Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - E10+
Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this game is available across all platforms, but is truly spectacular when played on the Wii. Kids cast spells by using the Wii remote controller as their wand, making the gaming experience more personal. While this is a time-intensive game, it can be broken into smaller pieces by saving in between tasks. The always-scary Dementors (cloaked, floating beings that feed on fear) do appear at the beginning of the game. While at Hogwarts, the Slytherins periodically challenge you to spell-casting duels. When your character gets injured, you see sparks of magic hit you, you fall to the ground, and wake up in the hospital ward. Later in the game you play as Sirius Black when he duels with the Death Eaters and as Dumbledore as he duels with Voldemort. Both are long battles, which are intense, thus triggering the E+10 rating. But the fantasy violence is a very small part of this massive game. Instead the focus is on exploration, solving fetch tasks, and immersing yourself in the world of Harry Potter.
Families can talk about how playing this version stacks up to the book and/or the movie version. How did it feel to be a wizard? Can you imagine how you would use this kind of magic every day and how that would change your life? Did you feel like you got a better sense of the Harry Potter world by experiencing it on a first-person basis? Was this what you had imagined when you were reading the books? Did any character you met in the game surprise you because he or she was not what you expected?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Jinny Gudmundsen
Calling all Harry Potter fans: Clear off your calendars and grab your wand -- I mean your game controller -- because you are about to enter Hogwarts heaven.
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX puts the magic of Harry Potter into your hands as you cast your way through this magnificent video game.
There are versions of this game for Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, the PC, and Microsoft's Xbox 360, but it's best played on the Nintendo Wii system. Because casting spells is so much a part of the gameplay, only with the Wii remote controller in your hand as your wand do you really feel a part of the game. Each spell you cast involves a different arm motion, so you look just like the Harry you see on the screen. This Wii gaming experience is so compelling that if you have been thinking about getting a Wii but haven't yet, buy it now. If you don't have a Wii and are playing it on one of the other consoles, it is still a fabulous game.
While the past four Harry Potter games have been great, this one far exceeds those built-up expectations. It closely follows the story of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book, and is based on the movie version, which is due in theaters on July 11.
Most of the time, you play as Harry Potter; but occasionally, you become the Weasley twins, Sirius Black, and even Headmaster Dumbledore when he fights the evil Lord Voldemort. The game cleverly incorporates a series of missions (tasks) into the storyline, which is moved forward at various times by video sequences known as cut-scenes. But this is not a linear game. You are free to explore the castle and grounds of Hogwarts and pick up or change tasks at will.
This is the Hogwarts the previous games made us long for. You will not be able to resist checking out its endless nooks and crannies. It's built from the blueprints of the movie set, and it's massive. The staircases move, you can talk to all students, and the portraits animate. Many of the paintings are even hiding secret passageways if you can discover their passwords. You can run down to Hagrid's cottage, up to the Owlery, and everywhere in-between. And all of this is possible with no load times as you move around this enormous game. The game will also take you to other locations including Grimmauld Place and the Ministry of Magic.
The first part of the game is spent finding and helping the 28 students who signed up to take a secret class from Harry about Defense Against the Dark Arts. The group, known as Dumbledore's Army (the DA), meets in the secret Room of Requirement. Only when you have assembled all 28 members of the DA can you move on in the game. Thereafter, Professor Umbridge takes over Hogwarts and tasks become secretive. You eventually fight Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic.
The game cleverly adopts Harry's Marauder's Map as a way for you to find people inside the castle and its grounds. Once you select the person or destination inside the map and then close it, when you start to walk around, black footprints appear on the floor showing you the direction to head.
Tasks may send you searching for the five talking gargoyles in the castle, using magic to repair the trophy room, or fighting a group of Slytherins in a duel. Other mini-quests involve talking to teachers, the ghosts, and the portraits. Some require you to win the popular wizard games of Wizard Chess, Gobstones, and Exploding Snap.
In addition to helping others and completing tasks, you are also seeking Discovery Points, which strengthen your ability to do magic and unlock intriguing video clips about the making of the game. You earn these points by doing magic around the castle to repair broken things, light torches, or find hidden magical statues and plaques.
This beautiful game is so large that it will take days, if not weeks to finish. Even when you have reached the end of the story, you may not have completed all the mini-tasks; so it allows you to keep playing in the Endless Day mode. And you can play it all over again on a harder level.
Not only will you hear 22 of the original voices from the movie, including Rupert Grint as Ron and Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort, but many of the actors' heads were scanned into the game to make the animation look more real. And as you play, you hear the fully orchestrated music from the movie.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a vast, gorgeous, and superb game. It creates a powerful gaming experience by immersing kids into the world of Harry Potter. It delivers the wish that many kids share: the ability to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and do magic.
If you enjoyed this game but haven't read the book, what are you waiting for? The previous Harry Potter games are also really fun to play. Check out: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the PC version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
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Sexual ContentHarry kisses Cho under the mistletoe. |
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ViolenceIntense wizard dueling portrayed where one character is killed. If you lose a duel, you fall down, pass out, and wake up in the hospital ward. |
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Social BehaviorYou are Harry Potter who is trying to teach 28 other students magic in order to protect themselves. |
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CommercialismThis is part of the Harry Potter franchise and is based on the movie of the same title. |
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Educational ValueThere is some logic involved in playing this game. |
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