Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets allows players to take part in the second exciting instalment of J K Rowling's iconic series. The game is very closely aligned to the events in the book, and features a range of mini-games, challenges and quests to help the protagonists achieve their goals.

In the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter must come to grips with his uncanny ability to talk to snakes, face fierce disapprobation from school-mates and teachers who believe that he is petrifying other witches and wizards (and Mrs Norris, the caretaker's cat!) because of some dark and dangerous agenda and take a shape-shifting potion to discover the secrets of Draco Malfoy, eventually overcoming all these obstacles to best the villain, Voldemort, in an incarnation of his younger self, the school-boy memory preserved in a diary, by using a tooth from Voldemort's own 'pet', the monstrous and sinister Basilisk.

The game follows the premise of the book carefully accurately and the player, usually playing as Harry Potter, must complete tasks and challenges, such as gathering ingredients for a potion, learning how to fly on a broomstick and braving the depths of the dangerous Forbidden Forest. Fans of the Harry Potter games on consoles like the PlayStation, Xbox and GameCube may be disconcerted to find that the PC game was developed by a different games production company and features different levels, graphics and gameplay than those platforms: the game looks very different in this medium.

While Potterheads will love the game, enjoying the immersive experience of playing through the narrative, die-hard gamers might be disappointed with the graphics which tend to the clunky and cause stiffness in character movements and gameplay.

Pros

• A fantastic chapter in which the player can join his or her heroes and heroines in working through the second instalment of the boy wizards and his exciting adventures
• Plenty of challenges and mini-games to keep the player entertained and amused while playing along the main story arc

Cons

• The graphics are not the best