GameSpy Review of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The irony is not lost in knowing J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, easily one of the greatest creative phenomenons of recent years, is left in the hands of Electronic Arts, a company constant criticized for their lack of originality. Fans of the boy-who-lived have ridiculously high and picky expectations, too, making it no small feat that EA has consistently managed to develop surprisingly entertaining video-game adaptations of Rowling's universe of magic and muggles. The production values have been brought up another notch on each successive sequel, and you'd be hard pressed not to see where it's all going when you're playing The Goblet of Fire, the next of Potter's adventure at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

This year, Hogwarts is playing host to the legendary Triwzard Tournament, where one student from Hogwarts and two visiting schools are chosen to participate in three dangerous tasks testing the limits of their wizarding skills. Somehow, though, Harry Potter's name is picked -- despite the fact that someone from Hogwarts is already participating! Unfortunately, the Goblet of Fire constitutes a magically binding contract, which means Harry has no choice but to try and survive the tasks. The Goblet of Fire is a massive, 700+ page novel that's experienced some trimming in surviving the transition to film, and EA's video game follows the path Warner Bros. has paved. Even though the video-game medium provides the perfect opportunity to explore the subplots removed from the movie version, the reliance on the film's assets means EA has unsurprisingly kept close to their vision of Goblet of Fire. Interestingly, though, because the film doesn't provide enough creatures for the developers to fill the levels with, they've actually pulled enemies that weren't in the Goblet of Fire, but were developed by Rowling herself. A nice touch for fans.


These games are straightforward action adventures, but there's the right combination of basic puzzle solving sewn into the action, and the stages are just long enough to avoid tedium. The Goblet of Fire places a fantastic emphasis on teamwork; the books and movies are actively playing up friendship dynamics between Harry, Hermoine and Ron, and now the video games are following suit. In order to move heavy objects, all three characters will need to cast spells simultaneously, and different characters attacking enemies together will produce spells that wouldn't happen with another combination. Combat progress is definitely best achieved this time around by teaming up, too; one character can lift an enemy up, while the others wail on it with jinxes. The auto lock-on means you'll be tossing jinxes at the wrong enemy much of the time, but combat's basic enough so you're basically ignoring who you're firing at and bashing on the jinx button all the time.

By far, the best addition to the Goblet of Fire is the multiplayer element; this time around, people can jump into the game at anytime. Even if you're in the middle of a mission, someone can jump in as whoever character you're not, help you pick up a few Triwizard shields, and drop out with the press of a button. It really encourages on-the-spot multiplayer that's not normally present in these types of games, and works great for older players working through the game with a son, daughter, or younger sibling. Basically, it makes you wonder why it wasn't in the other games, and even though there are times when the game switches to single-player as Harry tackles the Triwizard tasks, much of the Goblet of Fire is multiplayer friendly. Though the gameplay remains basic throughout the adventure, there are some niggling problems. As the series has progressed, EA has definitely moved to a more cinematic visual style, which has affected not just the presentation from an artistic standpoint, but influenced the gameplay, as well. You don't have any control over the camera, which means during puzzles involving wand manipulation there's a struggle to run around and hope the camera will pan out and provide a better perspective. Thankfully, the puzzles are typically simple, but there's little reason you should be blindly whipping cauldrons about when a viewpoint change could have been assigned to the many buttons the game doesn't even use.

Additionally, the game has a number of bizarre instances where it forgets to indicate what you should do next. A fundamental rule of gaming is that you defeat the enemies in an area before moving on, right? There were several marked instances throughout the Goblet of Fire where the enemies never stopped respawning. In the previous combat area, you may have fought five or six enemies, defeated them, and taken that as the signal to move on. Here, however, they just keep spilling out for no discernable reason. Evidently you're supposed to realize running past them is the best option, but you shouldn't have to spend 20 minutes fighting the same batch of enemies over and over again before that option makes sense.


The best kind of adaptation is the one that fans and non-fans alike can derive entertainment from, but unfortunately, the Harry Potter video games have never really been those kinds of adaptations, and the Goblet of Fire hasn't done much to change that. If you aren't familiar with the source material, you aren't going to get much out of the game. The cutscenes are short, cheap, boring, don't use any of the film's footage for leverage (whether they weren't allowed to or not isn't really the issue; it would have added some much needed depth and context), and completely gloss over the storyline. Seriously, you would have almost no idea what was going on in the Goblet of Fire if you didn't have a manual (or the book itself) handy. It's a small complaint when you're talking about a video game, but considering the characters and tightly woven storylines are the reason people are so obsessed with Potter in the first place, it's a shame EA doesn't take the time to draw in more people to the universe through the video game, rather than catering merely to the established fanbase.

The constant action means the Harry Potter series has always lent itself well to the video-game format, and thankfully (albeit surprisingly) EA has mostly improved upon their winning formula, while upping the ante visually and adding welcome multiplayer features, easily making the Goblet of Fire their best adaptation yet. There's still much they could be doing with the series, but Harry Potter fans looking for a way to become part of the adventure certainly won't be disappointed.

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