www.download.com/harry-potter-and-the-goblet-of-fire-demo Website Review

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, a PC game from Warner Bros. and Electronic Arts, has several new features – some desirable, and others that would have been better avoided. First the negatives: starting the game has never been so difficult, as the user interface is too elaborate and lousy (I can think of no beter word), and the whole business of collector’s cards somehow eludes me. These frills could – and should – have been dispensed with for the purpose of the game itself. Playing the game with three separate characters (Harry, Ron and Hermione) is a good idea, but poorly executed. At times it works, and at other times it does not.

The game itself has ten levels – the game begins with “Defence Against the Dark Arts”, and is followed by “Moody’s Challenges”, “Hogwart’s Exterior”, “Forbidden Forest” before it graduates to “The Triwizard Tournaments”. It continues with “Prefect’s Bathroom”, “Herbology” and concludes with “Voldemort”.

Some of these levels are available only when the other levels have been completed. Again, this is not a bad concept, but in practical terms it limits the appeal of the game to hard core gamers. If one gets stuck at a particular level, I would have liked the option of beginning the next level irrespective. Perhaps, later on, one could have come back to complete that particular level.



The graphics are good, but the game designers seem to have fallen between two stools. They seem to have forgotten that this is a PC game, and not a movie. One is of the opinion that cinematic effects – while desirable in principle – are best confined to the movie medium. This is not a movie, and can never hope to be a movie. The PC game offers an alternate medium; it is not meant to replace or substitute the cinematic experience. The strength of the PC game is that it offers an interactive medium, where the player can be an active participant. Its other strength is that it allows the player to experience a virtual world, a world distinct from the real world. If the game designers had stuck to these basics, they would have been the better for it.

Perhaps the final criticism – a criticism that could equally be levelled against the entire Harry Potter franchise – is that there is simply not enough original material to go around. It simply builds on a successful formula, which may be good enough for the diehard fans, but leaves one distinctly dissatisfied at the lack of imagination involved.