LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 5-7

LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 5-7 has to satisfy two camps. On the one hand you have those who adore to chase after collectibles in the LEGO games, and on the other you have individuals who relish in the comedic send-ups of the texts the games are based on. So how well does it manage?

Voldemort is back to raise all kinds of hell, as LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 takes on the darker tone established during the fourth film and novel. The Dark Lord’s resurrection is a pressing matter with not just Harry’s scar, but happiness everywhere.

But this is a LEGO game, so that means tongue-pulling, slapstick, knowing looks between characters and the bad guys not being quite what you’d normally expect. The Magical and Muggle worlds may be under threat to a degree they have never been under before, but don’t let that put you off.

Once you’re in control of Harry again, it’s obvious that not a great deal has changed in terms of how you actually play the game. Spells work the same in terms of tearing up the environment and assembling blocks in order to build tools and objects to help you surmount obstacles, and there are a couple of new spells to make progressing through the chapters seem more varied compared to the first game. Annoyingly, you do have to reacquire many of the spells Harry, Hermione and Ron had learned before the end of their fourth year at Hogwarts.

New toys

Along with the spells, there’s the return of pets that can go places the main characters cannot, as well new tools such as Hermione’s bottomless purse and a Deluminator for Ron in the final two parts. The introduction of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes boxes are an appreciative nod to the joke shop that George and Fred set up, which you can also go into in Diagon Alley in order to purchase new spells and enter cheats. The boxes may only be used by members of the Weasley family, and along with objects that may only be manipulated by dark magic they serve as gatekeepers to many of the game’s collectibles.

There being so many dark wizards and witches to smack down during the course of all five parts of the game, the most welcome addition comes in the form of duels. Defining how you finally face down many of Harry’s enemies, the dueling system involves entering a temporary arena where you fight a one-on-one magical battle.

As you shield yourself from your enemies’ spells, duels are won through matching the spell you use to the one your opponent is using. When two of the same kind of spell connect, a bright, energetic stream erupts between the two wands and you’re asked to rapidly tap a particular button in order to out-duel your opponent. You repeat the process several times until your opponent’s health is completely diminished.

More major characters will take several duels to defeat, in-between which you’ll be busy throwing projectiles at them. A system similar to this was briefly used in Years 1-4, but it was nowhere near as exciting. Here it feels far more frantic, as if you’re playing as a wizard or witch as opposed to an efficient assembler of plastic blocks. Frustratingly though, if you’re playing in co-op, having a second player moving around the screen and subjected to the shifting horizontal split-screen divide makes it difficult to focus on what is happening in the duel.

Years 5-7 has a healthy number of collectibles scattered through the game, which extend it far beyond the realms of simply playing through the main chapters’ ten hours. All available collectibles are of the same nature as the previous game and as hinted earlier, some are obtained through new means. Interestingly, a 2D platform experience tells the tale of the Three Brothers in the first part of the Deathly Hallows, uniquely taking its cue from the presentation of the movie sequence.

Along with several events where you get to fly via various means, these moments help to break the game up more than the previous title. What is noticeably missing, though, is the LEGO Builder mode present in Years 1-4, tucked away under Gringotts, although honestly the feature didn’t add that much.

Smooth

Traveller’s Tales have not lost their touch with with cutscenes: each chapter is appropriately peppered with them to ensure that you know just where the plot is heading – or rather, if you’ve watched all the films, you’ll know roughly what to expect. The pithy snippets of humour that are showcased in each one make them amusing regardless of age. From Voldemort and Professor Snape taking tea and biscuits together to Sirius falling in half – serious moments are serious and amusing.

However, as with the final part of the previous game, the growing complexity of the films is at times hard to recapture in silent cinematics. Many of the more complex plot points have been paired down to a level of symbolism that will be very confusing for the uninitiated, while some have been brushed away completely.

This doesn’t mean that the plot doesn’t flow. Actually, it comes together well. Considering that LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 takes on the grittiest story arcs of the film incarnations of the franchise, it does reasonably balance the demands of rolling out a story that fans will appreciate with the necessity to keep things within the look and feel of the LEGO world.