Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone review (Xbox)

The graphics in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone fall a bit short of last year's game and ultimately fail to impress. Many of the art assets used in Sorcerer's Stone are back but haven't made a very smooth transition. You'll still find nicely constructed and detailed environments that re-create familiar areas, such as the Hogwart's school grounds and surrounding areas. (Apparently, this gave developer Warthog license to introduce some new nooks and crannies for Harry to explore.) The characters are represented by simple models that are modestly detailed but manage to look close enough to their cinematic counterparts. The game also features a good assortment of lighting and particle effects for magic, thus giving the visuals some flourish. However, the overall presentation is marred by glitches, like a finicky camera system that adds an unwelcome layer of difficulty to sequences--such as when you're trying to jump from platform to platform. Whereas last year's Chamber of Secrets game managed to offer a fairly smooth experience across the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox, Sorcerer's Stone is much more hit-or-miss, as it features inconsistent frame rates and what feels to be a general lack of polish and optimization for any of the versions. The GameCube and Xbox games do offer progressive scan support, which helps the visual quality of these incarnations somewhat but doesn't make any dramatic differences.

The game's audio is good, but it isn't terribly remarkable. You will hear decent voice acting for Harry and the colorful characters you'll encounter in the game. The audio is also available in Spanish, which is a nice bilingual touch. The voice gets a bit weaker when it comes out of the assorted foes you'll face, and your foes do tend to sound a bit generic. The sound package is rounded out by ambient noises and a good collection of effects used for Harry's spells, which are fine and are suitably magical-sounding. Of the three versions, the Xbox version's audio is the best, thanks to in-game Dolby Digital, which makes the experience a bit more immersive.

Overall, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a weak follow-up to Chamber of Secrets that seems like an awkward fit for anyone who already owns last year's game. While fans may enjoy the chance to relive Harry's first adventure in a proper action adventure game, the gameplay and graphical performance of Sorcerer's Stone doesn't differ much from Chamber of Secrets, and the game itself doesn't offer any dramatic improvements to make it a must-have. In the end Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is an unremarkable game that diehard fans may enjoy, but it's one that casual gamers and Potter fans may want to think twice about picking up.