Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Review

Will the magic of Hogwarts come to your living room?

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for Xbox 360 follows Harry on his sixth year at Hogwarts. In this game you have the freedom to travel around the school as you please in-between the missions you are given. With the help of Headless Nick, finding your way around Hogwarts has never been easier.

Graphics and Presentation

Compared to the quality of graphics seen in many Xbox 360 games recently, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince does not meet up to the expectations of a Xbox 360 game. With poor lighting and lack of detail in the characters, there is little feeling of atmosphere or realism from the characters we have all learnt to love. As in the Nintendo DS version of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the colours are dark and lack depth; if this was to be improved the quality of graphics would benefit from it greatly.

The voices of the characters during the cut scenes struggle to have a powerful delivery as the simple graphics are not able to have fluid movements with the mouths, making all the words look out of sync. The movements of the characters during the cut scenes are also affected by the graphics, as the movements appear static. Though the graphics and cut scenes do not live up to the expectations from an Xbox 360 game, they say what is needed for you to continue to play the game. However, the inability to skip the cut scenes that you don’t want to watch can become annoying.

Sound

The voiceovers used are good quality giving a reasonably authentic feel. Compared to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for Nintendo DS, the sounds used on the Xbox 360 are of a far better quality. As you travel around Hogwarts the sound changes depending on your surroundings; this allows you to not become bored of hearing the same sounds again and again!

Gameplay

The gameplay in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for Xbox 360 is a great game for any Harry Potter fan; it follows the storyline well allowing you to connect better with the game that you are playing. The controls make moving your character easy, allowing you to move around the Hogwarts grounds quickly in order to get to your destination. A major benefit of this game being on Xbox 360 is the addition of Headless Nick; with the press of the select button Nick will appear and take you to your desired destination. In my opinion, this gives the game an extra dimension, by allowing you to get to the places required quicker than how you would in the Half Blood Prince Nintendo DS version.

One of the activities you can take part in when travelling around Hogwarts in duelling, you can either go to duelling club to practice or you may be faced by characters challenging you to a duel. Either way duelling is great fun for playing on your Xbox 360; you get to use two spells: Expelliarmus and Stupefy. You also have the ability to dodge other people’s attacks. I found duelling easy to get the hang of, and it to be my favourite mini-game on the Xbox 360 version of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Other mini games include Quidditch, which involves you flying through stars in the sky chasing after the Snitch, bashing away your other opponents! The mission you have to do to progress through the game are productive and made clear, allowing you to enjoy the game for all of its merits! The failure to be able to rotate the screen really lets down the gameplay as it is difficult to look around you and see what is going on. Though regardless of this, the games extra features will have you hooked right to the end.

Closing Comments

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for Xbox 360, has great sound and gameplay, though it is let down by the poor graphics ruining the aesthetic of the game. Though don’t let this put you off! This game may not bring Hogwarts to your living room, but you get a bit of the Hogwarts magic.
 

3.5
Becky Kingston