to be directly behind the active character, but in this game, it seems to hang in the air, looking down at the action. This angle seems awkward at times, and makes it hard to see what's coming. Throughout the game, you'll be running around in circles, trying to see what's ahead that you need to look out for. With any luck, you won't run right into a monster.

So, in conclusion, should you but this game? Maybe you should write this on your hand, and look at it whenever you need to think about it: "This game will anger fans of the series, and confuse non-fans. IT IS NOT WORTH IT." Not worth the $30, and not even worth a rent. You can pass over this game and head right on to the fifth game, which is MUCH better. And that, folks, is the name of the game. Now, can we forget that this game ever happened?