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By Keith B (25th Jul 2007)

Certain things are simply not surprising. Dogs like bones, nice cars are expensive, and big-name, youth-targeted movie releases are accompanied by a spate of marketing add-ons and tie-ins: figurines, clothing and, more often than not as of late, video games. What is surprising, though, is when one of those games is actually good. Such is the case with the latest marketer’s cash grab, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

This isn’t a total surprise, though. All of the previous Harry Potter games so far have proven unexpectedly enjoyable. Maybe not great, but better than the tedious slew of half-thought-through, bumbling-idiot diversions (see, for instance, the Pirates of the Caribbean series--better yet, don’t). And though Order of the Phoenix follows closely in the footsteps of everyone’s favourite boy wizard’s previous releases, it has the added advantage of a carefully considered Wii port: Harry likes his wand; so does Wii.

The game, much like the movies, requires a bit of back-story. Not-so-young Harry (who is ageing much too quickly, and maybe in far too ugly a manner) is in his fifth year at Hogwarts. One assumes A-levels aren’t far away. Well, some seem to have this crazy idea that Voldemort is dead, while others, Harry included, know otherwise. Unfortunately, though, not everyone is so easily convinced. The alliteratively named Ministry of Magic, in a gesture of abstruse bureaucracy, has issued its fiat: Voldemort is dead, and boy Potter is a liar (oh, the ignoble fate of orphans).So the ministry calls in the indicatively named Ms. Umbridge, the epitome of stodgy British pedantry, who has the sole job of crushing student dissent. Her methods are twofold: first by quashing Harry and his chaps and second by prohibiting the use of defensive spells--a product of her new position as head of the equally alliteratively named Defense Against the Dark Arts, known more colloquially as Sex-Ed. So Harry and his mates secretly organize Dumbledore’s Army, a ragtag bunch hell-bent on stopping Voldemort for good.

All of this translates well into a game, not least because Electronic Arts UK, the game’s developer and co-publisher, has put a tremendous amount of energy into converting the movie world of Harry and co. into an exceptionally interactive game world. Hogwarts, for instance, is more of an endless maze than a go-here, do-that school-cum-playzone. Players can roam the halls, the classrooms, and the school grounds, hunting for passageways, secret entrances, and locked doors, while interrogating passerby students, teachers, ghosts, and animated portraits. All of a sudden, Hogwarts is less of an abstraction and more of a living, breathing entity. Thus you’ll see it all: from the tower, Professor Trelawney’s class, and the Great Hall to the school’s outlying grounds, the Owlery and the Boathouse. Generally the game and scenes load quickly and smoothly--movement from one room to another, for instance, is rather fluid, lacking the searching-and-loading feel typical of non-linear gaming environments--though background data is sometimes murky. If any criticism is to be tendered, then it might sound something like this: you spend most of your time trudging, sometimes seemingly aimlessly, around a school--whether it be a magic school or not�"and that’ll wear thin no matter what.

Gameplay is generally pretty good, though Harry’s reliance upon fetch quests can grow a bit dry. These aren’t repeated ad nauseam, thankfully, but they do wear thin as the game progresses. The strongest feature of the game, though, is easily the Wii’s use of Harry’s wand. The Wii-wand, as I’ve come to call it, might be the finest use yet of the Wii’s occasionally fickle motion-sensitivity technology. Used mostly for performing spells, the Wii-wand comes in for some suspected abuse: merely swing and slash away with the thing and--presto--you have magic. Using the Wii-wand, you can fend off enemies, move, smash, burn and rebuild objects, while cracking puzzles and fighting evil. All of this is smooth and easy to master, the Wii not over compensating with too volatile sensitivity or overly complex button and wand combinations. The only thing better than casting spells as the boy wizard is doing it with his friends, Ron and Hermione, in tow, three teen wizards are always better than one.

Maybe most unfortunately, the game camera is something of a let-down. Considering the work put into the Wii-wand, the overly volatile--and sometimes seemingly unresponsive--camera makes for a wretched disparity between quality wand control and out-of-hands visual madness. This is only exacerbated by the ingenious layout of the levels: whereas a linear playzone would limit the need for camera control, an exploratory playfield, especially when hidden doors and undiscovered passages are to be found, demands responsive visuals. All in all, though, this is something of quibble, even if it is an overall detraction.

Visually the game looks pretty good, combining the Oxbridge-style dripping pipe of cobweb pedagogy with generally very smooth transitions. That being said, the visuals are sometimes pretty clunky. Once or twice (or maybe a dozen) times you’ll notice a remarkably block-like head hovering in the background, or a muddy wall with seemingly no characteristic beyond dankness. Luckily, though, none of these complaints really factor into the main gameplay: for the most part, Harry, his magic posse, and his enemies look and act as they should, just as the interactive environments and elements respond and look as expected. It’s the minor things that sometimes lag, and these seem more a problem with the Wii’s capabilities than an otherwise impeccably perceptible design, production, and integration of plot, character, and story. The game’s soundscape is likewise fine, if lacking distinction.

More often than not, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix proves to be an unexpectedly engrossing affair, even for the non-Potterite like myself. Where it could have used some bulking up, however, is obvious: while the non-linear search-about gameplay is immensely interesting (at least at first crack), this type of gameplay should have been supplemented by more dramatic, fast-paced play. And while the movie might not offer up wide-eyed, death-defying feat after feat, it does leave room for expanded action scenarios, namely fight scenes. That being said, the game is well put together, combining accuracy of detail--and it’s here that Potterites will find the game most satisfying--with exceptionally proficient controls. It’s nice to see not only developers and producers improving upon the Wii motion-sensitivity controls, but putting the sort of effort and detail-oriented work into what have traditionally been just pump-‘em-out videogame tie-ins.