The crux of the LEGO games has been exploration and puzzle solving. Sometimes there is a heavy amount of action, but for the most part you get exploration and puzzle solving. That’s a tried and true formula that has never made for a bad time, especially as of late with the LEGO series. I think that maybe the LEGO series hit its current stride with Pirates of the Caribbean LEGO game, though it’s best material has been with the LEGO Batman games (they introduced voice acting to the LEGO world, as well as a more open world experience). The Harry Potter Collection, which is broken into two games, years 1-4 and years 5-7, was at the cusp of that LEGO greatness.
Let’s jump right into it.
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The gameplay in the LEGO Harry Potter Collection can be a bit stiff and unforgiving at times when it comes to exploration and puzzle solving, and in comparison to more recent LEGO titles. While certainly Tt Games didn’t want to make this a walkthrough experience, the level of difficulty in the HP Collection in comparison to something like the LEGO Batman games is a bit up there. The main problem, as I have found out over the last few days playing the game with my son, is that the gameplay doesn’t necessarily steer you into obvious success. This means that you don’t get a lot of hints to solve some of the harder puzzles in the game. For example, there was a puzzle in year 5, where Harry and friends had to clear a classroom and then move out of it. Clearing the classroom was no big deal. Finding a way out of the classroom was no easy task. My son toiled over where the location of a key was so that the door could be unlocked and we could be set free. The game simply said to find the key, but didn’t really give any sorta hint on where that might be. After a day of grumbling, we both realized that we needed to use an animal in a particular place, so that parts would be released and we could put the key together to get the heck out of the room. While I will admit that I’m not the smartest man in the world, the level of difficulty for kids is my concern with this. Trent, my son, played the heck out of the LEGO Batman games, so I know he is sharp when it comes to the series, but he really had a frustrating time with this title. We ran into several moments like the above example, where he probably would have given up on it had I not been there to walk him through some parts. It’s certainly a challenging game that doesn’t flex much.
That said, the puzzles do have a varying difficulty level to maybe keep both kids and adults involved with it. This means there were some parts where the gameplay flowed spectacularly with the puzzles. It also meant that the amount of effort given to figure out a puzzle was returned with entertainment value. For example, when we made it to the winter scene in year 5, my son was cracking up laughing when he figured out how to poor a giant cup of coffee onto some ice structures to get to the next part of town. This portion of year 5 really flowed well (pun intended). In short, while there are puzzle solving moments of frustration, sometimes high amounts of it, the gameplay does reward players for getting through it by providing smaller amounts of easy puzzles that are straightforward. It’s almost a balance, but not quite. It flips and flops, which doesn’t stop the progression by much, but it can feel like a road block at times.
Outside of the puzzles, you get some collectible material with this game. As with all LEGO titles, you can collect LEGO studs for achievements, which means pretty much causing destruction with your wand everywhere you go. You can also collect characters, gold bricks and a bevy of other items. The interaction with creatures and ‘things’ in the game make for a destructively entertaining amount of time when doing collecting.
Speaking of destruction, you can switch spells along the way to, which will also bring back a bit of the old familiar from the movies. Casting a patronus spell to fight off dementors is a possibility. There is also an option to mess with side characters using spells. Want to turn someone’s head into a tentacle briefly? You can. My son did this on/off for about half an hour until I politely asked him to stop because I was trying to review the game.
In addition to collecting and messing with people, the HP Collection also features small side quests, such as saving students or finding things with your characters’ pets. The gameplay here has a lot of ways to collect and interact, so you won’t be short of having fun while you wait around to figure a puzzle out.
Puzzles and collectibles aside, the core gameplay of the LEGO Harry Potter Collection is much of the same as past movie-based LEGO titles. The story progresses alongside of the movie’s story, while adding a heavy amount of humor and LEGO flavor into the mix. They did this with Pirates of the Caribbean, which actually made the story a bit more entertaining than the movie’s story. Anyway, if you’re a huge HP fan, then you’ll appreciate the innocent adjustments to the game to make it less dramatic and intimidating to the younger audience it’s trying to cater too. For example, when Harry saves Dudley from the Dementors in Year 5, it’s more funny and less frightening, even though we see a broken Cedric in the Goblet of Fire as a flashback (a little warped, but whatever). Again, it’s less frightening to a younger audience, which I can appreciate as a parent because pretty much Year 3-7 in the Harry Potter family is heavy on the drama and viciousness in comparison to the first two films.
Unlike the later LEGO games, again, such as Batman, because the HP Collection is stuck to the story, there is little room for true non-linear exploration. That is a mark of the times for this collection that has most reviewers pulling back when talking about it’s longevity and entertainment. While the lack of sandbox gameplay is certainly the case in the Harry Potter Collection, I would rather play the story out in the game than go exploring for hours upon hours — at least for this series. This does make the world in the Collection feel a bit more restrictive and on rails, but I’m okay with that type of structure. I wasn’t hoping that this remastered version of the game would be the girth of the LEGO Hobbit title, as that title felt a bit too much. I know this is a huge complaint amongst reviewers, so please understand it is not mine. I knew what to expect with this one’s progressive structure and I was happy with it.
As for the other elements of gameplay, the world of the Harry Potter Collection is alive and kicking. The castles, the familiar places like Diagon Alley, the Ministry of Magic, all of it is intact. You’ll see some striking similarities in the details between games and movies. The recreation of the locations and how much life and familiar characters, such as Nearly Headless Nick and Professor Umbridge to name a couple, are intact and is impressively fun.
Related, the remastered visual presentation of the game on the PlayStation 4 is a good reason to seriously take a look at it. The lighting effects, shadows and textures are definitely up to par for the current generation standards. There are a lot of visuals to enjoy and fall in love with, such as the opening halls of the Ministry of Magic, which are tinted slightly green with a heavy amount of black brick on them. The Ministry looks straight out of the movies and the liveliness of the surroundings really helps sell it all.
The only downer to the presentation is the lack of voice acting. We’ve been spoiled thanks to the last few releases, especially the latest Star Wars: Force Awakens release, which features the actual actors speaking new material, so going backwards to grunts/moans/groans is just a little bit jarring. John Williams’ composition does help things tremendously, though. So good.
So, at the end of the day, is this collection worth your money? If you like a challenge and adore the Harry Potter films, and what sane person doesn’t, then yes. The game does a fantastic job of putting you into Harry Potter’s world, while at the same time curving the drama and replacing it with good humor. The length of time you’ll have with the collection varies on your dedication to collecting everything, so you’ll either get a good amount of time out of the adventures or a tremendous amount of time. Regardless, the game offers a linear, deep experience that reminds us of the LEGO roots and how we should appreciate what we have today in the LEGO world.
Now, If you’re just getting into the LEGO series and want something fun, and you’re not a Harry Potter fan for some odd, communist-driven reason, then maybe go a different LEGO route as a starter (highly recommend the Batman series).
Regardless, at the end of the day, Tt Games did a wonderful job with bringing the world of Harry Potter to life through the LEGO Harry Potter Collection and remastering the experience onto the PlayStation 4. The games certainly show their age, but they’re still a blast, especially if you’re a Harry Potter fanatic.
