Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a delightful addition to the Harry Potter series. The game sticks to the narrative story of the book and the film while providing some side missions that add to the longevity factor, which has been significantly increased by the large free-roaming Hogwarts that has been refined in a positive way. This game is definitely far superior to its predecessors and is a benchmark in the series, making for a very entertaining experience.

For those who are unfamiliar with the story, the main plot of consists of Harry Potter, a boy wizard, returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry for his fifth year. He is met with disrepute from other students, who don't believe his account that Lord Voldemort, an evil wizard who was supposedly vanquished after attacking Harry when he was just a baby, has returned to the land of the living, bringing dread into the wizarding community. A select few do believe Harry however, and have decided to reinstate an organisation called the Order of the Phoenix, which was established in Voldemort's previous reign of terror.

The game has incorporated this in an imaginative style by creating a system in which Harry, followed around by Ron and Hermione, has to complete a series of tasks for various members of three of the four school houses - Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. This gains respect points, showing the students to believe Harry in his revelation, and with a high enough percentage of points, you can unlock certain areas of the castle for more exploring. The game also allows you to play as Dumbledore and Sirius Black; this occurs much later in the game but it makes a refreshing change from the boy wizard, although the controls are completely the same so as not to confuse the gamer.

The free roaming feature works really well, allowing you access to most areas straight away, while still holding back some areas to reward you as you progress. Hogwarts has been recreated in great detail, using topography and schematics from the books and films to make sure the location feels as genuine as possible. You are given the ability to use your invisibility cloak, which can be found in your dormitory. While it makes a nice touch, your interactive features are cut off when using it, such as talking to students to complete mini-quests or to get them to join the DA, a covert group that Harry and Hermione set up to teach offensive and defensive magic spells in response to the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, the detestable Dolores Umbridge, putting a hold on any real learning.

The spells available are of the widest variety included in a Harry Potter game to date, with a huge selection to choose from. While there's no Quidditch in this game (a popular wizard sport played on broomsticks), the sheer amount of spells makes up for it, containing fairly mundane things such as pulling and pushing capabilities, to the hexes and jinxes that can disarm and severely hinder your opponents. The duelling is then improved and boosted through the range of attacks and defences, with you locking onto your opponents, who you can cycle through using the L trigger and d-pad if you are facing more than one. The fierce battles that ensue are not to be a button bashing affair either, as now there is a certain period of time in which to hold a button down, or a certain amount of time in which you are to hit a series of buttons in the correct order, to cast a successful spell.

Duels consist of you strolling down a hallway and noticing an enemy Slytherin student bullying a fellow member of Gryffindor, leading to you drawing your wand with the R trigger, at which point the camera automatically locks onto your opponent so your spell casting is not hindered. The two types of spell - offensive and defensive - are not very varied in the beginning of the game, with one spell apiece for each category. This leads to battles being very boring and routine early on, with the ability to learn and unlock new spells as you progress. So, with your wand out, it's a battle of timing and skill to win, with spell casting taking one or two seconds; this style of fighting really depends on how good you've mastered your spells. You could cast stupefy to try to daze your opponent and then continue with a succession of stupefies, in which case the battle becomes uneventful, boring and is over reasonably quickly. However, the alternative involves you having to know when to perform a defensive spell and time it perfectly so that it is cast when the opposing spell is about to strike, thus cancelling it out; a couple of seconds too late results in you being dazed and losing health. If you are successful and block it, you have to be quick on the draw to cast an offensive spell to try and get a opportunity to attack, otherwise you will be on the defensive for a long time which ends up with a frustrated gamer or a broken PSP.

Overall the system of duelling works pretty well, with the chance that you could hold down the spell button too long concluding in a backfire, in which precious seconds are lost, and that is as long as it takes for the tide of the duel to turn. Spells are usually a one-button hold-down affair in the beginning, but as you progress you have to hit a series of buttons, holding down the last one to cast it successfully. With the spells becoming stronger and dealing more damage as you progress, it's in your best interest to try and cast one of these instead of a weaker spell, which would just make the duel last longer and increase the chances of your demise.

The graphics are amazing for a PSP game, from the high quality cut scenes to the in-game visuals, which offer a great amount of detail on the main characters and the interior of the castle. Outside the castle isn't quite as well represented, but this isn't a big drawback and you will hardly notice while journeying from mission to mission. However, the camera is very annoying and brings the gameplay crashing down with it; the movement of your character and the viewing of new areas is a frustrating experience. This is because of the placement of the camera to a near bird's eye view, high up in the various corridors and rooms of Hogwarts, Grimmauld Place (headquarters of the Order) and the Ministry of Magic. Due to this view, it's very difficult to navigate your way around, as the camera jumps about when moving to a new area, and you may have some clipping problems as well.

The save feature brings the game down as well. After the completion of a main story mission you are given the opportunity to save, but if you just choose to free roam then no save option is given. You can collect copies of the Daily Prophet (a newspaper that unlocks certain items in Harry's Trunk, which can be located on the main menu) that are scattered all over the castle. However, you have to complete a mission in order to save your progress, which could easily infuriate people who are just looking for a quick browse around Harry's school. This could be remedied if the creators of the game had placed a set area in which to save your game, or an option in the pause menu - which really isn't asking a lot.

Ron and Hermione, Harry's two best friends, constantly follow you on your adventures throughout the game. They exclaim comments randomly, which may give you hints, while accompanying you to and from certain locations in Hogwarts. This may appear very helpful, but their helpfulness is impaired by their annoying nature to block certain entrances to areas, resulting in a very tedious couple of minutes, consisting of shuffling Harry around to move them out of the way. They also have a tendency to force you into arches and doors, which becomes very annoying very quickly, as a brief loading time takes place to load the area, resulting in precious game minutes being lost. This particular problem brings the gameplay down a lot, sometimes spoiling the mysterious magical mood that's built up by the terrific orchestral soundtrack from the film, and the higher than average graphics for a PSP game.

When the narrative storyline is finished, which follows the film's plot in great detail, the after play experience is greatly present in the form of the 'Endless Day', a mode that allows you to explore Hogwarts even further while collecting the rest of the Daily Prophet papers that you didn't find the first time around. There are also a number of mini-games present, which are unlocked upon completion of the game, all of which should keep you entertained for that bit longer. There's also a multiplayer function, allowing you and five other friends who have the game to wirelessly duel each other, also extending the lifespan that bit more.

Mini-games are just a chance to revisit the various duels in the game, the main one being the battle at the end, the nature of which I'll let you discover yourself. This is a nice feature that saves hours of gameplay if you just want to duel and not play through the storyline again, as the battles are unlocked at the end of the Story mode. The other games see you battling in school against Slytherins, offering a diverse range of enemies depending on what opponent you feel like taking on.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a very entertaining game and an extremely good effort from Electronic Arts. Unfortunately, the problems such as the jerky camera, Ron and Hermione getting in the way and nonsensical lack of save points between missions do bring the gameplay down somewhat. Nevertheless, this is worth a look for the avid Harry Potter fan, or anyone wanting a good long action adventure on the PSP, and as such is the best Harry Potter game so far by a long shot.

Reviewed by Brendan Heaney for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).