by Crimson

Lego Harry Potter is an action-adventure puzzle game, developed by Traveler’s Tales and published by Warner Bros. It was released on June 29th in North America, and June 25th in Europe. The game is based upon the Lego Harry Potter line, and the game covers all the plot points from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. (Books 1-4).

Those familiar with the story and details of the Harry Potter franchise should easily understand what the game is trying to convey with its incessant actions to portray dialogue, witty tie ins to the books and the movies, and inside jokes. However, those people that have stayed away from the Harry Potter series for so many years, will find the cutscenes in this game rather odd.

The game kicks off in Year 1, Harry is being dropped off at his Aunt Petunia’s and Uncle Vernon’s after his parents have both been killed in a horrific murder. He lives with them for a while, only discover that he is actually a wizard, and has been invited to attend the magical school of Hogwarts. The game progresses and Harry teams up with two fellow wizards, a red-head Ron Weasley and know it all Hermione Granger. Throughout the game, Harry, Ron, and Hermione will be the three main characters that the player can call upon to help solve various puzzles, tasks, or complete lessons.

Any Lego game veteran is already familiar with the basic format of the Lego series. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 doesn’t stray too far from that path; however, it does have its own unique ideas that it brings to the table. For example, rather than each level being at a set in stone location, with it’s own set pieces, you will notice that you do a lot of wandering around in the same locations, during Lego Harry Potter. Doors and objects that you couldn’t pass previously, will seemingly open up later on in the game as you learn more spells and become more experienced in the game.

Since this game is seemingly geared toward a younger audience, there is a guide that shows you the way to your next task. He takes the form of a ghost, and he leaves bits of Lego pieces, in a path, so you can follow the trail and know where you are going.

The “Hub World” for the game is located in The Leaky Cauldron and Hogwarts. Like previous Lego games a hub allows players to go between levels and in Lego Harry Potter Diagon Alley and Hogwarts function as hub areas, however Hogwarts is a constantly changing environment and includes a number of puzzles and opportunities to unlock new characters within itself. The Leaky Cauldron is where you can wander around, purchase new characters, buy new spells, unlock different cheats, and experience the building of Gringotts, which will be discussed later.

The puzzles in the game are pretty straightforward, and they shouldn’t be too frustrating for any certain player. A basic puzzle could include moving Lego pieces from point A to point B, and stacking them up in the order they are shown in a picture. Where the more thought out puzzles would task you with building a bridge out of Lego pieces to cross a certain section, with no tips or hints on how to do so.

Each character (generally Harry, Ron, or Hermione) has their own unique attributes that help aid you along your puzzle solving and collecting. For instance, Ron can use his pet Scabbers to crawl through tight spaces, and unlock switches to doors that couldn’t be reached previously. Hermione is exceptional with books, so she is able to solve puzzles that involve bookcases, and bookshelves. Another example, is controlling Hagrid’s dog, Fang to dig out certain areas, and progress through the levels that way. Having each character have a special attribute is what makes the game enjoyable, and each puzzle you stumble upon, refreshing.

Along with different characters having different abilities, throughout the game you will be told to attend “Class” where you will attend a lesson and acquire a new spell to use in-game. You start off with a simple lifting spell, Wingardium Leviosa, that allows you to interact with various objects, build Lego pieces that you see lying around, and play around with characters that you see wandering around. As you advance you will unlock spells that deal with all sorts of things. Some spells fend off certain enemies that you encounter, others put Pixes in a blue bubble, so they will drop what they are holding.

Potion Making is another integral feature that the game introduces. This involves collecting different bits of a potion, to get the effects that you want. For instance, certain areas of the game require you to be a specific character to progress. In this situation you would create the Polyjuice Potion, and “shapeshift” into that character. Other potions grant you “Super Strength”, while others make you invisible temporarily.

Once a level is all said and done, the player has the opportunity to replay that level without the limitations of the story. Free Play. This is exceptionally great if you are wanting to complete everything there is to the game, and collect everything available.

Collecting is one of the forefront of any Lego game, and this is no exception. Much like other Lego games Lego Harry Potter has a large number of collectibles for players to discover; there are over 100 unlockable characters, 200 golden bricks for players to collect and levels also include ’students in peril’ which players can attempt to rescue. Gold Bricks are awarded for any number of things, and are typically the most common form of collectible you’ll find during your adventure. Unlike other Lego games that feature “10 Kits” in each level, Harry Potter offers 4 sections of the Hogwarts Crest for each level, that you can choose to discover along the way. Collecting objects in Lego Harry Potter isn’t necessarily hard; however, you will have to dedicate a fair amount of time to collect them all.

After you have collected a fair amount of golden bricks, you are given the opportunity to travel down into Gringotts, and complete some Bonus levels, and mess around with the in-game level creator. The Bonus levels aren’t like the normal levels found during the game, however, these are special levels that require certain tasks to be completed before moving onto the next section. These levels are alright, at best. But they are required if you are planning on going for it all.

The graphics look wonderful for a Lego game. Vibrate colors, unique Lego set-pieces and designs, are what you will see when you pop this disc in. However, the music is what really sets the game up for a trip through nostalgia lane. The music will be familiar to any fan of Harry Potter. When wandering through the castle of Hogwarts, you will be presented with the familiar Harry Potter theme song. In addition, other locations in the game have unique music to go along with them as well, that really set the mood for the game.

The game features splitscreen multiplayer only, and does not have any form of online co-op as of now (keep your figures crossed). I played through a big chunk of the game with my brother, and the game was at its best with a co-op partner. This is because puzzles in the game were easier to manage with another human player, rather than having the CPU doing his side of the work. If my brother and I were to separate the game would automatically go from our one screen, into splitscreen. This was a great feature that I appreciated immensely. It masked all the “No! Don’t go there yet!”’s and the “Wait for me! I can’t get passed this, come back and help me through before you go on!”’s because we could each do our own thing without fear of dragging either one of us with them.

The Achievements for this game aren’t necessarily difficult to unlock, but they definitely won’t be the quickest. A minimum of two playthroughs is required to obtain them all, and a good chunk of time will have to be allowed to obtain your coveted 1000. Typical to most other Lego Games, there are achievements for completing every chapter in the game, collecting an assortment of thingamajigs throughout, and doing character specific tasks that require you to think outside the box. Some of the rather unique achievements include turning down all the sound and sound effects in the library, or scaring 20 characters with a Ghost character.

The bottom line is this, if you are a fan of the Lego game series, you will not be disappointed with this addition. Better yet, I’d be willing to say this will be one of your top Lego games to date! Along the same lines, if you are at all a Harry Potter fan, then I’d suggest giving this game a shot. It will present familiar situations from the books and movies, and will give players the opportunity to live out their Harry Potter fantasies. With it’s unique charm, humor, and gameplay, the game is a standout in the Lego series. I will give this game an enthusiastic thumbs up!. This game is $50 brand new, and with a few discounts and some sales, it’d be hard not to add this to your collection.