Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7

Game Title: Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7
Released: January 5, 2012
Game Length: 24 Hours
Grade: B

Prelude

Collection Edition: When I reviewed Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4, I eluded to my reasons why I chose not to buy the combined collection of these two products. The obvious reason is because it wasn't offered for PC. The bundle did include the DLC packs that were offered exclusively to this game, but they were not offered on the Steam platform. The other reason that was mentioned in several reviews I read regarded how the frame rate problem still wasn't handled. This naturally had me worried since I'd eventually get around to playing the game. Which leads me to...

Frame Rate Issue: I've occasionally seen some small strange blur effects in previous Lego games but always felt that they were "part of the game." The magnitude of stuttering you experience in this game is beyond belief. There is maybe a 5-10 second lag anytime the game shifts the camera to another part of the level. These transitions appear to happen when the game tries to load more data, sometimes in the same room. You'll see more Loading Screens with their own custom cut-out transitions tailored to the film you are revisiting (that can take up to 20 seconds before the level loads). I tried adjusting the Bloom effect. I thought that maybe lowering the graphics would help. Tried adjusting g-sync and settings. The only thing that really helped was changing the priority in the Task Manager to real-time. Despite my efforts, I was never able to completely clear away this problem.

Depressing Nature: Unlike the previous four books, the remaining portions of the Harry Potter universe has a lot of things that aren't cheery in any respects. We have multiple people we have grown to like suddenly die with a flip of the wand. What's worse is that the films didn't really do the books any justice. One death scene was glanced over while another death scene didn't translate well to film. How the entire elder wand issue was resolved in the end could have been a lot better. As much as I found the whole war a creative way to end the series, it didn't make me any happier. Therefore, the content that was covered in the video game was much harder for me to play a second time through in Free Play.

From the Books

Weasley Enterprise: There are a lot of things that were added in the game that was only known to people who have read the books. I mentioned a few of these in my previous review, but I've tried my best searching them out as someone who never read any of the books myself. A big portion comes down to how the Weasley brothers left Hogwarts in Order of the Phoenix. Nothing is mentioned in the game or film regarding to how they financed their store, but there is a whole level dedicated to the mischievous boys going out to build the fireworks for the event. You can visit the empty store anytime during the first film, see the boys when the store is open, openly explore the store in Out of Retirement level, or get scared off when the Death-Eaters come to town during the last two films. There are Weasley crates that you can open to find suction cups reminiscent of the Magnet Suit in Lego: Batman, a single rocket that interacts with something in the level, or a portable swamp that curiously does a lot of different things depending on its position. This swamp is mentioned in the books and also plays a major role in the Order of the Phoenix video game. Any Weasley character, or their variants, can activate these boxes. Anyone else who tries to open it will be presented with a tentacle or a pie in the face.

Pets: The vast majority of the game revolves around Ron, Hermione, and Harry. So I was quite surprised to see that Ron had another pet after losing Scabbers in the previous game. His name is Pigwidgeon and was only seen in promotional stills for the film. Then I wondered who else had pets I didn't know about. Ginny Weasley bought Arnold the Pygmy Puff from her brothers at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Lucius Malfroy has his pet peacock that hops around and flashes his feathers when not moving. However, the peacock is of the standard blue color instead of the albino version mentioned in the books. Hermione still has her pet cat Crookshanks despite it being seen less in the films. Neville still has his pet toad Trevor. Fred & George both can use a pet as well, but they are mere replicas of the moving horn toys used in Death Hallow Part 1.

Mechanics

Revised Features: The game provides the spell wheel like before and the ability to switch between characters. The difference here is that they added a semi-special character wheel while out-and-about that allows you to switch between six characters. Any character you use the polyjuice potion to transform into is cycled into the list. The complete character roster is shown when making a purchase, but all the variants still spin in place even if you can't buy them. The roster is shown before you reach the platform for unlocking characters, spells, or even accessing cutscenes. Free Play now plays the cutscenes. The Light spell will now automatically activate the moment you switch to the spell. You no longer need to worry about using the spell periodically to keep your wand bright. Pulling on objects will now display a meter that tells you when you have a grip and how long you need to hold it. Names are highlighted when you switch characters, something that was unusually omitted in the previous game. Switching Characters in Free Play will also show which characters are next to the left & right of your avatar frame.

Setting Redesigned: Instead of simply rehashing Hogwarts from its predecessor, the developers decided to rebuild much of the aesthetics of the game. Although the rooms are near identical, the graphics have been improved and new puzzles introduced. They even thought of including the statues seen in Death Hallow: Part 2 that you can hop on and ride around in. There seems to be a higher contrast of light and dark more than ever, causing me to up the brightness up a notch or two. Even though some areas are omitted, such as the inside of the Houses, they included a lot of new areas that can now be explored. Locations like the train station, London, and the forest are all added with ways to transport between them. The thing that I don't particularly enjoy is how they designed Diagon Alley. It is somehow much harder to know what stores you can enter when you can't see if there are any doors from its new perspective. The students' capes are also removed. I love how they added paper cut-outs, similar to Lego: Pirates of the Caribbean, for the Loading screens and the story of the three brothers. There's a mine-cart sequence that is pulled directly from Lego: Indiana Jones 2 playbook. They amusingly decided to institute a whole underwater level sequence when retrieving the object in the frozen lake.

New Things: Magic Dueling is something completely new that has only been briefly seen in the final showdown with Voldemort in the last game. A circle will appear for your character to enter and switch to the appropriate spell color displayed from your opponent's side. Energy barriers can be formed to deflect blasts. If the player has fired the correct spell, the two will engage in a laser tug-of-war. Repeating this sequence four times with an enemy isn't too much of a problem. Doing multiple battles within a single level is when the game starts to feel monotonous and repetitive. I do like the many flight sequences (which for some reason reminded me of Nights Into Dreams on the Sega Saturn). You can now cast Diffindo, which is a fancy way of cutting out a segment of red bricks out of a brick wall. This mechanic expounds on the ability to cut into walls with your lightsaber in Lego: Clone Wars. I was also surprised to see more moving platforms in the form of functional escalators. The game also introduces the Advanced Guide that shows what collectables are available in each of the rooms, either manually turned on in main menu or automatically shown when completing Story Mode.

Characters

Unlocking: Very similar to the previous Lego: Harry Potter game, there is a problem when it comes to unlocking specific characters you need for finding collectables. Much of the game requires the need of dark magic to which there are several opinions on which character you should get to use it. Inside the few characters that the game unlocks for you, you can obtain Bellatrix Lestrange immediately after defeating her in one of the later story levels. You need it to rescue people in almost every level, obtain character tokens, and open up secret areas. You need it to get a person with keys to open vaults. There are 200 characters to unlock, some of which aren't even referenced in the later books. All of the extras that are unlocked are listed in alphabetical order. Since there are 3 character tokens per level, this means that 72 of them are found exclusively inside the levels. The crazy thing is how Voldemort requires 25 million studs. The good news is I still managed to reach 89% completion with 56/60 Rescued and 177/200 Gold Bricks.

Interactions: Gold objects can only be destroyed with the Elder Wand. Anything that is sparking with a blue glow will require Arthur's mechanical wrench to fix. This along with the blue booklet required for solving runes can be seen on the side of the character's waist. Pink platforms will require Hermione's enchanted bag and light fixtures will require Ron's deluminator. Apparition is an ability that is used to instantly travel from one platform to another. You will need to equip spectacles from one of the booths to see invisible bricks and build them. The structures will become visible after being built. The Comedy Specs option will attach giant eyeballs to the frames. When it comes to pulling levers, you can either switch to a character with glowing feet that has super strength, drink a strength potion from a cauldron, or automatically enable the ability with the red brick option.

Animations: Because of the sheer number of characters available, I did not expect to see fancy movements for each and every person. Most will have the default actions of adjusting their outfit, coughing, looking around, or fixing their hair. However, there is actually a long list of things people will do:

• Those with a square hat like the Milkman and the Station Guard will take it and move it around like the Globetrotters and their basketballs.
• Madam Malkin, known as the tailor for Robes for All Occasions, will take out her measuring tape and write out some notes.
• Mrs. Black pulls out a candle.
• Madam Hooch jumps up-and-down excitingly and whistles with her fingers (without any sound).
• Tonks will wink at people and occasionally change her hair color.
• Wormtail's hand that gets rebuilt by Voldemort starts moving around on its own (which contrary to the film and video game kills him in the end).
• Xenophilius Lovegood pours himself some tea.
• Ironically, Hagrad doesn't seem to have any animation whatsoever due to his large stature. He doesn't even remove his weapon after a few seconds like the other characters.
• Griphook does a magic trick by pulling a stud out of his ear; he will also clean out wax from his other ear and eat it.
• Slughorn will enjoy a glass of wine.
• Hermione pulls out a book to read and sits on the ground.
• Fang does dog tricks.
• Mrs. Figg does the chicken dance in front of her bag.
• Harry Potter cleans his glasses and sometimes picks them off the ground when they fall off.
• Ron pulls out a yellow ice cream on a stick (in all his forms). He is afraid of spiders and Lavender will cry in his presence.

Details Noticed

References: Although they did incorporate some rather lackluster details about the Harry Potter universe inside the Fantastic Beasts series, you must know that much of the current material didn't exist when the game was available until after 2016. So learning about the history of Nagini, seeing Nicolas Flamel, the LeStrange family line, or the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald are not subjects to be considered in the video game. Furthermore, the script of an 8th book written by a collaboration of people in that same year would also not be included. I couldn't find a reference for the Lego mushroom people other than an interest for them by Luna Lovegood. There are some comical scenes that subvert what is seen in the film like how Dumbledore doesn't immediately escape out of the ministry's grasp when his phoenix fails to come straight to him. In respect of the source material, Professor Slughorn will be able to transform into a chair and have his appropriate attire morphed in any one of his variants. The environment will continue to adapt to the story's setting with people running around terrified as Death-Eaters appear everywhere. They did such an awesome job with the Gringotts Dragon that it made me desire an actual real life physical version like the Hungarian Horntail Dragon. I personally enjoyed how the Lego characters had fluid motions, right down to how their hair flows when you move around. Finding Buckbeak staying in the attic of Sirius Black's residence was also true to the books, something that is not brought up in the films. When concerning the light spell, I found it interesting to note that students will simply raise their wands, teachers add a subtle bounce, and villains spin their wand in the air.

Annoyances: There are a lot of little things that bothered me when I played the game. Although the developers did their best telling the stories of the four films, it still was tough to follow (but then again the films didn't do a good job translating the books either). The puzzles were a little more difficult to comprehend what was required and some collectibles were almost completely hidden from sight. There was one glitch that made me have to restart: I somehow got my bell vehicle stuck behind the troll as it moved to the second position. The screaming alarm sound was annoying in the game as much as it was in the film. You had to play whack-a-mole when choosing your characters. There are a couple instances where you have to cast Focus on characters with a question mark above their head - something that isn't quite clear unless you remember the mind control ability in Lego: Batman. I'm not sure what determines the sound effect for wands since it seems rather random even after considering who is casting, what is cast, and how many times you fire. Death-Eaters teleporting sound effect still reminds me of a toilet flushing. The one bonus level that requires 1 million studs was way too difficult to figure out. Shooting water with Aguementi was pretty cool, but aiming your wand proved to be rather difficult when you needed to line up your cursor and make sure the water is physically touching the object.

Summary

Review: While I definitely enjoy the improvements built upon its predecessor, Lego Harry Potter: Years 5 - 7 doesn't provide the satisfaction as the other games did in the series. The bleak source material matched with the technical issues made it much harder to complete the game. Very similar to Lego: Clone Wars, the game's new wand battles are only fun if you sprinkle them in every once in awhile. Having to counter multiple opponents several times one after another made me want to skip redoing the level for the collectibles. Despite the graphical fidelity of the environment, I honestly did not like waiting for levels to load or how some of the environment was setup. Still, the game does a great job hitting all the usual strides carefully adding in things that will surprise you. You will have to be a real dedicated fan of the Harry Potter universe to enjoy this one.

 

2-28-2023