Review | Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4

When Travellers Tales introduced the world to the fantastic concept of merging Lego and Star Wars into a video game, no one was surprised at the instant success. TT had created not only brilliance in game mechanics but had improved the classic storyline with surprising humour and eye-popping graphics. Of course the triumph of the game led to more Lego games including Indiana Jones and Batman.

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 gives players the chance to experience the magic and adventure of Harry Potter in a uniquely LEGO way. Playing as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, as well as more than 100 other favourite characters, you will have the opportunity to attend classes, cast spells, mix potions, fly on broomsticks and earn rewards.

As the title suggests the game covers the first four books/movies of the Harry Potter story (that is Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire). Right from the start Harry’s magical world looks simply stunning in Lego.

As we saw in Lego Indiana Jones 2, multi-player again uses a seamless co-op split screen which allows players to roam around and rendezvous later when both are in the same vicinity; a welcome improvement on earlier versions. However the game does often struggle with camera angles, which can be frustrating to those trying to search every inch of the world for any hidden extras.

With no light-sabers, whips or battarangs, we must investigate the transition of Lego magic; your main attack button will have you flicking various spells from your trusty wand whilst that secondary magic will be used for more complex manoeuvres such as brick building, throwing objects or raising platforms. As the game progresses you will learn various spells and have the ability to cycle through them at any time.

A major change in the franchise is to the hub system. The Leaky Cauldron/Diagon Alley area works as a central hub for purchasing unlockable extras, and accessing the Bonus Stages, Free Play mode, and the Level Builder. Hogwarts itself acts as a massive, constantly evolving hub with the unlockable characters found by picking up their hidden portraits. There is also the addition of the “Student in Peril” where you have to free students all around Hogwarts who are trapped in various predicaments.

The larger areas in Hogwarts have led developer Traveller’s Tales to improve the overall level design, including another bonus level that players are able to customise, just like in Lego Indiana Jones 2. In fact the sheer size of Hogwarts can easily leave you disorientated; luckily Nearly Headless Nick leaves a juicy trail of ghostly studs to help you find your way back to continue the story. As you progress through the game acquiring spells and Polyjuice potions, more areas of Hogwarts become available.

The game has around 167 different playable characters, including some of the more minor and unusual ones like Fang, Dobby, Buckbeak and the Centaurs. Most characters have a special ability, such as Harry’s use of his Invisibility Cloak and Hermione’s ability to use books to solve puzzle locks. Characters also have different strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Harry is able to perform tricks and shoot jinxes when he is on a broom,  Hagrid’s strength allows him to move heavy objects, and Ron can use Scabbers to crawl into otherwise unreachable areas.

You can easily find yourself spending hours trying to reach the 100% completion score and that in itself is the beauty of these games. Everyone knows the stories, you know how it will end, you know what is waiting around the corner but that little glimpse of magic Lego humour makes the retelling of the story all the more glorious. It’s easy to play the game with a wry grin on your face the whole time and yes there are periods of frustration when searching for a hidden vase, torch or that extra coin that gives you the perfect wizard score, but I think it’s worth the effort. Simply put, if you enjoyed any of the previous Lego games you will love HP. The game isn’t without its flaws, but is such a fun affair that you can almost forgive any foibles that arise.

[8.5]