As much I loved the first two Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman & as much as I loved the Harry Potter books and movies, I thought Lego Harry Potter would be a great match. It turns out I was wrong. In fact, I feel very apathetic when I was playing this. Oh sure, it's everything you expect but something just feels very off this time around. What do I mean? Come on and I'll discuss everything about Lego Harry Potter Years 1 - 4.
As you expect, it takes place during the first four Harry Potter stories. So there's the revelation that young lad Harry Potter is a wizard. Then he finds out that he's the only survivor during Voldemort's reign of terror and actually sealed Voldemort away for many years. But slowly and surely, Voldemort is regaining strength for another reign of terror. It's up to Harry Potter to stop him...eventually, but first he has to learn the value of friendship, learn the awesomeness of Quidditch, free his criminal uncle from Azkaban and kill all of Voldemort's cronies.
The game plays the same as the other Lego games. You go out and find some stuff to build into things that do some other things. That part is still really fun since you never really know what you're going to build. Sure, you have an idea but there always some surprises sprinkled in somewhere. Even if the rest of the game falters, which I'll get to in a second, it at least keeps the building blocks, pun intended, of what makes these Lego games fun.
HOWEVER, the world of Harry Potter simply DOES NOT fit in a Lego game. These games never actually have voice-acting or actual story, just remnants of a story. That doesn't fly in Harry Potter. Those books and movies are dense and filled with many subtle moments that come back full force in future installments. You don't get that with Lego Harry Potter and in fact, you won't get much out of anything. If you never read or seen Harry Potter, you will not know what is going on ever. There are some times where it can get by on Rule of Funny, and it is hilarious, but to have something as complex as Harry Potter over-simplified turns this into an incoherent/border-line chore.
There's stuff to like about Lego Harry Potter, don't get me wrong. It is funny, it is fairly entertaining when you're not thinking about the story but it's very lackluster. As much as I like building stuff in the Lego games and the fact that it captures the external pleasures of Harry Potter(stuff like the score and the look), playing the game actually felt like a chore. This is for Harry Potter or Lego completionists only. But I will give credit that it supports the Harry/Hermione ship....the superior shipping couple.
6/10
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