Chapter One - The Boy Who Lived… There are still a surprising number of people who haven't read a single Harry Potter book. I doubt many of those people are reading this review, but if you haven't yet dipped into the magic of Harry's wizarding world, then pick up a copy of the Philosopher's Stone, if for no other reason than to read the first part of the greatest literary phenomenon in recorded history.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second book in J. K. Rowling's series that chronicles the adventures of Harry Potter as he attends seven years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, learning how to cast spells and become a fully fledged wizard. This story took a darker tone than the first book as Harry is warned of great danger at Hogwarts by the bizarre house-elf, Dobby. As the school year progresses, a number of students are the subject of attacks that leave them entirely petrified (like statues), and the only clue is a scrawled message about the Chamber of Secrets being opened. Events transpire that make Harry look like the person responsible for the attacks and so it's up to him and his friends Ron and Hermione (pronounced Her-my-oh-nee) to uncover the real culprit before someone is killed.

The game is based upon the film that is based upon the book, meaning that the visuals stick closely to what you've seen on the big screen. The graphics are sumptuous, packed full of details and lovely touches. The green fields and sunny skies around the Weasleys' house, the cobbled streets and uneven, intricate architecture of Diagon Alley, the fascinating range of strange and wonderful objects and creatures that fill the shelves of the various shops, the grandeur of the magnificent Hogwarts Castle and the sweeping spectacle of the huge halls and rooms within are all lovingly recreated. You'll recognise everything; the Gryffindor Common Room, the boys' dormitory, the library, the greenhouses, the castle grounds, classrooms, Hagrid's cabin and there are plenty of new locations that all look just as wonderful. As well as this there are enough wizards, witches and pupils wandering around the various locations doing their own thing to complete the atmosphere. The likenesses of the characters are good; they're not quite the spitting image of the on-screen actors but they certainly look the part and are easily recognisable.

The sound effects are very good, especially the various spells you can cast, but the voice acting is unfortunately marred by the boy who plays Harry. Hermione is a bit dodgy whilst Ron is excellent and very similar to the real thing, but Harry sounds nothing like Daniel Radcliffe (Harry in the film) and his voice just doesn't suit the character of Harry Potter. The casting director needs a good talking to for badly miscasting this role and to add insult to injury, Neville sounds much more like Harry than Harry does! This is a real shame as Harry naturally gets the most dialogue and it really does interfere with the sense of authenticity. However, everyone else is pretty good; Snape, Lockhart, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Draco, the Weasleys, Nearly Headless Nick and Hagrid all sound a lot like their film counterparts. With an outstanding dynamic soundtrack from John Williams (sounds very Star Wars at times, especially when you're flying) to round things off, this game sounds as great as it looks.

Harry's adventures as a second year begin at Ron's house. After Ron, Fred and George get a bit of a telling off from Mrs. Weasley for stealing their fathers' illegal flying car, the game begins. This part is a nice gentle tutorial where you learn the Knockback charm, a staple of the game. This is used for blasting objects and enemies and you'll fire hundreds and hundreds of these spells throughout the game. Many objects such as barrels, pots, mushrooms, shrubs, vases, buckets, glass jars, ornaments and much more can be blasted. They will either break or wobble and goodies come flying out of them. Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans normally come out, which can be collected and used to buy goodies at Fred and George Weasley's secret shop in the Gryffindor Common Room. Other imaginative sweets and food are used to top your health up, including chocolate frogs, which must be stunned before you can eat them. Make sure you blast objects repeatedly, as most contain at least 2 or 3 treats.

Once you've got the hang of this, it's out into the back garden for a spot of denoming. Gnomes are horrid little leathery creatures that are common garden pests for wizards. They must be shot and stunned with a knockback charm and picked up by the feet. You must then swing them around at high speed (to make them dizzy) and fling them out into the fields beyond the garden! This part of the game is a really amusing little mini-game with targets in the field to hit (a scarecrow and haystack) and distance records to set. This mini-game is also available at Hogwarts, where you can lob them off the castle roof or into the lake!! Is this cruel? Not when you see the ugly little blighters it isn't! Besides, they're tough and can survive pretty much anything.

Next it's off to Diagon Alley and there's a fair bit of exploring and puzzle solving to do here. The gameplay varies well and you are given various objectives to carry out. You end up in a dark wizard's shop when travelling by floo powder goes a bit wrong (this is a means of instant transportation using fireplaces!) and there is plenty of exploration needed to find your way out of the shop. Here you learn the Lumos spell and how it can be used to discover secret passages - use it often, as there are plenty of secrets to discover! Hedwig also makes an appearance; you can call him to you and then feed him so he'll help you out.

Once on Diagon Alley you must buy a copy of the Standard Book of Spells Grade 2 to learn the technique of maximising your spells' power. This allows you to blast barrels you couldn't break before, to clear paths and collect coins. You must explore the shops and their secret passages thoroughly to gather all of Ginny's belongings that she lost on the way to Diagon Alley (it's that floo powder causing problems again!) After this, it's onto Hogwarts where many adventures await you!

The gameplay of Harry Potter is very enjoyable. The mixture of exploration, puzzle-solving, combat, action and flying is one that works very well. Once at Hogwarts you will find that the castle is just as massive inside as it looks from the outside and it's complete with the moving staircases too! There are many places to explore and you are free to roam around in places that have nothing to do with your classes or objectives. There are secret passages, short-cuts and alternative routes all over the place and it's great fun discovering them all. Your time at Hogwarts is split between freely exploring, attending classes and sneaking around during the night on various quests. The classes and quests are good fun, if not hugely challenging, but this game is aimed at kids after all. You can even race other students on broomsticks, flying around the whole castle and its grounds! During the race, take a glance at the impressive scenery, it really does look nice and the way Harry's robes whip and flap in the wind is very well done. The classes are also challenging and often adventures in themselves!

Once you get hold of your own Nimbus 2000 broomstick you can fly around the castle, grounds and lake whenever you like. However, it's not quite as free as you might think, as invisible magical barriers stop you straying too far and you can only land your broom in certain places. Quidditch is a lot of fun and quite exciting, but again it's a lack of freedom that spoils it slightly. Whilst the match goes on you are forced to follow the golden snitch, which leaves a long glowing trail and massive gold circles in its wake! This is not quite as sneaky and hard to spot as your traditional snitch. You must fly through the rings to increase your broom's speed until you are able to get close and activate a speed boost. Once you are near enough the snitch, the view switches to a close-up in front of Harry and you must swipe at the snitch until you catch it. And keep out of the way of those bludgers, or they'll knock you senseless - don't ask me to explain the rules of Quidditch, if you want to know them then read the books! As fun as this is the fact that you are not allowed to watch the match and search for the snitch is a bit of a let-down, I think it would have been better if you could have hovered around the pitch, watching the match and hunting for the snitch before spotting it.

There are a few other things that let this game down and stop it from being as great as it could have been. Firstly are the intrusive loading times, which although not too long, can be quite frequent. Some sections (such as the main area of Hogwarts) don't have any loading breaks at all. But going into the Common Room, herbology greenhouses and other locations causes quite frequent interruptions and the library needs two loading times to get in and another two to get out. This spoils the flow of the game a bit and when compared to Haven: Call of the King (which is almost as good as this graphically and has no loading times at all,) the loading seems a little excessive.

The only other main problem is one of authenticity - for avid fans of the books this might be a bit of a let down. Whilst the film has to change things and take short cuts due to time restrictions, the game could have been much more faithful to the book. However, it changes things quite a lot and the changes are sometimes not at all in line with the world of Harry Potter. There are cut scenes throughout the game (done in the game's graphic engine and not FMV unfortunately) that play out key moments from the book, but there is a lot missing and there could have been a lot more.

An example of the extra stuff that works well is when Harry and Ron crash the flying car into the Whomping Willow. Quite a long section follows where Harry has to dodge parts of the living tree and fend off various woodland nasties before a big confrontation with the Willow, which is holding Ron captive with in one of its branches. This is a great section of the game and works really well, giving us a chance to move through the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest and expanding nicely upon the book without changing anything too drastically. However, when they approach the castle, Professor Snape catches them. In the book he takes them to his office, fetches Professors McGonagall (Gryffindor House Captain) and Dumbledore (the Headmaster) and tries to get Harry and Ron expelled. In the game he tells them to get up to their common room and says that he will deduct house points if he catches them out so late again. Snape would never be so kind - he hates Gryffindor students and especially Harry with a vengeance! It is totally out of character for him and spoils the realism quite a lot.

Another example is the Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, where Harry goes on a quest that pits him against floating spiked balls, fire breathing statues, imps, fire crabs and a dangerous gargoyle. There would never be a class that would be so dangerous and so this part of the game comes off as contrived and pretty nonsensical (he goes through all this just to get hold of a spell - whatever happened to just teaching the kids!) Yet another example is Hermione asking Harry to go to the library in the dead of night, pick up a book and then go to the herbology greenhouses to get hold of a spell book that happens to be lying around there. And why? To rescue Neville from behind a tapestry where he is stuck! As if Hermione ever needed Harry's help casting a spell or used him as her personal errand boy. Lastly, Harry discovers Nearly Headless Nick who has been petrified, but Harry's on his own, there is no big moment, there is no writing about the Chamber of Secrets and he doesn't even bother telling Hermione and Ron until the next day. This is such a big move away from such a pivotal moment in the book (and film) that it's pretty unforgivable.

This kind of thing happens throughout the game and really detracts from the illusion of being in Harry's world. Other quibbles include rarely meeting any of the other Gryffindors in the common room (other than Neville), all the beds in the dormitories being empty all the time (even when Ron has gone to bed!) and a complete lack of moving pictures on the walls. Finally, remember that this game is for children so it's mostly quite easy and also not the longest game ever. It'll take the kids a while to get through but us grown-ups will fly through it with little to really challenge us.

Despite a few flaws and big plot changes that don't make sense, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a very enjoyable game that perfectly captures the essence the wizarding world we've come to know and love. The graphics are wonderful and full of lovely touches, the sound, music and voices complete the atmosphere and the varied gameplay combined with the freedom to explore makes it engaging and playable. It's a bit easy and a touch short, but the children will love it as much as they loved the film.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).