LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 – Demo Impressions
I’ll admit i am not the biggest Harry Potter fan. I did see the first movie, since then i haven’t been near anything related to Harry Potter. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 demo was on XBL so i decided to give it a shot. The LEGO series of games are developed with quality through and through so i had somewhat of an idea that LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 had the chance of being a good demo.
Developed by Traveller’s Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. You won’t have a problem finding a system to play LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 on as it will be available on the PC, Playstation 3, Wii, 3DS, VITA, DS and PSP. The release date is November 11, 2011.
From what i understand LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 is based on the last three Harry Potter books and the last four films released. I just thought it was interesting regardless of it not helping me understand the characters or settings at all. The button layout via Xbox 360 gamepad: LS-move, LB or RB-tag/toggle characters, LT-spell wheel, RT-spell wheel clockwise, X-cast magic/hold target, A-jump, B-interact, Y-tag/hold to show spell wheel RS-camera. The controls were actually decent in this game. The problem for me was that it took “a minute” to figure out the gameplay, which wasn’t the controls fault at all.
Lovegood’s Lunacy was the name of the playable chapter in the demo. The opening cutscene shows some bad wizards kidnapping a person. Next you see Harry Potter with that young girl and his buddy walking up to the house where the kidnapping happened. One thing that i expected were the great atmosphere and presentation that LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 has. The visuals and artstyle gave off a rich atmosphere. The gameplay scene took place on a hill in the country side. Clouds and mountains in the distance displayed good draw distance texture work.
The sound design of LEGOS dropping and music were really good in LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7. It took me awhile to understand the gameplay regarding how the colors of the magic on the weapon wheel coincides with objects. The early part of the demo has you unlocking objects, picking up objects and solving mini puzzles using your magic wheel. As you unlock puzzles and destroy objects with magic such as dark crows, bees and green vines LEGOS explode on screen that you can collect to get points. Your short term goal is to extract four pieces of a Crest. It looked like a shield of some sort.
One thing i can deduce from playing the LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 demo is that its a solid game whether you like Harry Potter or not. The presentation regarding its visuals, sound and atmosphere was top-notch. And most importantly the gameplay was interesting and fun. Thanks for reading.
