Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 is the second Lego Harry Potter game and focuses on the movies Order Of The Phoenix to The Deathly Hallows Part 2. Once again we get an impressive level of accuracy in translating the film series to little brick men.

There are six levels per movie meaning twenty four in total along with classes and bonus sections, this includes the million stud level that many of the older Lego games featured. We don’t get the level creator or extra challenges that the Years 1-4 game had. Some levels brought new and interesting elements like with the three brothers story which became simpler, 2D style and had a different colour scheme to the rest of the game, this was great in the story but became tedious upon a replay.

Hogwarts returns as the main feature of the hub area with Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, A street of London, a wild area and a few extra bits of Hogwarts grounds to keep it large. Having played Years 1-4, Hogwarts in this one was quite disappointing as there weren’t as many secret areas or hidden rooms to add to the magical feel of the thing.

Of course with huge hub areas, and being a Lego game we get plenty of collectibles to find. There are House crests in levels while character tokens, gold bricks, students in peril and studs appear all over the game often hidden behind a puzzle of some kind, giving players a decent amount to do. There is one crest on a certain level which is a pain to get and feels downright unfair.

To complete the puzzles in the game we’re given a selection of spells as well as having new tools at our disposal. Hermione has a bag of tricks and a book. Some characters speak snake. Arthur Weasley gets a wrench because of his inventiveness. All Weasleys can use special Weasley boxes from Fred and George’s shop. Ron has his Deluminator. Some characters have strength or digging abilities and a few of the characters have pets such as Hermione’s Crookshanks.

There are new duel battles that act as boss fights which are really just a colour matching minigame. These duels are weirdly exciting on a first run, giving an immersive feel of being in a wizard battle as you desperately bash buttons to beat your opponents. When in the Free Play mode the duels just get in the way, feeling slow and making the levels drag out.

As for problems with the game: it crashed once and there was an action I was performing that wouldn’t do what it was supposed to, the solution was to quit the level and try again but it was still annoying.

Overall, this is another high quality Lego game that Harry Potter fans would adore. I found the hub world to be a bit lacklustre after seeing how the first game did it and some sections of the Free Play mode were either boring or annoying. The main story playthrough was fantastic though and I sat through the Potter movies just so I’d understand this game, it is very accurate.