The games based on
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter franchise have always been great commercial
successes, riding the coattails of the wildly popular books. The games' publisher,
Electronic Arts, has boldly attempted to branch out from the action adventure
games by creating a "sports" game based on the fictional sport of
quidditch, which is described in the various Harry Potter books and depicted in
the films. While Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup is a decent first effort at
simulating the chosen sport of wizards, it falls short of its promise primarily
because of sluggish controls and shallow gameplay.
Quidditch is
analogous to soccer.
For those who
aren't familiar with the Harry Potter books or films, quidditch is roughly
analogous to airborne soccer. Seven players on each team ride broomsticks
around a huge arena while chasing and interacting with four balls that are in
play simultaneously. Three vertical hoops of varying height stand on each end
of the oval field, or "pitch," as it's called. These hoops represent
the goal-scoring area for each team.
Three players on a
team take the "chaser" position; their role is similar to that of a
forward on a soccer or hockey squad. Their primary responsibility is to score
goals through the hoops using the quaffle, which is one of the balls in play.
Each goal is worth 10 points. Two other players on each team are the
"beaters," and their role has no equivalent in any other sport. The
beaters are armed with small bats, which they use to swat at two magically
propelled balls, called bludgers. The bludgers will randomly attack the players
on the pitch--the beaters' duty is to protect their own players from the
bludgers while using their bats to try to encourage the bludgers to go after
the other team. One player is the "keeper," and as the name suggests,
the keeper's job is to play goalie near the vertical hoops and prevent any
goals. Finally, the seventh player on each team plays as the
"seeker." The seeker's job is to keep an eye out for a tiny and
elusive ball called the golden snitch. Like the bludgers, the snitch is
magically self-propelled. A match of quidditch continues until the golden
snitch is caught; the seeker who snatches it earns 150 points for his or her
team.
The books and films
have always portrayed quidditch as a chaotic spectacle. With 14 players zipping
around on lightning-fast broomsticks while chasing and dodging four balls in
play, quidditch is obviously a very complex sport. In an attempt by the
developers to simplify the game for the younger audience, who will likely be
the primary players of Quidditch World Cup, you'll directly control the chasers
and the seeker only. You don't seem to get any control over the keeper, and
your interaction with the beaters is limited to pressing the bludger button,
which will cause one of your beaters to launch a bludger at the opposing
chasers. From there you control only the bludger as you try to collide with the
enemy quaffle-carrier.
The game does a
good job of easing you into the game of quidditch and teaching you the
fundamentals. The four-team tournament at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry serves as an extended tutorial. First, you practice simple concepts
like passing, shooting, and tackling, and then you are allowed to play a game
against one of the other houses at Hogwarts. After that, bludgers and special
moves are introduced, and another game in the house tournament is played, until
finally you are indoctrinated with the concept of combo passes, and the final
tutorial game is played with all features enabled. If you should win the
round-robin tournament at Hogwarts against the other houses, the World Cup will
be unlocked, and you'll be able to choose from nine different world teams
including the US, England, Australia, and Germany and play in that round-robin
tournament for the World Cup.
You'll meet many
recognizable characters along the way.
Quidditch World Cup
also does a good job of including recognizable characters from the books and
movies. Potter serves as the seeker for Gryffindor, with the Weasley twins at
the beater positions. Malfoy is the recognizable jerk playing seeker for
Slytherin, while Harry's love interest, Cho, is the seeker for Ravenclaw. As
you advance into the World Cup, Ludo Bagman, the international head of wizard
sports, handles the play-by-play announcing.
Quidditch World
Cup's primary flaw lies in its control, which often feels sluggish. The game
doesn't seem to do a very good job of capturing the speed of the game as it was
portrayed in the films. Instead of feeling the freedom of flight, your players
often feel more like they're slogging through a thick soup. No turbo button
exists to speed up your players. While you won't always want to fly at the same
speed, it seems as if the computer decides arbitrarily how fast you can fly or
how sharply you'll be allowed to turn. Passing is also imprecise. You have
control over the direction of your pass using the directional stick, but oftentimes
your teammates will inexplicably leave their passing lanes just as you throw
the quaffle. Expect to turn the ball over frequently and not always know why.
The console versions all control similarly, but PC players who lack a gamepad
may find the keyboard and mouse control a bit tricky, though not unlearnable.
Even if the
gameplay is a bit shallow, Quidditch World Cup does a pretty good job of visual
presentation. All of the pitches in the game are beautifully presented,
including Hogwarts' pitch in the summer and winter and all of the nine
international pitches. The Japanese quidditch pitch is one of the more
impressive ones, set over top of a shallow koi pond with delicate bridges
arcing over it. The Nordic team plays within a wall of glaciers; you can see
the cold breath of the players as they breathe out during the cutscenes. The
graphics quality between the consoles is pretty comparable--there are no
significant differences to speak of, although the Xbox and PC versions are a
tad sharper. The sound in the game didn't fare quite as well, with the music
being somewhat overdramatic and the play-by-play announcing from Bagman and Lee
Jordan (during Hogwarts matches) being extremely repetitive.
Harry Potter:
Quidditch World Cup is a pretty decent first effort at simulating the fictional
sport of quidditch. However, the developers have definitely left plenty of room
for improvement. With tighter controls and a little bit more effort put into
deeper, more strategic gameplay, Quidditch World Cup might have turned out to
be a very good game. As it stands, the game will primarily appeal to hardcore
Harry Potter fans who are willing to overlook the flaws.
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