Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix review

How does EA do it? There can't be a major license from sport organisations to film tie-ins that they haven't got under their thumb. They've drawn a variety of complaints from around the gaming community for increasing complacency in their position as the go-to guys for film producers looking for the digital equivalent of the plastic lunch box. With Order of the Phoenix, they do little to defend themselves from the accusations of being an assembly line churning out endless drab fluff to appease the masses.Presentation was once EAs calling card; in the late 90s, there was seldom a title released by the billion-dollar publishing giant that didn't have a rare polish. Potter's latest outing would have undoubtedly impressed four or five years ago, but now it seems positively drab. Menu screens are functional if occasionally slow to access, a suite of fawning talking head interviews are available as unlockable extras, and many of the film's young cast provide their voice talents to impressive effect. This only highlights the agonisingly awful work of the sound-a-likes drafted in to replace the likes of Alan Rickman - the creepy stand-in for Professor Snape is embarrassingly close to some sex-offender stereotype.There is a real star in the virtual Hogwarts that provides the setting for much of the game. Carved with a confident hand that frequently brings to mind the sprawling castle of Ico, for Potter enthusiasts it surely represents something of a Holy Grail. More the shame then that it's so tedious to inhabit. The school's population is usually sparsely scattered, and there simply isn't that much fun to be had with the activities within. Who, after all, buys a game about a boy wizard's magical adventures to spend most of it as a janitor?This is not an exaggeration. Over half the title is spent recruiting members for Potter's Dark Arts class, which translated somewhere within EAs labyrinthine corridors to mean fetch stuff for people. For access to the bonus snitches required to boost your magical powers and view those charming EA rules videos, it gets worse. Enjoy lighting lanterns, putting up pictures and repairing vases? You'll go crazy for what EA has provided. Those of you with more developed tastes will more likely fall into a waking coma after half an hour. Do not play this game's second act and then operate heavy machinery.It's not that any of the basic mechanics are weak - Potter interacts with the game world primarily through his wand, controlled via the right analogue stick in a magnificent gestural spell system that Okami fans would be proud of. The school set-up should recall Rockstar's Bully, but less about making trouble and more about making a stand against an oppressive authority. But between the high concept and the ground-level gameplay there are no sparks of ingenuity in the level design, no challenges requiring guile or lateral thinking to solve. It's one thing to keep things simple for younger gamers, but this looks more like bald-faced laziness.If there was a bit more excitement to proceedings, perhaps, the title's flaws could be overlooked. Sadly, for all the masses of authentic material shoehorned in from the film's production, it completely misses the rebellious atmosphere and dark overtones of the finished movie. At times it all seems like a particularly tame tale from the Just William books, with a few added wingardium leviosas thrown in.In many ways it's a shame that such minimum-effort, bullet-point-on-the-box game design is not surprising from EA, as it once again distances itself from its Electronic Arts heritage. That Warner Bros. actually authorised this Smart Price slice of blandcore to promote the finest film in the Potter canon is doubly tragic. For those with desperate children and deep pockets, it'll be something of a must-have, but for the rest of humanity, this is just another mass manufactured disappointment that sets the bar for every other developer a little bit lower.