Harry Potter Collection (Playstation 2)

If you like Harry Potter and their games, this is a great deal for you. The graphics are good, could be better. Some of the "views"/playing experience (visibility) while playing the games are not user friendly. These games are more challenging than the first game (Sorcerer's Stone) due to the tasks that need to be accomplished. The story line, settings, imagery and imagination are fantastic, like all of Harry Potter products. I highly recommend these games.

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I bought this as a Valentine's Day gift for my fiance. She's a huge HP fan and I've learned that anything related to Harry Potter is probably a safe bet as a gift. She's a casual gamer, and really enjoyed Order of the Phoenix on the Wii. She has the first one for the Playstation as well so I figured this would be a great way to complete her collection. Sure enough she loves it! You can't beat the price either!

The only problem was that I had to dig out the PS2 and hook it up, but that's more the jerks at Sony failing to release a consistant PS3 model or a backwards compatibility firmware update. (we'll leave that rant for another review.)

Anyway, this is an absolutely great product, each game comes in it's own case with all the manuals and artwork etc. The pictured item is just a flimsy cardboard box to keep them all together. I would recommend this for any HP fan/gamer.

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Chamber of Secrets: This is a very good game full of collectibles and mini games. It has a great world in which you explore Hogwarts, the grounds, and sometimes the Forbidden Forest. Teachers send you through passageways to explore dangerous dungeons to retrieve spell books. Sneaking around authority figures at night is challenging, but fun nonetheless.

Prisoner of Azkaban: This game is somewhat like Chamber of Secrets, but it is also quite a bit different. This time you can play as Ron and Hermione. Teachers still send you to dungeons to learn spells, and the dungeons are quite a lot longer than previous games. Full of collectibles and some mini games to take your mind off the main adventure, it's a very fun game. The only problem is your companions seem to have the need to complain about you procrastinating every five seconds.

Goblet of Fire: I started this game knowing there is NO exploration, that the game goes in levels instead of walking through a world, and there isn't really much object collecting. In other words, I played this game with a very open mind. I expected the game to still be fun... but it wasn't. I didn't find any gameplay charm and the levels were pretty boring. At least the cutscenes have a very unique style to them.

Chamber of Secrets: *****

Prisoner of Azkaban: *****

Goblet of Fire: **

Overall Package: ****

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