Rating: Summary: Too short to be twenty dollars, rent it and play.... Review: I didn't make a wise choice buying this game for twenty dollars plus shipping. Although the game is highly entertaining, it could easily be beaten in three or four hours, guaranteeing you only very limited enjoyment. However, for the price of four or five dollars, you can most likely rent this at your local video store and beat it in that time so buying is not a smart choice. This game's puzzles were also incredibly easy and not enough length destroyed the game's 5 star rated gameplay. Like J.K. Rowling's book, Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts only to find another mystery unravel in front of him, this time involving a secret chamber that was opened over fifty years ago. Many of the book's characters interact with Harry but many of them, instead of giving advice as they do in the books, offer you business deals and at the end you wonder if it really is Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry or Hogwarts School of Business? The game stays close to the book though sadly does not depict the small events that occur. Quidditch is incredibly uninteresting, considering you don't feel the rush and the momentum as you do in other sport games. What I hate about several game companies is that they hurry up to finish a game without working out the small aspects, just worrying to make the game to sell more money. What these companies don't realize is the longer and better a game is, the more copies it will sell. Harry Potter and the Chamber receives three out of five stars for being an enjoyable game but unfortunately for not enough time.
Rating: Summary: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Review: First of all, when I write this review, Im going to totally ignore the fact that this game is about Harry Potter. Why? Because, most people are probably going to buy this game anyway, whether or not its good. So just keep that in mind as I review.1. THE GRAPHICS: What I really love about the graphics is the excellent compatability. It has such a wide range of textures and resolutions, its hard to find a PC that cant run it. If you do have the hardware to push the details up to max, your in for a treat. The game is extremely detailed graphically. When I visited Hagrids hut, I was amazed to find a pigpen, complete with snorting moving pigs in back of his hut. I was even more amazed when I climed into the pigpen, and they attacked me! I cleverly cast "Impedementa" on them to escape. Graphically, I love it. Most of the clipping issues in the original game (walking through walls, climbing up thin air) are gone. 2. GAMEPLAY: HPATCOS gampeplay is spectacularly average. At its core, it offers solid adventuring gameplay. Extra features such as bean trading, quidditch, dueling, house points, and potion making add some depth, but are slightly shallow later in the game. By the time your 3/4 through the game, you just want to get it over with, and explore Hogwarts. Thats the best part of the game, wandering aimlessly around hogwarts. I really have to say that finishing the classes was BORING! I had much more fun just exploring hogwarts. The classes themselves are just LONG puzzles, but nothing that cant be easily solved. You end up doing 20-30 action packed puzzles per class, which can get pretty boring. The gameplay is, as I said, average. 3. SOUND AND MUSIC: Adapting the amazing musical pieces to the game was done very well. Whenever you enter a fightscene, the bass BOOMS! I have a subwoofer under my desk, and It was quite something to explore the forbidden forest with all the creepy music! PROS: Great graphics, very compatible, high replay factor, easy to learn, great music, CONS: It will take a very good computer to run it at its highest settings, not much depth, too short, BAD final fightscene, OVERALL: Even if your only a casual HP fan, this game stands its own as a solid adventure title.
Rating: Summary: Good Family Game Review: We bought this game as a present for my niece. It turned out to be a game that the whole family can enjoy -- lots of action and excitement with little or no violence. We like to take turns, with different people playing different sections of the game while the others look on and give advice, cheer, etc. It dovetails nicely with the book, yet provides some unique elements and experiences. The industry needs more games like this.
Rating: Summary: This may be my favorite game of all time Review: This is going to sound strange, but I don't think I've ever enjoyed playing a game as much as I enjoyed playing this one. I thought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was a great game, but Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a hundred times better. Almost all of the minor issues I had with the first game were addressed more than adequately, and I have been all but addicted to this game since the day I got it. This is not some cheap game thrown out there to make money off of Pottermania; it is challenging, it is exciting, and it is absolutely addictive. Harry Potter's world really comes alive here. You start out at home on Privet Drive, visit Diagon Alley to get your school supplies, and fly right onto campus, into the clutches of the Whomping Willow tree, in Mr. Weasley's flying Ford Anglia. From that point on, you are immersed in the Hogwarts experience. The opening action is done quite well; while there is no tutorial per se, the game walks you through the opening scene, reminding you how to use the spells you learned during your first year at Hogwarts. At that point, you are ready to experience the events of Harry's second year from the first day of class with Professor Lockhart to the concluding House Points ceremony at year end. The cut scenes from the first game are gone, letting you see and experience every event, and the game is by and large simply beautiful. There is more interaction with the teachers this year, there are almost limitless nooks and crannies of the campus to investigate, and not only are there enough challenges to satisfy just about everyone, the challenges can all be completed successfully by even the youngest of Potter fans. If I can finish a game without resorting to a cheat or two along the way, then I know everyone else in the world can do it. There are some rather significant changes from the first Harry Potter game. First and foremost is the ability to now skip through cut scenes; I did a lot of the challenges several times in order to accrue as many House Points as possible, and it was wonderful to be able to skip right past the opening scenes each time. The way you learn spells has also undergone a radical change; I prefer the old way, but this new method probably makes things easier for younger players. Speaking of something being easier, the Quidditch matches (and there are six of them, each of which you can replay as many times as you like) are radically different. The first game's Quidditch play was fun, but at times I thought I would never be able to grab the Snitch. In this game, Harry automatically follows the Snitch, making for much shorter matches. The fun part here, though, is the fact that you must battle your opposing Seeker; this means that you get to kick and punch the other player around, a most satisfying experience when you are going up against Slytherin and their new Seeker Draco Malfoy. The championship match even takes you underneath the trenches, trying to dodge wooden beams while giving Draco the business. Another great addition to this game is wizard dueling. Not only is it great fun to duel your classmates, it provides an easy way for you to increase your supply of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. These beans serve as the method of exchange on campus, and with them you can buy all sorts of wonderful things, from a Nimbus 2001 to Flobberworm Mucous to wizard cards. Wizard cards are important, and they, like the beans, can be found all over Hogwarts. There are fifty bronze wizard cards to collect, and each tenth card you find provides you with an additional stamina level. If you find all forty silver wizard cards, you get access to a special room. Even if you complete all your tasks, you will want to find or buy enough silver wizard cards to gain entrance to this room because here a final challenge awaits you, promising eleven gold wizard cards of the most important wizards in the world (guess who number eleven is?). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets also makes it easy to maintain your health (although falling into pits, which I frequently did, pretty much turns you into the boy who didn't live); you can locate and/or buy Flobberworm Mucous and Wiggentree Bark, the essential ingredients needed to concoct Wiggenweld Potion. This potion restores stamina, and my best advice to the future player is to acquire as much of this healing potion as you can before taking on the basilisk. You can win beans by dueling, so any time you find yourself in need of more funds, just zip down to the Great Hall and show your opponents what you are made of. I was woefully unprepared for my first two confrontations with the basilisk, but I actually didn't mind because it gave me an excuse to start a new game and do everything again. It takes longer than you might think to actually complete Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and I have no thoughts of putting this game away now. It is as much fun to play the second or third time through as it is the first.
Rating: Summary: Very Good, yet space for improvement Review: I really enjoyed the vast majority of the contents of this game. The graphics were relatively good and the realism levels were high. This is quite a light adventure and role playing game and the thing I love about it is that you get to explore the castle, the groungs etc. at your own pace. I do not recommend this to very experienced gamers, unless you are huge Harry Potter fans (you will probably find it too easy, even easier than the first Harry Potter game). Best bit of it all is that it stays with the book's plot, without necessarily making the game boring. So, if you're bored during the summer, not knowing where to go or what to do, I say BUY THIS GAME FOR A GOOD TIME!!!!!!!!! Trust me, you will like it...
Rating: Summary: 1/3 HARD 2/3 EASIER ALL FUN Review: LET ME TELL YOU HOW IT WORKS: 1. YOU CAN HAVE 6 GAMES AT ONE TIME 2. YOU HAVE TO COLLECT AS MANY CHOCOLATE FROGS AND WISARD CARDS AS YOU CAN[CHOCOLATE FROGS=MONEY, EVERYTIME YOU COLLECT 10 BROZE WIZARD CARDS YOU GET MORE LIFE/STAMINA,AND EVERYTIME YOU COLLECT 10 SILVER WIZARD CARDS YOU GET A KEY TO OPEN PART OF A DOOR] 3.YOU CAN BUY STUFF WITH BEANS 4.YOU LEARN SPELLS[4: SKURGE, DEFFINDO, SPONGIFY, AND RICTUSEMPRA] AND EVERYTIME YOU LEARN A NEW SPELL YOU HAVE A CHALLENGE [YOU TRY TO COLECT STARS] 5. YOU GET TO DUEL WITH THREE SPELLS -RICTUSEMPRA -EXSPELLIARMUS-MIMBLE WIMBLE- [DEUL AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE YOU'LL WIN BEANS] 6. YOU CAN PLAY QUIDDITCH [BUY QUIDDITCH ARMOR=500 BEANS AND BUY A N2001=700] 7. USE SPELLS ON EVERYTHING TO GET BEANS 8. MUSIC FITS MOMENT 9. THE BESTGAME EVER! WHAT AREN'T YOU ORDERING IT NOW BUY IT ALLREADY
Rating: Summary: Great but... Review: In my opinion this is a very good game. From what I've heard the graphhics have improved from the first and from what I've seen I quite agree. But, while staying on graphics, there faces are quite unreal and just purely not to that good. But thats really the only problems with the graphics. The plot is more so based on the movie, which most games are. I happen to have also bought the Game Cube version. In this you begin at the Burrow. You get to degnome the gnome while tossing them, and Ron, Fred, and George, help you to start learning your first spell. Then you move on todiagon ally were you have to find Ginny's thing and then you miss the train, you go and crash into the womping willow. This becomes y7our first 'dungon' After that you enter hogwarts, but first getting an encounter from Snape yada yada yada. Neways thats what you didnt really do with the PC version. ou just had cutscenes all the way up to the Womping Willo, which you Flipendo and did like an interducteroy lvel. Some bad things are, you cant fly around! Even after you bought the Nimbus 2001 from Fred or was it George? You can't fly around which I particulary liked, but that also got me to beat all four, open, quidditch games in a row. On the other game I won the first one and the others I completely lost. This game, is very easy I got up to the Champber of Secrets Leve in less then a ful day, maybe four hours. BUT Th game was enjoyable and something I could do on my own. The other game I find is quite harder the castle is basically a few rooms, and not worth exploring espically with the poor design of the Grand Staircase, and I had to get help for a few things. And ofcourse it took me around 2 and a half days to beat. Dueling, I don't like it period. But the duealing in this gam is hard and mindless to me. In the GameCube game you actually will use duealing alot so you get used to it, but in this one its optional so basically you dont get used tyo it. All in all this is good game, and a good buy. Espically for those Harry Potter Fanatics. If you rather have a more easier version then get this game, but if you want alittle bit more of a challenge ge one of the systems game (I have not yet gotten it on PS2 or X box and don't plan having the same game for everything can get borning but the versions vary quite a bit) but hey thats just my opinion.
Rating: Summary: Just read the book! Review: Its the same as the book acept you have to do everything yourself. Like for an example, in the book harry and ron get the hairs to the polly juise potion together but in the game only you which is harry have to get it alone. So I think its a ripe off.
Rating: Summary: Chamber of Secrets for the PC Review: I found this game very entertaining. I reminded me of the nintendo game "Legend of Zelda" because you have different areas to go through and challenges to complete. It's not a difficult game so younger children would enjoy it without getting frustrated about not being able to get further into the game. I would highly recommend it to young (and old) kids.
Rating: Summary: not an adventure game Review: not such a great game. Its kinda boring and not really an "adventure game"
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