Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The most interesting decision in this game is how it treats the castle. Earlier Harry Potter games mostly sent you down a corridor toward the next set piece. Here Hogwarts is a connected space you walk around in, and a glowing Marauder's Map-style guide points you toward objectives. Navigating the school became part of the fun instead of a loading screen between levels.

That suits the book it adapts, which is long, angry and mostly about people sitting in rooms. The developers could not fit all of it, and they did not try. The Ministry of Magic finale is there, and Dumolore's Army lessons give the plot a practical shape, but plenty is trimmed or compressed. Anyone who knows the novel will notice the gaps quickly. Anyone who knows the film will notice the game follows the film's version of events more closely than the text.

Spellcasting is handled with simple controls rather than anything elaborate. You aim at targets and use the analog stick to trace shapes for certain spells, which sometimes feels fiddly and sometimes feels like actual wand work. Combat against Death Eaters and Umbridge's enforcers is basic, a series of lock-on and fire exchanges that never gets much deeper than it first appears. Puzzles are mostly about finding the right spell for the right object, and they rarely slow you down for long.

The PS2 version also shows its age more than the versions on newer hardware. Character models are rough, the camera can be stubborn, and the castle sometimes feels emptier than it should. Still, there is something appealing about wandering the halls with no urgency, finding small secrets and tasks that have nothing to do with the main plot.

It is a modest game, but it understood that people wanted to live in the place, not just pass through it. That instinct has aged better than the combat ever did.