With Hogwarts: Legacy releasing in February, and in the mood for a nice relaxing game, I decided now was a good time to go back to the Lego Harry Potter Collection - a set of games I first played back in 2014 on the PC. The collection was offered for "free" as part of November's PS Plus games, and is really 2 games sold as a collection: Years 1-4 & Years 5-7.

The Lego HP Collection follows the same formula as every other Lego game before they branched out into the superhero licenses - there's no open world and no voice acting to be found here. Instead, the (heavily abbreviated) story is told through short cutscenes that rely heavily on being familiar with the source material. They're funny and charming, but if you don't know the HP story you'll be a bit lost. The gags and practical humor in these cutscenes that play between the ~20-minute levels help carry the story through the roughly 12 hour playtime for each title in the collection. 

Older Lego games follow a standard gameplay formula. There's a relatively sizable hub world to explore (though nothing on the scale of more recent games) and you're directed to each self-contained level by an NPC. These levels form the main gameplay component. You'll be doing some light platforming and solving simple puzzles to advance through linear levels. Gameplay can get a bit stale - you'll be making potions and using the same spells over and over; boss battles follow the same 3-hits-and-it's-over formula. Make no mistake - these games are for children. But if you need a game to relax, maybe watching something on a second monitor or listening to a podcast, it's hard to go wrong with Lego games.

Graphics are simple but functional. If you've played a Lego game before you know what to expect. Image quality is good, and the sheer number of interactive objects and unique animations is impressive. There's a clear upgrade in fidelity between Years 1-4 and 5-7 - the latter game features better lighting, more robust shadows, and more objects onscreen. 

On the audio front, the soundtrack is mostly remixed songs form the movies. It sounds good, but the theme song plays constantly in the hub world and can get old. Characters speak in trademark grunts and chuckles. There's the occasional annoying sound effect - at a few parts in both games I was looking for the solution to a puzzle and there were some NPCs standing around laughing constantly. 

Lego Harry Potter is the definition of a "decent" game - especially if you are a fan of the series. The gameplay is simple and fun throughout, though it doesn't really evolve throughout the game and will be nothing new if you're used to the Lego formula. A few puzzles have surprisingly obscure solutions for a kid's game. Some clunkiness can make a few platforming sections frustrating.

Recommend for the dirt-cheap price you can get it for. Even if you missed the PS Plus promotion, you can find this collection on the PS Store for less than $5 pretty often. 

• Date Completed: 12/4/2022
• Reviewed on: PS4
• Time played: 23.5 hours
• Score 7.5/10