Tested from PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions
Curious guideline than that of Electronic Arts when it tackles the Harry Potter franchise. While each episode (book and film) seems more and more dark, more and more "adult" (normal, the public ages at the same time as its hero), the adaptations in video games as for them show themselves more and more more infantilizing and disappointing. If we had been surprised by the adaptation of the Prisoner of Azkaban, it was otherwise with the last two opuses. The Goblet of Fire, more "action" oriented and even more affordable than its predecessors, marked a turning point in these adaptations and took us to a Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (penultimate game to date) of disconcerting ease and boring gameplay. Despite its eloquent flaws, it is unfortunately this game that will serve as the basis for the brand new title based on the adventures imagined by JK Rowling.
Hogwarts or Pig?
Like the previous episode therefore, this Harry Potter there will take place almost entirely in the school of Hogwarts (only the first didactic sequence is outside). We then travel through this openworld in search of "missions" to accomplish to develop the story. Then comes the first problem. In the previous episode, our hero with the scar on his forehead had a map (the marauder) to navigate the maze of the school. A simple but effective idea, which forced us to think a little before going anywhere. Here, the Marauder has given way to a guide (Nearly Headless Ghost Nick) who asks you to follow her whenever you need to go somewhere. The result is clear: we spend half the time following him (him or a classmate, it's the same) and walking around Hogwarts in all directions, without ever taking the time to understand anything at all. damn fanciful architecture of the place. And even if we would like to take the time to learn to move around alone, we always end up throwing in the towel and calling on Nick to get us out of this maze (there are shortcuts in every direction, several paths to go to the same place, the stairs room is just incomprehensible...). Leader this Half-Blood Prince? Not just a little! And that's not the least of its flaws.
Half-Blood the brushes
As in previous games, the story of the game follows that of the film. At least we assume it (like everyone else since we haven't seen it yet), hoping that David Yates' reel will be better built and more fluid than its adaptation on consoles. Because this is one of the big black points of the game: the construction of its scenario and the sequence of its sequences. It's simple, for someone who doesn't know the book inside out, EA's title is simply a permanent headache. The sketches follow each other without logic or cause and effect. The characters arrive in the story without any coherence (Lavender, Bellatrix, Fenrir), the information is distilled with a trowel, many secondary stories begin but do not end. In short, the narration is far-fetched, so much so that we will be completely uninterested in what can be told in the cutscenes. Even the fans will not find their account, disgusted to see the adventures of their favorite heroes butchered in this way. We will therefore focus on the "how" without worrying too much about the "why". And if this aspect is fortunately less sloppy than the rest, we will note all the same that the good rubs shoulders with the bad. These action phases are divided into three distinct parts: duels, Quidditch matches and potion-making. In the first, already present in the previous game, we are delighted to find the magic formulas of Harry Firecracker. Stupéfix, Expelliarmus, Levicorpus and other Pretificus Totalus allow you to defeat your opponents in one-on-one duels. Alas, these turn out to be very easy, especially when we understand when our enemies are fallible (randomly, when they get up). In the second part, you are led to pilot your broomsticks in dogfights at the heart of Quidditch matches. But once again, if the initial intention is good, we regret that these matches boil down to a kind of race in a long air corridor, in which you will have to pass a certain number of checkpoints without encountering too many obstacles in the gums. Nothing too thrilling then. Finally, the last phase invites you to concoct a few potions under the supervision of Horace Slughorn, in sequences à la Cooking Mama. And we surely have the most exciting part of the title there, largely because it is harder than the others and it takes a certain skill to finish its greenish or purplish beverages. So this is what the game Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will consist of: following a ghost in a Hogwarts filled with amorphous NPCs and alternating three phases of play. Of course, on rare occasions, a few different missions will point the tip of their nose (follow a student without being detected, activate a mechanism to open a door, burst fireworks with your magic wand), but they will be much too fleeting to really mark the player. In short, in addition to being dirigiste, this game is repetitive.
Don't Touch My Potter
From a technical point of view, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is not really the type to make us get up at night. If the interiors of Hogwarts are quite faithful to what we have seen in the films (but much more refined), we can only be skeptical about the exteriors weighed down by textures that would have done a job on PlayStation 2. , as far as the characters are concerned, we recognize the actors quite well but we regret that the faces of the latter are so devoid of expression during the dialogues (the palm to Dumbledore, who does not even open his mouth when he speaks !). Finally, our magician friend is quite easy to handle (except when he is running, impossible to make him take a turn correctly) but his animation is really ultra limited and very simplistic (he walks, he runs, he flies on his broomstick, he takes baby steps to the side when in a duel). Many approximations which force us to believe that the title of Electronic Arts was above all designed for the youngest, little looking at the finishes, who seek above all to rub shoulders with not very difficult challenges in the skin of their hero. But then, why this PEGI 12+? (we would have thought it was a PEGI 12-!) interest in this regard.
