Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The Good
Some of the graphics, at least the graphics the game/camera would LET me see!
Other wise NOTHING else!
There are NO redeeming qualities for this game.


The Bad
Where to start? How about the fact that while it looks lush and inviting, the game levels can ONLY be played the way the maker, Electronic Arts has made them. There is no world here!
This game has so many invisible walls, it ruins the game play. It's so bad that, you aren't allowed within 2 or 4 feet (in-game scale) of an edge of a ledge or forest or steps etc. The walls actually hinder your movement!

After a while you feel as if you're in a track and following it around the levels, doing what needs to be done and when you do, don't worry the game will whisk you back to the main page for some boring card purchases/attributing etc. The constant back and forth is bad enough but the save/loading is brutal! I timed myself and from start of the titles to actual game play took 9 minutes!! Terrible!

The collector card system is OK, until you realize you can only use 3 cards at a time with no combinations to increase you skills abilities. Why have a limit? Why not allow a progressive accumulation of ability and special actions etc? This might have made it more interesting. You could have had very rare cards awarded for good game play or beating hard levels etc. But none of this matters, as the game play is repetitive to the Nth degree and is frustrating to the max!

The game boasts a camera button. HA! If you toggle the right analog stick the "camera" sways back and forth or side to side, with NO, I repeat NO way to look around, behind up or down! This is ESPECIALLY frustrating when trying to use the idiotic "aiming" system. Trees, hills and boulders get in your way and your line of sight, making it impossible to shoot anything with any kind of accuracy. UGH! The AI in this came is insane! My cats could do better! The other two AI controlled characters are, in a word, miserable! This is bad, why you ask? Well, in order to do some of the tasks, you have to work together casting spells, killing monsters etc. This is NOT good when they act like idiots, looking around, wasting time. Some of the bonus games to earn more beans DEPENDS on solid team efforts, but are constantly ruined by these moronic allies! Ugh!!!!!

The Bottom Line
A dull, repetitive and frustrating game with NO gameplay value.
All this game needs is a switch to tell it to play itself and it WILL!! Terrible, terrible game!
This is sad, because the other games before it, while a bit childlike, were at least FUN to play, if easy. I LOVED flying around Hogwarts on a broom, through rings in the air. I loved flinging gnomes, finding stuff, exploring all the rooms, talking to other characters! But ALL of that stuff is gone bye-bye in this game.
It gets so frustrating that after a while you don't care anymore and you would probably throw it in the back of a drawer somewhere and forget about it. The CD would make a funky coaster, maybe.......sigh