Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Gaming Age

Much like the film and the book, is possibly the best in the series.

GameDaily

While EA did a poor job fleshing out the story, some of the sound-alikes aren't nearly as good as the film's cast (Snape doesn't even sound close) and a few facial animations look bizarre, but for the most part, Half-Blood Prince is one of the best Harry Potter games we've played.

Vandal Online

Electronic Arts has proved how to make a good use of a character license, offering hours of fun and a magic world to explore.

IGN

It's not groundbreaking and it's not the most engaging experience in the world, but there is something fun about dropping worms into a cauldron and desperately looking for 150 hidden crests.

Gamer 2.0

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a title that gets a lot of stuff right because of its glorious presentation of Hogwarts and interesting bits of gameplay with the potions and duels.

Console Monster

On the whole, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is a great title that Harry Potter fans and gamers alike will enjoy, though its short length doesn’t make the title worth its £40 price tag.

MEGamers

The game across all systems is a solid effort, a little problems in each department manages to pull the game down however.

Cheat Code Central

A fun movie tie-in game, and it certainly lives up to what is expected of it. Although it isn’t terribly long or deep, it will give fans of the series some solid gameplay , and it certainly isn’t too challenging for younger fans who might want to play it.

ZTGameDomain

A solid movie tie-in game with a few setbacks. While light years beyond the mess that was Order of the Phoenix, it still needs a few tweaks to be considered a great game.

TeamXbox

It has some really nice features, but for every nice one, there are an equal number of strange design choices or flaws.

WonderwallWeb

The mini games are real good fun but are over very quickly, leaving you with a lot of running around to do. Good clean fun that will keep you quiet as you wait for the film.

Meristation

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince is a funny game for children that allows us to play as the famous magician. EA did a good job by introducing some features in this game. However, Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince is a linear game without innovative aspects. Just buy it if you're one of Harry's supporters.

Gamer Limit

Though was fun to play, it felt a bit too much on-rails and more freedom would have been appreciated.

Game Informer

Concocting potions and humiliating dark wizards is fun for a while, but once the novelty is gone, Hogwarts loses all of its magic.

Game Over Online

Targeted at the younger audience, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a decent game overall, but it doesn’t live up to the potential and grandeur of the Harry Potter legacy.

Cynamite

Half-hearted port that doesn't excel in any category.

XGN

Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince is a nice action adventure game. But more depth and variation in the gameplay would have been welcome. The game doesn't always give the player a magic feeling, but it still remains fun to be able to use some magic.

GameZone

Certainly a more enjoyable Potter game than last year’s Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince for the Xbox 360 still doesn’t quite manage to be a great Harry Potter game.

Gamervision

Mindless, shallow, and temporary entertainment, deserving of a rental and not much more. The way the story is presented as an afterthought is inexcusable, and the repetitive fetch quests and contrived missions can only keep one occupied for so long. It’s not a failure, and it is far from being the worst movie tie-in of the year, but Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince once again falls short of being a worthwhile game to add to your collection.

GameFocus

While the game was delayed for a few months after the movie was delayed it appears the developers did little to improve on the game and if they did it was not in good shape before the delay. A few issues bring down what could have been a great title and makes this a rent nothing more.

InsideGamer.nl

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is to a certain degree pretty enjoyable but it simply never attempts to try anything special with the universe to which it is connected. It's absolutely not horrible and the true fans will definitely enjoy it but we hope the next game contains a bit more 'magic'.

Worth Playing

Altogether, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is not a great game, but it's decent enough to be playable, and I can see the charm that younger fans of the franchise will enjoy.

NZGamer

The game lacks that sense of polish and depth that the franchise sorely needs. Gameplay is entertaining at first, but fails to remain so after extended play.

Planet Xbox 360

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is not worth anything more than an afternoon sit-down or rainy weekend rental.

Absolute Games

Get ready to fly on brooms, mix reagents in a pot and swing the magic wand… Until you yawn.

Gamer.nl

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will give fans some enjoyment, but it doesn't offer much challenge and the story is told in a lackluster way. However, the game's visual presentation is impressive and the offered mini-games are fun to play.

VideoGamer

There's little to no challenge present throughout the entire game, the story only makes sense if you already know the plot and there's a lack of things to do outside of the three main gameplay mechanics. Buy if you're a mega fan, but avoid if you like your games with even a tiny amount of depth.

Xbox World Australia

In the end, I find it too hard to recommend this game to anybody that isn't either a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, or a parent in search of a simplistic experience to keep the little ankle-biters busy.

MondoXbox

An overly simplified game, suited for children and casual gamers looking for a few hours of diversion between Hogwarts walls. The lackluster storytelling makes it more suitable for people already knowing the complete story, and it misses on giving the player any kind of challenge: it's basically comprised of the same three mini-games repeated over and over through the five hours needed to complete it.

Xbox360Achievements

The entire game is almost identical to the last offering, only with the focus shifted to Quidditch, dueling and potions. If that floats your boat then prepare to spend a few hours just repeating those tasks until the game ends. This may be enough fun for rabid Potter fans but provides little in the way of entertainment for the rest of us.

X360 Magazine UK

A minuscule improvement, Potter is coasting now. [Issue#48, p.85]

Everyeye.it

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a modest tie-in. Creepy graphics and simple (too simple!) gameplay do not convince neither the hardcore gamer nor the Harry Potter fan.

PALGN

Movie tie-in or not, competent or not, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a half-arsed effort given the source material.

Official Xbox Magazine UK

It's a distinctly average game from Harry, so a fittingly average mark for him as we give him a "five".

Official Xbox Magazine

It slowly dawned on us that that's all there is to the game. [Oct 2009, p.82]

Xbox World 360 Magazine UK

Certainly faithful to the fiction but inferior to the last game in almost every single way.

HellBored

The source material is wasted, with the end result being nothing more than a shoddy runabout broken up by, for the most part, mundane mini-games.

GameShark

That’s how I felt after playing the game: that I didn’t really do anything. I’m a big fan of the books – a bit less so of the films, and the games still fail to remotely live up to either.