DP Challenge Part 7/100 – LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4

Game: LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4

Ranking: 83/100

Score: 78.79%

The world’s most famous fictional boy wizard and his wizarding friends shamelessly cash in on the franchise like so many other turgid games before it*. Only, this time they’re all in LEGO form so it’s automatically better, right? Right?

*Except for ‘Harry Potter World Cup Quidditch’. That was awesome.

'Where are you, Ron? You're going to pay for spiking my pumpkin juice!'

Intro

The manual is decorated with the image of Hogwarts from the films and is set out neatly. There is very little you have to do to get to the game; it requires you to set up a save file, but you just have to press the A button a couple of times. The story is great fun - it encapsulates the first half an hour of the film in about five minutes. Oh, and everyone is a LEGO figure, which is funny and deeply silly. The cutscenes have a zany feel and their own little tongue-in-cheek jokes that make them different to the films while still getting the point across, and also ensure they match the tone of the graphics.

There is too little white space in the manual, which doesn’t make it the quickest reading experience. The game is also a little cutscene heavy before we get to any gameplay, which would probably be okay if it wasn't a story that every player is going to know like the back of their hand. Also, Harry's disembodied LEGO head looms at you from the Wii menu screen and on every loading screen, which I personally found somewhat disturbing.

Perhaps if there was a tiny mini-level between the cutscenes, such as grabbing and reading one of the Hogwarts' letters, it would break up the initial cutscene a little and make it feel like less of an info-dump.

Thanks for the hint, game. No, really. I was wondering what that button did.

Getting Going

The gameplay is straight forward, and the first level doesn't hand-hold you too much; once you're shown step-by-step how to perform an action, you aren't told how to do it again when a similar action crops up. The main steps needed to complete the first level are pointed out to you, but there is scope to explore the level and find extra little puzzles to solve without being shown how; you are rewarded for exploration and trying things out on your own. The graphics are used to directly show you whether you can interact with objects - if you point your wand at something, you'll instantly know if you can cast certain spells or not. You also have ample opportunity to familiarise yourself with the controls.

You are, of course, specifically shown every puzzle you need to solve in order to get from one part of the level to the other. To complete the first level, you basically just have to follow the on-screen prompts, which is neither exciting nor challenging.

Although this is based on films one through to four and the levels follow the story fairly closely, it would have been nice to be able to go into some of the shops on Diagon Alley and play around a bit more in that initial level, especially given that the game does encourage a little open-world exploration to begin with.

Ron, it's your moment to shine! 

Fun

The game works with a basic 'point-and-click' method - you point the Wii Remote at objects and if they glitter, you might be able to interact with it. This can mean anything from collecting coins and energy, to solving puzzles, to animating weird and wonderful contraptions you can ride. All of these things will be required to complete the level, and as you gain more skills throughout the game, unsolvable puzzles in previous levels will be accessible, which gives you an incentive to replay the level to uncover additional secrets. Simply moving around in the detailed world playing at casting spells is enjoyable, and you are actively rewarded for playing around with everything you can find, rather than just rushing through to the end. There are lots of little fun interactions you can do - for example, you can cast Wingardium Leviosa at random wizards and it works! You can also shoot at passers-by who will run away in fear; none of this serves any purpose except for being amusing. The open-world aspect is nicely handled and makes it feel like a real place rather than just a level where you need to do puzzle A to open door 1.

There are a couple of fundamental problems which become apparent when you play the game for longer than half an hour. First of all, the puzzles really aren't very challenging. At all. I don't mean that they're telegraphed (although they are in some cases), I mean that even if you have no idea what to do, you will figure it out based on the limited amount of space you can move in and the objects you can interact with therein. For example, there is a level where you have to face off with a giant troll in the girls' bathroom. The painting won't let you in because you and your companion are boys. There is nothing in the level which points you logically to any kind of solution. Instead, there are a pile of objects near a painting that glitter when you get near them. So, you press B and cast the only spell in your arsenal on the pile. It turns into... something, and that something enters the painting and activates it. Well, now you can cast a spell at the painting, so you do, because why not? The wizard in the painting inexplicably turns you into a girl. Well, that's clearly how you get past the attendant to the girls' toilets. None of that you could have come up with through lateral thinking or logical progression - you come up with it because there's not a lot else you can do in the level. That's not a fun puzzle that makes you think; that's waving a cursor around the screen and randomly clicking buttons. Sadly, a lot of the puzzles are based around this.

Also, you have a series of hearts that denote your life-force; when these are diminished, you die in an amusing macabre mess of smashed up LEGO pieces. But you appear to have limitless lives, and whenever you die, you are regenerated exactly where you left off. What's the point of having enemies and objects that can hurt you? What's the point of even having an energy system when you are, to all intents and purposes, completely invincible? There is no sense of peril or worry as you play through this game, because nothing can happen to you. At all. The makers can't even blame it on the 'it's for kids' factor, because it's PEGI 7+. I've played PEGI 3+ games with bigger consequences if the player makes a mistake.

I'd dearly like to see these puzzles be based on something more than random clicking at the screen. Several point-and-click adventure games have done this before, where you communicate with characters and hold inventories so puzzles can be solved across several levels instead of just one. A more simple way of introducing some element of risk to this game would to implement actual consequences to dying or messing up. You lose your lives, you start the level again, or the scene again. That way you actually fear losing all of those hearts.

Yeah, you look exactly the type of wizard who likes to change young boys into young girls. Check out that shifty glint in his eye.

Visuals

The LEGO characters and objects are faithful recreations of their real-life counterparts, and the game retains the look and feel of the films, but with the bright, colourful and blocky style of LEGO. The level areas vary from light and airy to dark and claustrophobic, and effectively conjure up such an atmosphere. Nothing feels out of place in the world, which is an impressive feat when you're combining realistic buildings and backgrounds with LEGO people and objects.

There is a bit of a dissonance between the realistic background and the LEGO pieces you interact with, which makes the environment look a little odd.

I personally would have liked to see the whole world look Lego-esque. The fact that the backgrounds and buildings go for a realistic style is a little disappointing to me. I can appreciate that full-on LEGO backgrounds would make it difficult to distinguish the objects and characters (they go full-on LEGO in the bonus levels, and that is proof enough that the novelty would have worn off in a whole game), but a little LEGO-ification of the whole world would have made it feel totally unique.

Intelligence

The great thing about this game is that characters do react to you; they'll duck or complain (in gibberish) if you attack them with spells for fun. The kids will run away if you cast spells at them. Characters will randomly wave and say hello to you.

There were very few enemies to encounter in the first few levels, but they didn't seem to do anything except run through their scripted actions. The one enemy fight I got to do only involved a single projectile being actively aimed at you; for the most part, you could stand right next to the enemy and it wouldn't touch you.

As the enemy fights are clearly meant to be a danger, it would be nice to see them react to you. There's an element of needing the action to be 'safe' enough that you can complete puzzles, but being able to practically touch an enemy without it trying to attack me is taking it a bit too far.

'Yeah! Anarchy in Hogwarts! Trash the system!'

Immersion

This is a game that makes it easy for you to lose track of time playing, fundamentally because it allows you to interact with just about anything. There are lots of side-puzzles that aren't spelled out in the level, but allow you to get extra 'studs' (coins, essentially) and Wizard Points, both are which are beneficial when it comes to unlocking bonus features. As you can go back and play levels at any time once you've completed them, this gives you an incentive to go back and further explore each level.

On the other hand, the gameplay quickly becomes a case of pointing randomly at objects and pressing a button to see if you can do anything to it. Repeatedly. This becomes somewhat tiresome after a while, and you find yourself playing on just to see if you can do anything different in the next part, rather than because you're lost in the world.

I think this game would benefit from wider-reaching puzzles; for example, being able to carry items from one level into the next to complete a puzzle there. As you are free to replay any level once you've completed it (and you are encouraged to), there's no reason having to go back to get an object you didn't realise you needed would be a terrible chore. The puzzles don't need to be mind-bending, just a little more complicated.

Cameras

The camera is pretty much fixed on or around you, as the levels are set up to be roughly single screen or side-scrolling. This means there's very little that can go wrong with regards to the camera.

However, there are still areas that cause problems, such as walls that you can't see behind which force you to stumble blindly along them just in case a valuable item is hidden there. You can't really change the camera view, either - the most you can hope for is that it rotates slightly either way, which in reality doesn't help you at all.

A fully rotating camera controlled by the Wii Remote direction buttons would make it easier to view your complete surroundings.

Insert joke about gripping your wood here.

Controls

The controls are simple, and most of the buttons serve multiple functions, depending on what sort of object you are manipulating. The controls, mercifully, do not require pin-point accuracy. So long as you are reasonably close to an object, you will be able to perform actions on it. When you have to jump onto platforms, the controls are responsive and moving your character around isn't a chore.

Having said that, some of the controls are a complete mess. Troll fighting; you have to catch a flying piece of debris with a spell and fling it at a huge troll. Surprisingly awkward; you have to be standing at just the right place and you have to blindly swing the Wii remote and nunchuck in the hope it'll do something. That's actually the process I had to follow to get past that part of the game, and it mainly seems to be a result of not being able to aim the cursor until you have committed to casting a spell. There is also a problem with the NPCs getting in the way of your spells, which can be frustrating. Even your fellow playable characters sometimes stand in the way of an object as you're trying to cast a spell on it.

For some reason, you can only see the Wii Remote cursor once you press the B button to cast a spell, which is strange. If you were able to aim the cursor before trying to perform an action, it would make it easier to navigate the NPCs that get in your way, or to actually aim a spell where you're required to do so within a specific time frame.

'So, you're cool with the wanton destruction, so long as I sort out your lights? Awesome.'

Ideas

There are lots of fun gimmicks, such as being able to collect new characters and play as them by using Polyjuice potion, that add to the game. The world has been carefully thought out, and the characters react to whatever you do in the game. There are bonus levels that are made up completely of LEGO, you can unlock and purchase additional spells and robes. The fact that you are actively encouraged to explore each level to find bonus items and to achieve 'true wizard' status makes it easy to get sucked into the world. As you play each level, it is also apparent that you will need to return when you have improved your arsenal of spells, as you will find several objects you cannot interact with but are clearly there to be used. there's also the option for a friend to join in and help you out, which adds a nice little co-op element to the game.

Despite all the great little touches, the main gameplay is somewhat flawed. When you get down to it, the puzzles aren't really puzzles - they are either completely spelled out (excuse the pun) for you, or they make no sense whatsoever. Even the ones that make no sense aren't a challenge, because so long as you try to cast a spell on any object that looks a bit glittery, you'll sail through the game. You can't even die properly!

It feels as though the game has succumbed to the 'oh, it's for kids' mentality of making everything as safe and methodical as possible. This is a puzzle style adventure game; the player should be expected to think a little. The puzzles should be aimed at making people draw logical conclusions or to think outside the box for a solution - not by making them think, 'Oh, which object haven't I tried to cast a spell on yet?'. Why not have these sorts of puzzles, but include a 'help' character who can give out hints? There's no reason a LEGO Dumbledore can't be sitting around offering clues, or even a LEGO Snape giving you sarcastic insults that point you in the right direction.

Yes, they do have an achievement called 'Solid Snape', and yes, it does involve hiding in a barrel. Bless 'em.

Memory

This is an interesting type of puzzle game, where you have to return to each level upon gaining different skills in order to fully explore it - and curiosity will make you do so. The interactions between NPCs are fun, and the freedom you have to wander around each level and just play about with things is hugely enjoyable - sometimes you'll uncover something useful, other times you'll just find an entertaining vehicle that may make you ponder its purpose. The bonus levels (which you access through the bank vaults by collecting gold bricks) stuck in my mind primarily because I was able to run over either Harry or Ron with the Knight Bus, which was far funnier than it should have been. The way each key point in the Harry Potter films is condensed is genuinely funny - I laughed out loud at several moments.

Sadly, the game is let down by the slightly dull puzzle mechanic of 'point-and-see'. There seems to be so much care and attention put into the little things - things that really made me smile - only for them to forget about the main gameplay, and that's a real shame.

I would have liked to see more expansive puzzles in this game; tasks and objectives that maybe carried over more than one level, or more puzzles which you solve based on actually thinking about the problem, rather than just blind experimentation - for example, a small change to that puzzle mentioned earlier where a wizard in a painting transforms you into a girl could involve making it clear in the painting that he does this, even in as daft a way as him dressing up as a lady (it would fit the humorous tone of the games). Oh, and for the first time in my life, I actually wanted an enemy character to properly kill me. In life, as it should be in games, there are consequences to your actions.

Overall, the open-world aspect of this game and the multiple side-quests you can complete while going through each level are fun, and the touches of sometimes dark humour littered throughout both the cutscenes and the actual gameplay are thoroughly enjoyable. Sadly, the main gameplay is a little dull, and I can see players lacking the patience to persevere through the continual ‘press B and see what happens’ procedure to complete the game.