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You could be forgiven for thinking there was a new Harry Potter game. Both the visuals in this game and The Polar Express are so close to that of the Harry Potter games that I wonder why EA hasn’t complained.
In true action-adventure form, the orphans must undergo a series of trials, collecting items to make into inventions that are used to overcome obstacles. As is the case with most action-adventure titles, the game’s tutorial is part of the game. A wonderfully voiced (by Tim Curry) narrator, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, guides the player through the requirements of each challenge along the way. This is really a great feature that allows full accessibility to the older children that the game targets. The only problem is that this is the totality of the game: start new level, watch the cutscene. A voice-over tells you that you need to collect items to build a device to combat the current foe or problem. At this point, you are free to wander the small area and collect the items. When all are collected, another cutscene shows the invention being made. You are then given the opportunity to use the device (all action is done by left clicking). Whereas this doesn’t sound bad, it’s just very repetitive. The puzzles, what there are of them, are switch type and quite simple. Whereas I continued to play and thoroughly enjoyed the concepts in the game, I just found myself wishing there were more to it.
The interface is almost identical to that of the Harry Potter. Each player chooses a save game slot, which is updated at regular junctures in the game. There are also points in the game that allow manual saving should the player so wish. Although there is no true manual saving, there are few instances that most would find frustrating. Although I am always disappointed when a game doesn’t have manual saving, this game, like the Harry Potter series, has frequent enough saving to make managing the game only a very minor annoyance. There is frequent opportunity in the game to collect health monitored by way of a “misery meter”. Should misery overwhelm the children, the game is over and recommences from the last save point. The standard “WASD” setup is used for movement, the space bar for jumping, and left-mouse button is used for all interaction and actions. It’s a shame the programmers chose to use the brackets “[“ and “]” for scrolling through the different ammunition for the projectile weapons. Commonsense would have suggested using the scroll button, the most common default for games with action. Other than this, the game was easy to jump right into. I experienced no difficulties installing or playing this game. It seemed completely stable and I experienced no glitches, freezes, or crashes. There were slowdowns at graphically intensive points but I attribute this to my system being at the lower end of the specifications. Be warned, though, that when you start the game, be sure you don’t plan to upgrade it. The readme states: “Save files should not be transferred from one machine to another. Save games will only work on the system they are created on”. This seems quite odd that saved games have information incorporated into them specific to an individual computer’s setup. I thought DirectX was supposed to eliminate that...
This game leans more heavily to action than adventure but is quite an enjoyable, if repetitive, detour from pure adventure games. Children and eye candy junkies will likewise be enthralled. This game warrants a B for more open-minded players, but adventure game purists would probably rate it a grade lower. Final Grade: B System Requirements:
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