Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• Play as Harry, Ron and Hermione, switching from one player to the next
• Face opponents such as Sirius Black and the Dementors
• Unravel the mystery behind the wizard prison
• Exciting sub quests
• For 1 or 2 players

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001ONL7O
• Item Weight: 4 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: May 25, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,879 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

The Dementors are coming... and this time Harry needs his friends.Product InformationAfter a dreadful summer with the Dursleys Harry Potter can't wait to start his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Events take a strange turn however when Harry discovers that Sirius Black the man believed to have betrayed Harry's parents and thus responsible for their murders has escaped from the wizard prison Azkaban.  Black appears to be seeking revenge on Harry for thwarting "You-Know-Who" while the Dementors Azkaban prison guards sent to Hogwarts to protect the school and recapture Black affect Harry in a disturbing way.  With the help of Ron and Hermione Harry is intent on unraveling the mystery surrounding Sirius Black and his escape from Azkaban.Product FeaturesDespite Harry's proven skill as a wizard this adventure is his most difficult yet and requires all the help Ron and Hermione can provide.Each companion learns unique spells which will be required to carry out specific tasks and puzzles.Some tasks such as multiple spell targets require action by more than one companion at a time.Your companions will assist if required.When control changes to a different companion character that character's icon will move to the top of the Active Characters indicator.To explore Hogwarts properly you must overcome many considerable obstacles.Hogwart School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a magical place with many hidden areas switches and pitfalls for the unwary student.  If you want to find everything you must search diligently.Throughout your adventure you must complete Spell Challenges in order to learn new spells and proceed through your third year at Hogwarts.Windows RequirementsWindows 98 Me 2000 XP600 MHz Intel Pentium III processor comparable256 MB of RAM850 MB free Hard Drive space plus space for saved games (additional space required for Windows swap file and DirectX 9 installat

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of fun but rather disappointing in a number of ways, June 5, 2004

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (CD-ROM)

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban is a great game, but I think it falls far short of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in terms of gameplay, atmosphere, and most certainly duration. I enjoyed the chance to play as Ron and Hermione, but it's not as if you choose one for a certain situation - it's all predetermined by the game itself. I was happiest when the trio stayed together and worked as a team - a number of different actions require the skills of more than one of our young wizard characters. Nice new additions such as this to the HP gaming experience turn out, unfortunately, to be few and far between. Much more is lost than is gained here.

The graphics are quite good, for the most part, but they just don't make Hogwarts come to life. In fact, Harry is pretty much just thrown down in the middle of the place and sent to class without any adequate introduction - there's no animation clip of Harry's departure from the Dursley household, no get-together in the Great Hall, only the briefest of welcomes from Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, and little chance to really settle in. Hogwarts itself seems to lack character, especially when viewed from outside the grounds - I never felt as if I were really "home." The experience is further diminished by the nonexistence of Quidditch matches, a House Points Championship, or extracurricular activities such as wizard dueling. Then there's the length of the thing. Just as I was settling in and planning to get start exploring the place in earnest, I found myself almost at the end of the game. This feels more like a demo than a complete game. You basically only learn three new spells here, and the spell challenges are much shorter than those of the earlier Harry Potter games. And even though Hogwarts looks bigger in this game, there is much less to do and explore than I was expecting based on my memories of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The only association you really have with your professors is in the challenges; in fact, there is hardly any interconnection with characters other than Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the entire game (even Draco Malfoy is kept out of the picture almost completely). Things come much too easily, even when Harry has to battle a horde of Dementors. As bad a player as I am, I had little trouble advancing quickly past all of the challenges - that is a clear sign that the game is much too easy.

The game does have its good points. Flying Buckbeak is loads of fun and makes for an almost serene experience. Expecto Patronum makes a fine addition to Harry's repertoire of wizarding skills, the ability to create and temporarily control small dragons makes for a bit of a fun challenge, and Carpe Retractum offers up a different and rather risky way to get around inside a challenge. The ability to create little rabbits and send them out to explore the local area is fun at first but eventually feels a little silly. I also have mixed feelings about the new Glacius spell, largely because sliding down frozen streams of water just doesn't seem to jibe with my concept of Hogwarts and Harry Potter in particular. All of this points to the most problematic issue with the game - it all too often wanders far afield from the events of the novel and movie. This renders the whole Sirius Black storyline as almost incidental and anticlimactic at best. Giving the game designers such a free hand in terms of content seems to have led to a concentration on the gaming aspects rather than the storyline, and that weakens the whole experience.

Harry is basically just going through the motions in this third installment of the HP gaming saga. When I finished the Chamber of Secrets game, I went right back in and played it a second time. Having finished The Prisoner of Azkaban, I feel no such commitment to the experience and may or may not ever return to this adventure. It's still a fun game to play, but give me HP and the Chamber of Secrets any day over this newest addition to the HP gaming series.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great graphics, design, and gameplay, but too dang short!, May 27, 2004

By 

Kathryn Grover (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (CD-ROM)

I just got the PC version today. I will say, I'm pretty much amazed that graphically, they did so much with so little, AGAIN. Still using the original Unreal engine, they've managed to put together a gigantic, gorgeous playground where you can pretty much roam freely. The grounds and forest look amazingly realistic, a varied assortment of clouds pass overhead, and there are secrets and explorable areas galore. (I've yet to get all the secrets, but I'm getting there...) The scene where Harry first produces the full patronus is actually quite amazing. And, the scenes where Sirius, Lupin, Pettigrew, and McGonagall change form? Whoa!

As beautiful as it was, I have one MAJOR beef with this game, and it's a doozy. There isn't enough of it. Instead of doing their own adaption directly from the book, as they've done in the past, Know Wonder atempted to adapt the already super-shortened story from the movie. (I haven't seen it yet, but I have seen the reviews.) The result feels horribly rushed. It's like watching a 2 minute generalized synopsys. They didn't even explain WHY Sirius was after Pettigrew. Sirius appears for a total of what? 15 seconds? Rather than adding Quidditch as a side-game as in the previous games (which could have been great if you ask me), they make a single cutscene. Darn. The few complaints I've heard about the PoA movie are usually about the idea of non-bookreaders being completely lost. Well, prepare to be lost in space if you haven't read the book OR seen the movie.

In a nutshell, by not following their own continuity and creating their own story adaptation straight from the book, Know Wonder really screwed themselves over this time. There's a lot of missed possibilities in this game. A LOT.

To it's credit, they did manage to lengthen gameplay by adding a heck of a lot of secret mini-levels and side games, as well as obstacle courses for "final exams". The secret mini-levels do add a lot of explorability, but I do wish they could have covered things such as the tunnel to hogsmeade, or a boggart level with the entire trio. With the assortment of new moves and spells, they really could have added more levels. There's also more notable characters running around. Neville meets up with you at one point, and Padma can be seen selling wizard cards. Oddly enough, there's a few kids running around with a hispanic accent. I'm guessing it's a tribute to the director. ^^;

The gameplay is still as fun as ever. FPS-style controls with third person action. Lots of secrets, lots of exploring, and a heck of a lot of jumping puzzles. The glacius challenge was probably the most fun (WOOT! Skater Harry!) even though to get all the items in one try, you have to commit suicide and jump to your death several times. (The items you've already collected are saved.) Not a pleasant thought by any means, especially since the scenery is something out of the old Doom games. (Hellish red and blue fire behind open windows, and the entire level is very dark with a creepy orange light.) o_O

Well, all that said, overall a very good, if very short, game. It took me less than a day to beat, while the previous two took me about 2 days each. I'm still looking for the last 9 cards. (And no beans for guessing what the very last card is. LOL)

I may as well say this now. Likely, Know Wonder is already working on the game for Goblet of Fire. Personally, as action packed as it is, I think it should be relatively easy to adapt as a video game. Know Wonder, if you're out there, please PLEASE follow your own continuity next time! That way, everybody wins.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of fun...and missed opportunities, May 31, 2004

By 

Ginny Powell "teampowell" (Tucker, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (CD-ROM)

At the risk of repeating what everyone else has said, this was a fun, beautiful game, but WAY too short. (And too easy, but I suppose it is aimed at a young audience.)

And what they left out just makes you scratch your head. Were you looking forward to kicking a little Quidditch butt on your Firebolt? Sorry. You'll get one tiny cut scene and no chance to play yourself - which makes no sense, as the Quidditch in the second game was well-handled. I would have preferred they just copied it!

You will get to fly Buckbeak quite a bit - only to have the important bit of flying turned into a cut scene. And here I was looking forward to counting thirteen windows! They make up for it somewhat with all the dragon flying, though.

I also wasn't happy with the transitions between chapters, which took forever and happened when you least expected it, like right after they said you could go exploring. I was never sure when I could go visit Fred and George's Shop, say, so always felt in a hurry.

And of course, worst of all, NO SNAPE!!! (Although I suppose some of you will see that as a feature. ;-)

On the good side, changing from Harry to Ron to Hermione was handled seemlessly. And bunnies are very, very fun (at least for those of us of the female persuasion)! Although why they bothered to come up with new stuff when they could have used more from the book...

All in all, I enjoyed it and am glad I bought it. But I sure hope the Tournament in the next one is more exciting.

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