Another LEGO Title Comes to Life

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There are only a few developers I will follow without question, and one of those is TT Games and their series of LEGO licensed titles. From the hands-on time we got with LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1 - 4, it looks like that faith continues to pay off.

LEGO Harry Potter will take on the first four stories, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” This takes The Boy Who Lived from his first steps into Hogwarts to his duel with Lord Voldemort after the Tri-Wizard Cup.

During our demo, we got to guide Harry and Hagrid through Diagon Alley as the half-giant LEGO character takes Harry to Gringotts in order to explore the vaults and collect both Harry’s money, as well as another mysterious package from a separate vault. While working our way to the vaults, we picked up a third character, Griphook, the goblin who holds the keys to the vaults. With these three characters, I got a sample of the different abilities LEGO Harry Potter would present.

The most obvious power is, of course, Harry’s magic. With his wand, you can build objects, shoot bolts and move characters. Hagrid’s abilities are mainly his strength as he is necessary in order to open up very heavy doors. Hagrid also has some magical abilities, but the developers went the extra mile and made his aim very unstable. Griphook, and supposedly other goblins, are used to open locked doors since they carry a key around with them.

The demo presented us with a few interesting puzzles, especially when we made it to the vaults. Harry’s vault was fairly easy to get into and only required a few hoops to jump through before getting access to his money, but the Hogwarts' vault had a much more complex puzzle to solve and required the use of all three characters, especially since there was a fire-breathing dragon blocking Griphook’s access to the keyhole.

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1 - 4 doesn’t just focus on the films, there are a lot of scenes in the game that are from the books themselves. This extra bit is sure to make true Harry Potter fans happy since the books ended up having a lot more material than the films.

Needless to say, we can expect great things from this latest TT Games LEGO title. So fans of the series, both the games and the license, should look for Harry’s blocky adventures before the month is out.

STAT BOX
Product
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1 - 4
Company
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Date
06/22/2010