It’s about time we got a truly great Harry Potter game. I’ve never considered myself a fan of the book or movie series, but I am familiar with them and there’s no denying that J.K. Rowling has crafted an imaginative world ripe for exploration. We’ve never received a video game that matches the care and dedication that goes in to translating the books to film, but that’s all about to change with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. EA has pulled out all the stops with this title, and the end result is a solid gaming experience wrapped up in superb production values.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is based on the fifth movie in the blockbuster Harry Potter series, due to open any day now. Harry returns for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts, but only after a dangerous encounter with the Dementors of Azkaban occurs over the summer. Right from the beginning it’s obvious that this won’t be a quiet year at Hogwarts, and Harry is in for another grand adventure. Stuck with a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who refuses to train the students properly, Harry and his friends begin to secretly recruit and train students for “Dumbledore’s Army” so that they may be prepared for whatever the evil Lord Voldemort will throw at them. Fortunately the exciting plot translates as well to the game as it does to film, and you can expect to be at the center of the exciting story at all times.

The most impressive aspect of Order of the Phoenix is its amazing representation of Harry’s school, Hogwarts. Instead of a strictly linear experience, players are free to roam around the entire grounds of Hogwarts searching for secret passageway and fulfilling side quests. You can stop and talk to students, teachers, and even the castle’s portraits and resident ghosts. What makes it impressive is not only the care that EA has taken to represent the entire school, but that there are no loading screens as you transition between areas of the school. It looks like the frame rate took one for the team though, as it can struggle at times as the game no doubt loads data in the background.

As you wander around Hogwarts, you’ll be given tasks to complete in order to progress the story. Most of these missions are simple fetch quests, but they don’t get too repetitive. Besides, finding your way around Hogwarts to complete them is half the fun. In case you manage to get lost, EA has incorporated the Marauder’s Map into Harry’s arsenal, allowing you to easily get your bearings and find mission critical characters in the castle. In addition to missions, there are also several minigames scattered throughout the castle for you to complete. The Room of Rewards houses plenty of goodies for fans of the series like cast interviews and other surprises if you can manage to collect enough Discovery Points by exploring every inch of Hogwarts. You’ll also come across students to plays Wizard Chess, Exploding Snap, and other games against. All of these distractions do a great job of breaking up the storyline and rewarding the player for taking their time to roam the grounds.

Graphically, Order of the Phoenix is no powerhouse. It’s certainly not a bad looking game, but even without cutting edge effects EA has done a masterful job portraying the world of Harry Potter. The game is a visual overload for series fans, and it’s obvious the team at EA took their time adding plenty of little details to the world for players to discover. For the most part the character models are well done, and the animation is quite good also. The game’s audio isn’t as exciting, but you’ll recognize the familiar theme from the movie as you play. The voice acting is usually pretty good, though not all of the actors from the film were able to lend their voices to their digital counterparts.

The controls for Harry Potter are something definitely worth mentioning. On the 360 and PS3, you’ll use the secondary analog stick to control Harry’s wand and cast spells. This interface usually works well enough, but the Wii’s control scheme is definitely superior. As you would expect, Order of the Phoenix on the Wii uses the Remote’s motion sensing capabilities to cast different spells. Though the Remote is not quite as precise as the analog stick, the immersion provided by actually waving your hand to cast a spell more than makes up for any accuracy issues. If you’ve got a choice of the Wii version compared to the other home consoles, I’d say you’re better off taking a small visual downgrade for the more entertaining control system.

Great games based on movies are hard to come by. EA has gone above and beyond any previous efforts and delivered a title that would be fun for all gamers. The extreme care taken with reproducing the world, characters, and story of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix results in certainly the best Harry Potter game yet and a perfect counterpart to the film. If you have even a passing interest in the series, you owe it to yourself to check out this title.