Good day everyone. Many gamers have favorite games from their childhood. My childhood was spent in the steampunk world of Arcanum, night racing Underground 2, the forbidden zone of the first Stalker, modern warfare Call of Duty 4, and the magical world of Harry Potter. The latter will be discussed.

It was a time when I didn’t have the Internet, and I had to buy games on disk, find working versions through trial and error, or record them from friends. Sometimes we came across with a crooked translation, without cut scenes or even with a crooked crack. I had to study with Ron Weasel, the non-stuttering Quirrell, leave Hi Drive, look for Scrubbers and fight Dragon Malfoy.

In 2023, the long-awaited Hogwarts was released for many. Heritage", which turned out to be a hyped soap bubble. After playing it for a while, I was of two minds. On the one hand, I received a well-designed castle and various surroundings, a well-represented era of the 19th century, pleasant music, and a large amount of fan service. But, on the other hand, there are the same type of tasks on every corner, a sterile, filler world and the same environment, logic in places is dead, as well as a disregard for the source material.

Professor "content on rule34" Chesnouk

The same legendary mod

Once again the same legendary mod

After 20 hours of suffering in a stuffy and monotonous hyped-up novelty, I decided to replay the classic Harry Potter trilogy on PC from KnowWonder. Now I’ll tell you how the previous parts are played, how you can improve them and expand the passage. Let me note right away that this will be a purely subjective opinion.
P.S: by default, during the passage, a mod for widescreen resolution was used, and debugging mode was enabled (this is when green symbols run in the corner of the screen). With its help you can skip cutscenes in the first part, calmly use cheats and different modes in the first and second parts.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The first pancake with lumps

I’ll start the story from the first part. The game begins with a brief backstory, introducing the player to the events that preceded earlier. It is presented through pictures with voiceover text. It looks like a little children’s fairy tale.

Gameplay begins immediately after the distribution ceremony. Having met the Weasley brothers, Harry learns the basics of the game and gradually gets acquainted with the main characters.

This is how the game begins

Throughout the game, Harry will attend classes where he will learn spells.

There are five spells to learn in total:

Spell training takes place in four stages, during each stage it is necessary to trace the outline of the spell symbol as accurately and quickly as possible. For successfully completing the stage, Gryffindor will receive house points.

Afterwards, Harry goes through a location where he needs to collect stars using a previously learned spell. By collecting all the stars, the faculty will receive the maximum possible number of points. Therefore, you need to explore the location carefully.

The workshops turned out to be varied and memorable. They walk calmly and effortlessly. Separately, I would like to highlight the workshop of the Incendio spell with Professor Stebel. During the herbology lesson you will have to go through various locations: greenhouses, places with ultraviolet light, a large multi-level tree, watering stations, a green labyrinth..

In addition to witchcraft, the game also features the magical sport of Quidditch. But before taking part in the competition, Harry will have to fly through the rings and, as in the original source, accept a challenge from Malfoy, who took the reminder from Neville.

Try to fly through all 82 rings and find the card

Quidditch itself pleasantly surprised me. During the match, we ourselves are free to fly around the field in search of the Snitch, and the faster we catch it, the more points our team will receive. Fortunately, the desired ball flies along a given trajectory and remembering it will not be difficult. They give you complete control over the broom, and you are free to fly as you wish. Another plus is the varied time of day of matches.

The game tries to follow the plot of the film, since it is the one that is better known to the general public, but there are also moments from the book to expand the gameplay component and introduce the audience to the scenes and nod to the readers. For example, a riddle with a potion after a chess match.
As for the original source, in addition to the skirmish on broomsticks with Malfoy, we will have time to visit Hagrid, run and fight the Troll, find the mirror of Erised, hide from Filch, and solve a number of riddles on the way to the philosopher’s stone. Some scenes and moments differ slightly from the original sources or occur out of chronological order or have been combined. But this does not interfere with the overall perception, in view of the smooth narrative.

Duel with Draco on broomsticks

Escape from the Troll

Battle in https://casinoprive.co.uk/ the toilet

Stealth with Filch and Mrs. Norris

Flight for the key

Potion riddle

The final battle with Voldemort

During the passage, Harry will receive and find cards with famous wizards, containing information about a specific person, and expanding the lore of the world. There are 25 of them in total, and some of them are hidden either in non-obvious places or are simply difficult to get. We will receive a number of cards according to the plot of the game from the Weasley twins for 25 beans.

Card from the cache

Card from the Weasley twins

For a long time I could not find the second card in the section before the Herbology workshop. I found many secret places where there was nothing except beans. It turns out that she was behind the greenhouse. This is the most unobvious secret, because before entering the lesson you receive a card from Fred and George. Not everyone will guess to go to the other side of the fence using the required spell and find it. It’s a shame that the game gives no hint that this secret is located here. In my opinion, it should have been placed at the beginning or in the middle of the level. The ideal would be to get the card for solving the Wingardium Leviosa puzzle or after a skirmish with the dwarves.

That very secret place

The same card

The game allows you to explore the castle and its surroundings, but only a couple of times per playthrough. Basically, the game strictly follows the plot, holding the player’s hand tightly, not allowing him to deviate from the intended path. Sometimes you just started exploring a location and walked into a random door when a cutscene started and you were already in a new lesson. And there’s no way to go back.

I would like to note the lively surroundings of the castle. During lessons, students from different faculties meet, who, like Harry, take the lesson. Outside of class, students will use their dialogues to guide you and give you hints about the location of secrets. Yes, even Hedwig will deliver letters to his owner.

Hedwig delivers mail

Another letter

Student at Professor Stebel’s lesson

Student at Lumos lesson

And Jeremy Soule’s magical music is amazing. It perfectly immerses you into this world filled with magic even more. I can confidently say that the developers tried to make the game varied and addictive.

OST Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

But everything can’t be that good? Yes, and the game has disadvantages, some of which can spoil the impression. But don’t forget that the game was released in 2001, and the computers of that time could not do what modern gaming systems can do.

Control. Harry in the game resembles Leon from the original Resident Evil 4. The Boy Who Lived, alas, cannot cast magic while moving. To cast a spell you need to stop, aim exactly at the object and click. And he climbs and jumps very clumsily and clumsily due to the lack of many animations, which is why Harry is in
froze in his jump like an NBA basketball player. This slows down gameplay a lot and
makes some aspects of the passage more difficult.

Linearity. I talked about this earlier that the game leads the player by the hand. I want to wander around the castle and visit all the locations. But instead you go straight ahead. If you forgot to study the secret at the location, then it’s sad. If there were beans, then the game will allow
accumulate the required amount on cards. But if you missed the card itself, then
write-it’s gone.

Lack of a sane counter for secrets found. Before each mission, during loading, which lasts a second, the game writes that the location has a certain number of secret places and cards. And if you find any of this, the game does not record it in any way. It would be possible to indicate in the menu about discovered secrets and collected cards.

Controversial points:

Temporary secrets. Each level has a strict number of secret places and hiding places, and if you don’t find them, you won’t be able to get a reward in that place again. But don’t forget that the game takes place in a magical world. Probably, the developers wanted to push players to study locations more carefully, so that players would actively show curiosity.

Secret above the bookcase

Lack of information. The game doesn’t talk about a number of creatures at all. We can only guess what fantastic beasts Harry encountered. Such as orange poisonous snails, fire crabs, pixies..
Since the main motivator for the creation of the game, and therefore sales, was the film, the absence of a book background or a banal bestiary makes the elements of the world incomprehensible to a person who has not read the book.

Players can only guess that this is a Fire Crab, since the game doesn’t say anything about it

Professor McGonagall’s lack of importance. Minerva is encountered a couple of times during the game, and only in cutscenes. Although earlier full-fledged lessons were planned with her. But we’ll talk about that later.

When I was at school and played through the game, I got to the battle with Peeves after Professor Flitwick’s workshop, and then there was a battle at the firecracker with Malfoy. With local control this battle became real torture. Harry moved slowly around the arena, reluctantly picked up the firecrackers and threw them very crookedly. Afterwards, you need to get to the greenhouses, and you will have to go through many dangerous creatures, among which there will be those that are unknown to the hero and against whom you do not know the necessary spells. You can also get lost in labyrinths. At the end of the workshop, a duel with Draco awaited again, but this time on brooms. Considering the crooked controls, it was real HELL! And then a long and dangerous walk to Hagrid’s hut and the “fascinating” collection of fire seeds. These segments were very tiring and caused irritation rather than pleasure. And not finding cards at the end of the game caused dissatisfaction and sadness. Fortunately, there are now detailed guides on how to find them.

Battle with Peeves

First duel with Draco

Let’s seek knowledge through carnivorous plants

Duel with Draco. Now on brooms

– Now Harry go into the unknown for the seeds

The game leaves a good impression. You can complete the game in 3 hours without having time to get bored or bored. In general, it is quite possible to pass the time and have fun. If it were not for the above problems, the game can be considered ideal, but the disadvantages sometimes seriously interfere with the passage.

Mods for the philosopher’s stone

As I said before, the controls in Philosopher’s Stone were very bad and the first part became that Harry Potter game that not everyone could master. A couple of years ago, a mod appeared for the game that makes the controls similar to those in the Chamber of Secrets, that is, better. I used it during the full playthrough to record footage.

This mod improves controls for the better:

Accurate and smooth animation when climbing. Now there is no torn
animation when Harry hovered in the air for a split second and somehow rose.

Spell Accuracy. Now you don’t have to get too close to the object
and calculate the angle at which the young wizard will cast the spell.

But this mod is not friendly with old saves, and you will have to start a new game.

The following mod is a modification created by enthusiasts based on cut material. This is HP1 E3 or "First Game Restoration". The plot and events remain the same, but the levels themselves have been reworked (some completely, some partially) and new ones that are important in the book have been added. Agree, it’s more interesting to play this way!

The mod begins with a full-fledged cutscene, moving the beginning from the film, when Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall and Rubeus Hagrid delivered little Harry Potter to the Dursleys’ house. Afterwards, the now grown-up Harry looks for toys for Dudley and pieces of a letter from Hogwarts throughout the house. And then he ends up with Hagrid in Diagon Alley, where the young wizard is getting ready for school. Next, meeting Ron and Hermione and the Sorting Ceremony. And then the already familiar scene with the Hogwarts director, after which full-fledged training begins.

There are more lessons and cut spells have been added. Harry learns some by simply finding a sheet of parchment, and Professor McGonagall now has two full-fledged transfiguration lessons, which is good news. Canceled levels have been implemented, such as the failed duel with Draco from the book or the punishment in the Forbidden Forest. Plus, there are more story-based Quidditch games. The castle itself has become larger and more diverse. The creators of the mod used some of the models and textures from the Chamber of Secrets: moving stairs and floors smoothly connect the levels and locations of the game. It looks impressive! Some locations have undergone dramatic changes, like the example of a dungeon with a Potions lesson. Now this place looks more sinister in fashion. We are also now free to walk freely throughout the castle in search of hiding places.