After a rather interesting but flawed Order of the Phoenix game, the boy wizard and his friends return for a second outing on the Nintendo Wii with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Scheduled to hit last year, Electronic Arts decided to delay the game in order to match it with the movie release. Seeing a lot of potential (but unfortunately not that well exploited) in the first motion-controlled Harry Potter game, my expectations were high for this one as only one question would rise up: can this be the definitive Harry Potter Wii Experience?


In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn’t counted on Romilda Vane’s chocolates! And then there’s Hermione, simmering with jealously but determined not to show her feelings. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again. In the game, players return to Hogwarts to help Harry survive a fraught sixth year.

Gameplay

In the game, you control Harry with your Wiimote as he plays Quidditch, explores Hogwarts School, makes potions and duels fellow students and various villains in an attempt to solve the mystery of the Half-Blood Prince. The motion-based controls, which are by far the most important element in a Harry Potter game for the Wii, are well done and easy to pick up. For example you fly around on your broom attempting to catch the Golden Snitch by pointing the Wiimote at the desired direction without actually worried controlling Harry around since the game takes care of it for you. It may be a good thing for starters and newcomers but unfortunately for Quidditch lovers like me who been waiting for a true next-gen version of the game, this semi auto-pilot mode makes the forever fast and dangerous sport uninspired and quite boring after a few minutes.


On the other hand, potion making and dueling are a bit more enticing. Potion making classes let you create a series of magical recipes by following the instructions shown on the screen then mixing it up by tilting and shaking the Wii Remote after picking up the ingredients. Dueling, which is certainly the most of the three activities, offers you the possibility to learn new offensive and defensive spells, dodge incoming fire, deflect spells and use some great attacks such as levitation, stun and other spells. Sadly, since the game will make you spend lots of time into doing these two activities alongside Quidditch, the most interesting parts of the game will get old quickly. It’s hard to think what others activities could have been added to the game but since you can’t go beyond the movie, there’s nothing else that could have been done.

Of course, besides the three main activities, you can roam around Hogwarts with Harry to complete quests and explore the areas for collectables. That part is also motion-controlled but doesn’t feel as intuitive as the rest of the game. Moving Harry around feels stiff as you have to keep re-centering the character by hitting the C button on the Nunchuck. Why didn’t EA Bright Light give me the option to control my character with standard controls by adding a Wiimote horizontal scheme then, when needed, use the Wiimote as the wand?

Lastly we have to talk about the WiiMotionPlus. The game doesn’t support it and I highly doubt Nintendo’s new hardware addition would have helped the game a lot. Maybe for dueling but the rest of the game doesn’t cry for its support. I’ve seen people around the web claiming that the game would have been so much better. I’ll tell you this: not because Nintendo released a new hardware add-on that it would automatically make the game 100% better and this one is no exception.

Graphics & Audio

I would like to remind you that we’re talking about the Wii version so don’t expect to be blown away by the visuals. However, I was surprised to see a notable improvement over Order of the Phoenix. Special effects for the spell casting and the environments either inside or outside of Hogwarts look really nice although most of the character facial animations are a bit behind the rest of the art direction. Characters do look like the actual actors but could have been better modeled.

Audio wise, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a mixed result of great environmental sounds and effects but trips up in the voice acting work by not using the same cast as in the movie. Those who’ve been watching the movies since the beginning will find it really annoying to play the game and not being able to hear Alan Rickman (Prof. Snape), Emma Watson (Hermione), and even Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) dropping a few lines. Don’t get me wrong though, the voiceover work is really good but it does damper the whole Harry Potter audio authenticity.

Value

The game’s plot follows the movie and while you will find yourself roaming around and spend your time on the three aforementioned activities, there’s no way you will ever return to it once it’s done. Actually, while the Wii version offers interesting motion-controlled elements not found on any of the other consoles versions, the game’s linearity becomes boredom since you will be doing the same activities over and over again. Unless you’re a real and huge Potter fan, paying the full price for this game is questionable.


Bottom Line

While the game was delayed for a few months after the movie was delayed, I can say that I was happy to see a noticeable improvement over Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. Still, the lack of variety and depth in terms of the activities offered by the game and the speed in which you could run through it  (around 5 hours) makes Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for the Wii a worth checking-out but not necessarily a must-own game.