![]() ![]() Portraits can be interacted with to help solve puzzles, staircases move, skeletons jig and sofas eat students and all this before you even start on the actual story levels. There are secrets within secrets, with hidden chambers tucked away behind objects, each with the usual gold Lego brick and parcel collectables to be located. Hogwarts and its grounds are large, full of hidden nooks, crannies, and classrooms from Snape’s dungeon, to the top of the Owlery, to the courtyards and corridors of the castle itself, there is a lot to explore, collect, and unlock. Whether it is merely an illusion or not, the world seemed far deeper than any of the previous Lego games. ![]() When you pause to consider how jumping straight into the mid point of ‘Goblet of Fire’ or ‘Chamber of Secrets’ would not only disrupt the story, being tied into one arc as they all are (as opposed to the contained ‘films’ of the Indy series), but it would throw a stumbling block in the way of gameplay, with certain abilities not being available yet, such as the Time Turner, which isn’t introduced until book three. ![]() Early in year one, Harry can do little, however, as the story progresses and classes are attended, new skills and spells are picked up, making for a very natural curve of skill progression which keeps pace with the unfolding story. If you’re at all familiar with the Lego games, the choice of which story you get stuck into is usually your own… not so here, but rather than box the player in, it actually makes perfect sense from both a story and gameplay perspective.įollowing Harry’s story throughout his school years, the paced unlocking of skills and abilities with which to access new and previously hidden areas makes more sense within this framework than it has elsewhere. Harry Potter: Years 1-4 bites off the first chunk of the series with gusto, thrusting the player into Harry’s story at book one and this is where the game immediately shuns the ‘choose your own path’ style of its predecessors, with a strictly linear approach to proceedings. With the films and books capturing the hearts and minds of millions and a rich, colourful world, ripe to explore, filled with magic and endless possibilities, it was practically a given. With a number of franchises successfully fed into their Lego machine, when it came time for Traveller’s Tales to turn their eye to the next, Harry Potter must have seemed the logical choice. Unfortunately, there's no way in hell that a LEGO character could possibly capture the pompous arrogance of Gilderoy Lockhart ![]()
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