Amazon.com: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: PC: Video Games

83 Reviews

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (83 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 86 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 (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

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.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun, but not as good as Chamber of Secrets, June 25, 2004

By	Angela D. Mitchell "Paranoid PR" (Jacksonville, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've really enjoyed the Harry Potter games on the PC -- they're a great combination of adventure and (mild) combat, and bring the Harry Potter universe to life in a fun way.

But I wasn't thrilled with this one. I liked it, but had some reservations and disappointments, especially after the complex and really enjoyable PC version of Chamber of Secrets.

What I liked:

* Overall, the game is a solid effort. It's fun and diverting, and the kids will love it.

* It was great to be able to play all three main characters at different points of play. Unfortunately the voice acting is a lot less solid this time around -- all three kids just don't sound all that convincing (or even very English)

* I loved the Draconifors Challenge -- a really innovative challenge in which Hermione must play enchanted rabbits and dragons through a series of steps. Enchanting and really clever (the rabbit sits and scratches when inactive; the dragon is just as cute. These also involve some of the best graphics in the game.

On the down side:

* Like others who have posted here, I have a near-new, screaming machine, yet could not play the game at the highest resolution either; is this really a driver issue for EA or a bug?

The game ran fine for me, but whether it's the resolution or a change in animation styles (or deadlines), this is a far less beautiful game visually than Chamber of Secrets. There are a lot more closeups, too, and they look terrible, very pixellated and blocky. The characters don't look bad, but they just don't look great, and they should.

* The game is way, way shorter than Chamber of Secrets. Aside from a few relatively easy side games, gone are most of the challenging and time consuming moments from the previous PC versions (I still remember how long it took me to beat Voldemot with that darned Flipendo spell on the mirror). I would have preferred just a little more challenge. So -- no more wizard duels, no more Quiddich (although I admit I have a love/hate thing with Quiddich because I'm horrible at it).

The challenges are far easier here, and (bummer) there are a lot less secrets to find. I loved the sheer numbers of secrets and hideaways and goodies in the first two games, especially COS, but this one, aside from a few really clever brain-teasers, they're very obvious.

* Hogwarts seems a lot smaller, too. We never get to see very much of it, and it doesn't feel like a real place, unlike the COS version, which really felt like you were exploring Hogwarts.

* The game ultimately feels kind of hasty. Why is it that there are so few secrets? So many portraits that have no purpose, so many doors that never open? In the previous games, each time you mastered a new spell, this led to new hidden areas to uncover so that as the game progressed, you were always finding new fun corners of Hogwarts to explore as each spell was mastered. In this one, if you thoroughly explore each floor for secrets in the beginning of the game, with a few exceptions that's pretty much it.

* WARNING: Do everything you need to do BEFORE taking the characters to their final exams! You do not get to go back, you cannot go find missing items, etc -- the game simply ends abruptly.

I hated this part! In COS (in a vast improvement from Sorcerer's Stone), you were informed bluntly that you could "finish up last-minute business (like hunting for those last missing Wizard cards)," and only when you were ready for the end of the game, you could go on to the last assignment (the meeting hall).

So -- it's not a bad game. But COS was so lovely and immersive -- beautiful graphics, great music and sound effects (the growling spiders freaked me out), and just a really big, complex, challenging game for those who enjoy the books. The first two games each took me three or four days minimum: This one is cute, fun, and took me two (short) afternoons to complete. Still worth buying for Potter fans, but still kind of a bummer.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

31 of 32 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 (REAL NAME)

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.