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Overview

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a game made by EA based on J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter franchise. The game is based on the second book and film in the series of the same name. The game follows the plot of the book for the most part, although random missions were thought up to add lenght to the game, like multiple missions where you have to save or help other pupils.

Gameplay

You will start out the game at Ron Weasley's house, where you must take care of some chores and do some mini-games. After that, you get sent to Diagon Alley, although anyone who has seen the film or read the book that doesn't quite as planned. Here, the game actually adds the first additional gameplay sequence by expanding on the little sidetrip Harry makes. After this sequence, you get taken to Hogwarts, where the game begins in earnest.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' gameplay is somewhat similar to that of Bully (Canis Canem Edit or Bully: Scholarship Edition), Rockstar's over-the-top highschool simulator. You will need to take classes to advance the story. Upon taking one of the classes, you will be sent into a backroom of the classroom in order to retrieve a spellbook associated with that class. You will come across a spell that turns giant blue eggs into birds if you take the "Transfiguration" class, while you will learn the "Incendio" spell that sets object aflame in the "Defence againt the Dark Arts" class. Inbetween classes, you can also take missions from pupils. The game has a day/night cycle, and some missions must be done during nighttime. When it's dark, prefects will roam the halls of Hogwarts, as well as the grounds outside. Like in the books, there is always a contest going on between the houses in points, which are gained by doing things well in the classes. If you are caught by a prefect or Filch, the caretaker however, you will lose some points. You can buy magical trick items like dungbombs and certain spells to distract these watchmen while you go around the castle.

While you are not doing missions, you can freely explore Hogwarts castle and the grounds surrounding it. There are some odd jobs as well. You can become champion of the duelling club, trade stuff with fellow pupils, attempt to make other houses lose points and run people over with your broom. There is quite a lot of stuff to do in this Harry Potter.

Notable Trivia

• You will eventually receive a broomstick, the Nimbus 2000. You can actually get onto this broom at any time while you are outside, though not in missions where you have to go to the Forbidden Forest. This can actually be used to make certain missions easier, for instance; in one mission, you have to avoid school prefects while trying to get across the school grounds in order to get to Hagrid's house. You can actually just whip out your broom and fly across the school grounds, avoiding that part of the mission entirely. You can also use the broomstick to reach otherwise inaccesible part of the castle, like certain rooftops.
• There are huge differences between the PS1 and PS2/XBOX versions of the game. For instance, while Harry travels to Diagon Alley with flu powder, things go wrong. On PS1, you must attempt to keep Harry on the middle of the slide with the analog stick, lest you fail the sequence. On PS2 however, this sequence is not present at all, and you simply get dropped off in a cutscene. This is one of the few examples of the PS1 game having more content in a gameplay sequence. For the rest of the game, this tends to be the other way around.