After several run-of-the-mill console outings Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at least tries to push things forward and presents players with a great looking and more overtly ‘open’ world to explore – and you’ll be doing plenty of that, guaranteed. Indeed, more than half the game completed and all we seem to have done so far is – how can we put this? – fart about exploring. We’ve been fetching, carrying, mending stuff, relighting torches, conversing with gargoyles and getting to grips with a number of spells which are activated neatly enough – by sweeps of the analogue stick etc – but only seem to work when the context dictates it. Gnnh!

But let’s accentuate the positive for a moment, and there really is much to recommend the game. It’s slickly presented, cinematically scored and impressively solid throughout. Loading times are all but non-existent too, which adds much to the sense of freedom when roaming Hogwarts' labyrinthine corridors. Also the character likenesses are mostly spot on and the voice-acting’s not bad, excepting Nearly Headless Nick who sounds like Michael Barrymore doing Basil Fawlty on a bad, particularly drunken day.

However while all of the above makes for a gameplay environment that Potter fans could happily live in other considerations, such as pace and excitement, have taken a backseat. The first half of the game is little more than a series of humdrum tasks that do nothing to drive the plot along and the storyline, when it deigns to present itself, lurches along awkwardly. But our biggest grumble is that the game doesn’t so much hold your hand as weld on a pair of handcuffs, literally guiding you to your chosen objective by providing a trail of footsteps to follow. For an action/adventure that is otherwise open to explore it’s a puzzler.

But Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is for kids and Potter die-hards who’ll think nothing of the borderline tedious to-ing and fro-ing and will be grateful for the guidance that ensures they get to see the majority of what the game has on offer. In that case it’s an easy 3 out of 5 and an almost guaranteed chart-topper. For anyone over 12, though, it’s a case of ‘Gamius Dulliardo’!