A game that stays true to its source material.
EA did an excellent job with this game. The game does start out kind of slow. You start out playing one of the Hogwart's house teams, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Griffindor, or Slytherin. You work thorough different challenges to learn how play the game. Then you play a game to test out the skills you learn, then more house challenges, then another Quidditch match, and so on until you have played the three other teams. If you have the most points at the end of the last match, then you progress to the Quidditch World Cup. Now THIS is fun.
The computer controlled players in the World cup are much tougher than the Hogwart' s players, which I really did appreciate. I mean, after you play the game several times, its not that difficult to slaughter a team like Slytherin by over 800 points. (Yes, eight-hundred). There are also many more teams, each with their own beautifully rendered stadium, strengths, and special moves. And with the different difficulty levels (represented by what kind of broom you choose), the game has great replay value. I have honestly been playing this game since it came out last fall, and I am still addicted to it.
After winning the Quidditch World Cup (which starts to become incredibly difficult as you progress through the World Series), you unlock a portion of the game called Queerditch (nothing to do with homosexuals). Basically this looks like you are playing in a run down Quidditch Pitch somewhere in the UK, with the hoops hanging from trees, and some awful weather. Eye candy aside, you can once again play as one of the Hogwarts house teams, although you start to realize that they have gotten a LOT better. You can be playing as Gryffindor and get totally trampled by Hufflepuff. It also has multiplayer support.
I am not the only one addicted to this game. My sister, who like the only games she plays are Final Fantasy and The Sims, loves this game. It is just great. I actually only found one complaint with it., and that is that there is no online play. There is multiplayer support, but playing multiplayer on the same PC is weird. Also, I do not think the game will make a lot of sense if you are not a Harry Potter fan, at least at first. The voice acting in the game is really good at instructing you on the basics of Quidditch, and if you are really out of the loop, there is always the instruction manual. .
Overall I highly recommend this game to anyone who is a Harry Potter fan. I give this game a 5 out of 5.