LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5 – 7 Review

 If anyone ever wrote a book about development houses that managed to get a finger in a whole bunch of franchise pies, Traveller’s Tales would certainly be mentioned, at very least. Their series of LEGO games, which take well known movie properties and give them a little plastic block make-over, have seen them get involved with five big franchises and three big name publishers.

Their latest offering is based on the fourth franchise they got involved with; the awesomely popular Harry Potter series. Based more on the movies than on J K Rowling’s fabulous books, this second LEGO Harry Potter game, subtitled Years 5 to 7, takes players through a tongue-in-cheek reimagining of events from Order of the Phoenix, Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows.

One would be forgiven for wondering exactly how much fun can be poked at these three chapters in the Potter saga, because they are the darkest, most serious stories of the lot. But the developers have managed to get the balance just right, as they always do, injecting tons of often off-beat humour and jokes that fans alone will get, while not cheapening the source material.

When the original LEGO Harry Potter came out, it was heralded by many as a great game because it took the ideas from previous LEGO games and expanded on them. It was, in essence, the freshest LEGO movie-based video game in ages, and something that the franchise sorely needed. From that point, they managed to improve things even more when they released LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean through Disney Interactive, effectively meaning that the previous Potter title was something of a change of thinking in these titles. The same, sadly, cannot be said for this newer game. That doesn’t make it bad, necessarily, but those that played the previous version will find that, aside from the story, everything is pretty much the same as it was before. Traveller’s Tales haven’t tried to do anything unique with this title, preferring to stick to the ‘Harry Potter’ formula that worked so well in the previous game.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. When you consider the previous game, you will realise that there is a lot to enjoy in this new title. See, where other LEGO games of this nature are fairly linear, and this one also suffers from that issue to a degree, there is a hell of a lot of exploration and stud collecting to do in this game. The levels are large and complex, with tons to fiddle around with. There are things to blow up (to collect studs), things to rearrange (to collect studs), hidden bits to explore (more of the studs) and so on.

Along with working through the stories of the three chapters, players will also be able to unlock characters, collect special items and a host of other things, pretty much like another LEGO game of this sort.

One of the things that sets it apart is the use of spells, with each player having a handful available. The player, or players in the case of co-op, will need to change between characters fairly regularly to take advantage of their various abilities and spells.

With bright, colourful characters and settings based on a well-known franchise, not to mention tons of off-beat humour, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5 - 7 is something that the whole family can enjoy.

There is a lot to do, many often challenging puzzles, and the need to take characters that are unlocked later back to already completed levels to access new things adds a lot of replayability to the game.

t is, essentially, just another LEGO based title, but with that said, it needs to be pointed out that it is a good one. Fans of both this unique genre and the Harry Potter series should really enjoy it.

Verdict:

The next LEGO Harry Potter game offers more of the same.

Developer: Traveller’s Tales

Publisher: Warner Bros

Distributor: Nu Metro

Platform:

PC

Xbox 360

PS3

Wii

PSP

DS

3DS