Customer Reviews

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

The first Harry Potter Lego Wii (years 1-4) is a lot of fun and this game (years 5-7) falls right in line, with scenes and sets that are reminiscent of the first game, but with different perspectives. However, we are already finding several places where the game freezes. This makes it very frustrating to play, when you have to repeat everything 5 times (literally) in a row and it still freezes! The worst freeze we've found so far (we're in year 6, haven't completed the game yet) is in Year 6 at the Weasley home. The use of the Aguamenti water spell is critical to getting through this section, but if you use it too much other than with an Aguamenti symbol, the game freezes consistently. We're also seeing freezing in the quonset hut with Arthur Weasley, and there doesn't seem to be a consistent cause for this.

It's extremely disappointing to pay $50 for a game that has, in no way, improved in this area. Traveler's Tales are making a mint off the HP franchise name, and the oddest part is this: they also make the Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean Lego Wii games and none of those is nearly as glitchy as the Harry Potter games! What the heck, TT? Do you have a completely sub-par team working on the games tied to the largest movie franchise in history? Get your game straight- it's not worth the frustration. I've already heard (on the day after its release) rumours of recall by TT. I'd recommend keeping your receipt if you've already ordered to be prepared to ask Warner Brothers and TT for a replacement disk, or perhaps wait a while to order to see if they get this fixed.

In all, lots of fun. My 5 year old and I love playing, but the frustration with glitches takes the fun down a few levels.

Sunday 13 November: An update - The game has definitely been recalled. If you have a bad copy, look for the Customer Service number on the inside of your booklet that came with the game. When you call, you'll go through a menu to indicate the game and gaming system you're using, then a customer service rep can take your information to have a replacement disc mailed to you when they become available. No word on when that is, but the process was painless - I even got through to them at 9:30 on a Sunday morning!

This disc is even glitchier than the usual Lego Wii release. When you hit Year 6, you get stuck in the Weasley yard fighting fires -- your Wii will Freeze up hard and the only solution is to pull the power cord, reboot the Wii and start over--only to have it happen again and again. NOT FUN. According to Warner Bros Tech Support this is A) a known issue, but B) since the Wii can't accept a download patch (unlike PC, Xbox, etc), they will have to re-press new game discs and that will probably take "quite some time, it won't happen soon". At the moment I own a $50 drink coaster and I am NOT happy about it. I would wait until at least spring 2012 before buying it--they are going to need time to fix the bugs, then press new discs, then get those discs into the shipping channels. You don't want to chance getting stuck with one of these early dog versions.

BTW at the moment only the PC version has been formally recalled. The Wii (and other) versions have not, although the tech I spoke with wouldn't be surprised if that changed in the next few days. Apparently the bug reports are flooding in fast and furious. They def. rushed this one out the door before it was ready.

So much as the game itself was fun (what we could play of it), it is NOT worth purchasing yet. Wait until version 2.0 comes out with the glitches and bugs fixed. This is worse than the jungle/grass bug in Pirates. My kids -- and I -- are very disappointed in this poor showing from Warner Bros. The game is going back if I have any say in it.

My son was really excited to get this game last Friday. Unfortunately, his enjoyment has been tempered by the extreme bugginess of the release. Since he made it to the 6th year, the game has crashed constantly. We finally called customer service this morning and were informed that it has been recalled. We will be sent a new disk in the mail. I am happy with how WB has handled the issue, but if I were in the market to buy the game, I'd hold off until it's clear that the new release is less buggy.

As others have mentioned, we also came across a nasty glitch in the 6th year of this game. During the "A Not So Merry Christmas" chapter, you can get stuck with several glitches if you're not careful. These glitches will cause your Wii to freeze and you have no choice but to unplug it and start the level over. I had to do this 4 times to get it right, and also looked for a workaround online. If you want to figure it out for yourself, don't read any further.

THE GLITCH: using the Aguamenti spell to put out the flames on the right of the screen to advance to that area. Freezes up and you have to restart your Wii and replay the level.

THE SOLUTION: When you get in there, be sure to focus the Aguamenti spell on your target when you spray the small flames and spray them one at a time. The spell will not work on the large flames. DO NOT spray the flames over to the right. Ignore those for now. That was one of the glitches. Just spray the ones in front of the outhouse. You can do this as Mollie Weasley or any of the characters, but I used her and didn't have a problem. Do Wingartium Leviosa on the pile of logs on the ground where it will uncover a place for Lupin's werewolf to dig. He will dig up the handle to put on the outhouse. Change back to Lupin and place the handle where it guides you on the outhouse. Change back to the werewolf, pull the handle. The werewolf has the strength to do this without a potion. Change back to Lupin and you will find the Spectre Specs box - put those on. Start walking back and to the right and you will come across the hidden pieces to levitate. It will build the water tank that attaches to the water gun. Use your Aguamenti spell on the tank to fill it up. Then jump up to the water gun and spray the large and small flames to the right to put them out.

If you want to see it all in action, here's a link to the video [...]

On 15 November, after awaiting its release anxiously, I purchase a copy of Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 for the Nintendo Wii console. The screen has frozen a minimum of 6 times in 24 hours (I stopped counting) and renders the console's controls useless whilst emitting a very loud, obnoxious, high pitched noise from the speakers that can only be what it sounds like when several geese scream through a megaphone as they are wrenched through heavy machinery. The only way to end this auditory assault and reboot the frozen console (which is de-facto bricked while this is happening, save for the screaming and the frozen shot on the screen) is to physically unplug the machine and hard-boot the system. This happens *every* time I engage a puzzle at the exact same point in the game and storyline (Year 6, "A Not So Merry Christmas", after my character leaves the garage and begins fighting fires at the Weasley home).

This game is defective.

This game will not work.

This product is unsatisfactory.

In addition to the defective and inferior software, I find myself adrift and without solace since the customer service telephone line no longer appears to be in service. This exacerbates an already aggravating circumstance - I cannot tell if the software has been recalled, I cannot discern (if it *has* been recalled) why merchants are still selling defective software, and I cannot reach Warner Bros Interactive Eentertainment to exercise the 90 limited warranty options printed in the booklet included with the software by telephone.

This is such a fun game! I didn't have any trouble at all with freezing or glitching, my game ran perfectly well. It took me a little over 10 hours to complete, so not the longest game but certainly not the shortest Potter game either. It has a good mix of serious playing/ puzzle solving and a healthy dose of Lego humor for those (many) sad death scenes as well as little funny details added in. Another thing I really liked about this game is that it includes some plot points from the books that didn't make it into the movie such as Luna Lovegood's room and a few others. Overall I highly recommend this game if you are a Potter fan!

Length:: 1:28 Mins

We just bought this yesterday (when it was released), and have been playing it almost non-stop since. The only break we took was to watch the new Harry Potter movie that also came out yesterday. Unlike the other reviewer, we have had no problems at all with the game, and it has been fun for both my 9 year old and me (I'm 42).

We like this game because of the following reasons:

- Two people can play together (the screen will split when the two players get too far apart, then seamless become a single screen when they are close together). This has allowed me to play with my daughter.

- The real music from the HP movies are also the soundtrack to the game. We have every soundtrack, and have been enjoying hearing the music we are already familiar with as we play the Legos game.

- The game isn't too difficult (at least, not yet). We are over half-way through Year 5, and have not been overly-stumped yet. My 9 year old has been able to figure out each puzzle she's been presented with.

The game has a great sense of humor. It is fun to see what will happen if we do this action or that action. What "that" is will depend on you and what you think up, since I'm sure there are things that we could have done that we've not yet figured out. My daughter told me to attack Draco at one point, and she laughed when he turned my character into an ice cube.

- The movie cuts are wonderful. They follow the movie storylines pretty much perfectly, from what we've seen so far, and are also full of humor. For example, there is a scene after Arthur Weasley returns home after being attacked by the snake. Molly takes him upstairs, and his facial expressions are priceless as he bumps up each stair, clearly causing him pain.

- My daughter loves that she can do magic. It makes her feel like she's really a student in Hogwarts.

I have no idea how long it will take for us to finish the game, but once that is done, my daughter will be able to go back through it for free play time (meaning, she can play without needing to complete specific actions that relate to the game - in other words, she can do whatever she wants).

This is my first experience with a Lego game, and I'm very impressed.

P.S. My apologies for how quiet my daughter is in the video. She was really absorbed in the game and didn't really want me bothering her.

EDIT: Now that we have played for a few days, I am modifying my overall rating from five to four stars. I find the 'Save' very frustrating on this game. The game saves automatically, whenever we see Voldemort's head floating for a few seconds, but it is unpredictable. It can take 40 minutes or more for the game to autosave, and there is no way for us to save. This means we have been leaving the game on pause for large periods of time, such as when it is time to stop for dinner or bedtime, because we haven't seen Voldemort's head floating around. I have no idea if the game autosaves during the movie scenes, so we continue to play until we see that the game has saved. I can't believe they didn't include the ability to save on our own!

Also, I agree with another reviewer about some scenes being incredibly dark. As with that reviewer, we have had to modify the brightness from within the game itself (we tried the TV's settings, but that didn't do much). There is no reason why some scenes should be so dark that you can't see what's going on.

After reading these reviews about the gliches, I wanted to add my customer service experience. Tech support very helpful and recommended that if you are having problems, check your console to see if your sound setting is on either stereo or mono NOT SURROUND SOUND. Seems to help may people stuck at the Weasley house/fire scene. Yes, they will send you a replacement disc BUT you have to have your receipt AND they will send you the same disc type you have. They HAVEN'T recalled the game console versions, only PC version because of uploading issues. Most likely will be recalled soon; company has plans redoing a new disc. Recommend save your time and your receipt until that happens. DON'T BUY THE GAME NOW...WAIT.Person told me gliches likely will happen with the current supply of discs they have. Overall game is fun but VERY frustrating when stuck.

I love the LEGO series of games. My family has them all (except the Clone Wars one). We were mildly upset with the Pirates of the Caribbean game because it froze up randomly. This game makes the Pirates game look perfect. We have not even gotten to the dreaded year 6 issue that most people are having problems with and our game has frozen up numerous times. It's really frustrating too. There is a certain expectation with console games that you put them in your system, and they play flawlessly. This is not a PC that should have to be reconfigured (ie. the sound to mono, video to 480) to run a game. I haven't even had to do that to my computer since Doom back in '94. I have not contacted the customer service number as of yet, but that is forthcoming and we'll see how that goes. I was ready to just toss the game and accept that I wasted 50 dollars, but my 6 y/o was too upset about that, so....

Anyway, all the negative aside, I love the game itself. You get stripped of a bunch of your spells right at the beginning, so you spend a couple minutes (hour or two) learning some new spells. It follows the movies pretty well. I feel that it's similar enough to HP 1-4 to be a sequel, but different enough to keep you interested. I haven't gotten far enough into the game to describe anymore of the gameplay than that.

My family and I have been waiting for this game since we played the original HP 1-4. Love the books, the movies, and the games. Hopefully the bugs and glitches get worked out and we can enjoy the game. We have read book seven, watched parts 1 and 2 of the movie, it would be really nice to be able to play through the rest of the story.

EDIT: Follow-up on 12/23. I found a work around on the internet stating that if you change the Wii settings for video to 480i and sound to Mono that it will run. In fact it does. Since switching the settings, the game has not frozen up once. I still don't feel I should have to "configure" a console, but it's a minor detail to be able to play this great game. Plus, it doesn't really change the look of any other games (miss the stereo sound though) and might also help out with my LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean that is freezing up too.

Ok so this game is quite glitchy BUT if you follow the guidelines on line by other users on how to avoid these problems, the game is completely worth it. (it's really only the one level in Half Blood Prince at the Weasley's house that causes the biggest problem). My husband and I read all the reviews and were so disappointed and thought we just wont buy this one even though we'd been waiting for such a long time for it to come out. I am so glad we gave in and finally got it- I couldn't resist! The game didn't glitch or crash once because we followed other gamer's advice about the sound settings for the whole game and didn't use a splt screen for that one level (mentioned above)! seriously NOT ONCE! In fact, we also bought Pirates of the Carribean and this was much worse than Harry Potter. If you have been waiting to play this game and you let the other reviews prevent you from buying it till now, don't! It's so much better than the first and it has been my favorite lego game yet. Take the risk- you wont regret it! (just don't forget the settings!)