When I was growing up, my mum would often take me to the video shop (back when VCR was still a thing) and let me rent a PS2 game to play for the week. And if I really liked a game, it would sometimes appear as part of my Christmas presents for that year (a copy to keep and play whenever I wanted? Now we’re talking!)

I have a very distinct memory of renting out Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone for PS2, getting about 10 minutes into the game, and having the game relentlessly crash every time I tried to go through the Fat Lady portrait. Eventually, I had to accept the game was unplayable, and as a Harry Potter fan in my youth, my disappointment was huge.

Luckily, my mum noticed this, and that year I received Harry Potter at the Prisoner of Azkaban for PS2 under the tree! This ended up being the one and only Harry Potter game I would own and play in my childhood, but I had always wondered what the other games were like.

Fast forward to 2021, I got hooked watching Call Me Kevin’s Harry Potter PS2 Gameplay Series, and that urge to play all the games very quickly came back to me. But I didn’t own a PS2 anymore and I didn’t really consider buying one until I met my partner. I bought a PS4 to the relationship, he bought a Nintendo Switch, and instead of having kids, we decided to co-own a PS2 and bought one together from a local retro game shop.

(Unlike my sturdy PS4, our fragile and short-owned PS2 went on to kick the bucket once we attempted to move it across the country to Perth, so we ended up having to re-buy a PS2 once we got here, but I digress).

Once we arrived in Perth, we quickly discovered that:

a.) There are at least 3 excellent retro game shops in the area, most of which stocked all of the Harry Potter PS2 games.

b.) There’s also an amazing PS2 game range on Facebook Marketplace here in Perth.

c.) All of your local Cash Converter shops have tons of old school PS2 games. I ended up finding a rare copy of Futurama (which I also used to own) as well as a handful of Sims game for nostalgia purposes.

Being in a more resourced area, acquiring the Harry Potter games had become more possible than ever. So, over time, we gradually accumulated most of the Harry Potter games for PS2—starting with the most popular game, Prisoner of Azkaban, which can be found pretty much everywhere, then following with copies of Order of the Phoenix and The Half Blood Prince, and eventually we managed to find a copy of Chamber of Secrets.

I have already decided not to play Goblet of Fire since it’s not open world and instead, story based. I also won’t be playing Deathly Hallows since, from what I hear, it’s essentially a wizarding shooter game (no thanks).

The only other game I’m still chasing is the elusive, Philosopher’s Stone which I never got to fully experience. Finding a copy has been extremely difficult, but I also hear the gameplay is among the most challenging, so I won’t be upset if I never get to play it. However, if I ever do find it, I would play it just on principle to experience it.

With all of that said, let’s review the copies I do own and have played from start to finish:

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

After hunting for months, I finally got my hands of a copy of Chamber of Secrets. This game is often praised at the ‘best game of the series’ in the community, and I think nostalgia has a lot to do with this. For many, this was the childhood game they grew up with, not Prisoner of Azkaban, and it was also their first introduction into ‘open world’ Hogwarts that offered that student-like experience to people.

Needless to say, I was eager to try it and to compare it to Prisoner of Azkaban… and I have mixed thoughts for sure.

The introduction feels really long in comparison to Prisoner of Azkaban (in which, you get straight into the action and gameplay, and arrive at Hogwarts fairly quickly).

In this game however, you spend a lot of time at the Weasley Burrow, and then solving puzzles in Diagon Alley, and then defeating the Whomping Willow, before you even get to Hogwarts. And for me, this took a whole day of gameplay alone. I also got stuck in Diagon Alley for a while, and as a kid, I think this would have frustrated me into not playing the game. But I can also see how these early parts of the game expand the world for the players and offer more to be experienced, so I think it’s just a personal preference for me.

Once I got to Hogwarts however, I was really impressed by the world. It is a lot more expanded than Prisoner of Azkaban is, with additional floors and corridors to explore, extra classrooms, and the detail given to the world feels more whimsical. I was fascinated exploring the castle, including areas I’d grown accustomed to expecting, and discovering something completely different in it’s place.

Initially, this gave me a lot of anticipation as I thought I would experience more content in the gameplay overall, but I quickly realised that a lot of the new classrooms were recycled settings (lots of repetition) and that the world felt bigger, but the attention to detail had a cap. As a kid, it doesn’t matter as much because it just adds to the excitement of playing the game, but as an adult it left a lot to be desired.

The puzzles also frustrated the ever living heck out of me! They were unnecessarily challenging and tediously long, to the point that I struggled to defeat a lot of the boss fights (this could also be due to the controller configuration, as sometimes timing would be off or characters would just leap in whatever direction they felt like. And the camera controls, don’t even get me started on those!)

I still enjoyed many of the puzzles despite my frustration, but I was definitely relieved once I finished the game. I’m not sure it’s one I’d ever pick back up again, but I’m glad I had the chance to play it.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

For me, this game was all nostalgia since it’s the one I grew up with. Prisoner of Azkaban is also my favourite book and movie in the entire franchise, so it’s hard not to enjoy playing the game.

This game gave me the experience of ‘being a student at Hogwarts’ which is what I really loved about it as a child, and I’m sure that’s what a lot of people enjoy about Chamber of Secrets as well. In both games, there is an open world aspect, and the autonomy to attend classes, learn spells, and explore the castle. But in this one, your friends accompany you every step of the way, and you can even switch characters (I loved playing as Hermione in my youth as I felt I could best identify with her).

The game play is also really fun. I remember getting stuck on Neville’s ghoul level for a really long time as a kid, which wasn’t fun, but once I progressed through the entire game I unlocked so many more cool spells and areas of the castle. I also feel that the outdoor world for Prisoner of Azkaban is much better and more developed than Chamber of Secrets.

Re-playing it as an adult, I finished it in one day (in one sitting, actually) — it’s not a long game, but it feels packed with content due to the variety of levels and puzzles you complex. I enjoyed playing it from start to finish and, even as an adult, had the urge to replay it as soon as I finished it.

I think this is a game that really stands the test of time for that reason; it has all the right elements of an enjoyable game, and even though it’s ‘dated’ by todays standards, it offers a fun play experience and the right pacing to keep you engaged all the way through. It also cuts anything unnecessary, so while the world is not as ‘big’ as Chamber of Secrets, it feels like everything included is intentional and offers value to the play experience.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This is the second Harry Potter PS2 game I jumped into once I finished Prisoner of Azkaban, and by this stage, the graphics and world design had changed a lot from the early games.

I personally really enjoyed this game, and while Hogwarts looked quite different to the one I grew up running around in, I felt like this one was easier to get lost in. It took me all of this game plus some of the next one to finally learn my way around the castle. I feel like some of the initial ‘whimsical’ wonder of the early game worlds had been traded in for a more realistic, quality and ‘impressive’ game experience, which wasn’t necessarily bad, just different. But it does change the entire feel of playing the game. Still, the castle feels alive and full of things to discover and engage with, which is nice.

I also enjoyed that there were more ‘known’ NPC characters to engage with instead of just Neville and Draco, thanks to the DA plotline of this game. Casting spells was sometimes frustrating but mostly fun, since it required learning different wand movement combinations on the joystick instead of just pressing a button.

The later games are still puzzle platformers at heart, so while you’re not engaging in random obstacle course type puzzles during classes anymore to unlock a spell, you still end up doing all kinds of puzzles around the castle itself (sidenote: having Harry scale the walls of Hogwarts on multiple occasions to complete ‘fetch quests’ was an anxiety inducing experience).

However, just for added gameplay features, something that really started to annoy me about the later games was the sudden and frequent demand for duels! Every time I was trying to get somewhere or complete a quest, a Slytherin would appear out of nowhere and demand we spend 10 minutes of gameplay dueling—just to lose miserably each time. Like, we get it, you suck, can we stop doing this now?

Overall, I really enjoyed it for the different and fresh take on playing at Hogwarts, but towards the end the game started to feel quite monotonous. I enjoyed it enough to want to pick up the next game in the series, so on to that review.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

This game feels very similar to the previous one, but it does offer a couple of standout differences.

For a start, dueling was improved in this game (mainly because casting spells also got simpler) which made it more engaging every time you had to do it.

They also added potions mini games into classes, and personally, I really enjoyed this aspect. It was quite fun and engaging to try and complete a potion successfully in a set amount of time, and it added a lot of value to the game. I wish it had been included in all of the prior games.

While the castle feels exactly the same as the previous game (I would even argue less engaging and slightly emptier), exploring it and getting around feels more streamlined due to the inclusion of fast travel via certain portraits (offering ‘shortcuts’) and Nearly Headless Nick guiding you more effectively from quest to quest.

I’d also say that this game had some of the best intentional dialogue and humour in all of the games, probably because it was also the funniest movie of the series and a direct adaption from that.

In hindsight, reflecting on this game, it felt like an improved extension of Order of the Phoenix—almost like they used that game as a framework to build and improve on this one (though it’s a shame they didn’t continue this and switched directions completely for Deathly Hallows). As a result, Half Blood Prince almost feels like DLC for Order of the Phoenix, like they’ve added a few extra features and expanded various things, but otherwise, it’s very much a same-but-different play experience.

Final Verdict

In conclusion, I think there’s lots of pros and cons for each game, and different things they bring to the table that give them a fully unique play experience (making it worth purchasing all four of them).

But the winner, in my eyes, will always be Prisoner of Azkaban, and I promise it’s not just because I grew up playing it. Though they’re all very different games, I stand by my assessment that Prisoner of Azkaban really ticks all the boxes:

• Like Chamber of Secrets, the world offers that ‘student at Hogwarts’ feeling with a huge, open world to explore and lots of secrets to uncover, without unnecessary, repetitive rooms and settings. Plus, it has the most consistently developed areas throughout the entire game (it doesn’t feel like they ran out of budget and patched up certain areas, everything feels intentional).
• Like some of your later games, the gameplay is fast, engaging and streamlined. Every quest is exciting and isn’t ridiculously difficult to the point that it’s no longer fun. There’s a great balance of puzzle levels and exploring. The storyline moves the game forward well, and you can finish it in a day and still feel like you haven’t exhausted exploring the castle.
• For those who loved the flying aspect of Chamber of Secrets, where Harry unlocks the broom and can fly anywhere outside the castle grounds, you can also do this on Buckbeak in Prisoner of Azkaban, which offers a similar experience.
• I love that you can change characters in Prisoner of Azkaban. Playing as a female, I like when I’m offered a female player option, but even being able to play as Ron and not just Harry during some areas felt inclusive and gave me some additional customization and control over my gameplay experience (note: this is also one reason why I love Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and that you can choose a male or female play experience without completely altering the storyline).
• There’s plenty of spells to learn, and casting them isn’t overly complicated, which I appreciate. I also like that each character has their own spells that they can learn, so there’s value in getting to play as each character to be able to access and unlock that specific spell, rather than just having all of them available all of the time.
• If you enjoy dueling in the later games, you can also duel in Prisoner of Azkaban. There’s your fair share of run ins with Peeves and Malfoy that require dueling, but it doesn’t completely take over the game. And if you want to do more dueling, there’s also a mini game you can access where you can duel to your heart’s content (you can even pick which house you want to be in per duel, which I enjoyed as a child from a customisation standpoint).

If you’ve played the Harry Potter games (especially the ones I haven’t played), I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! What do and don’t you enjoy in the games, and what makes a particular game special for you?