“Here we are my subjects. This is it. The last one. We are about to play ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 2’ for the PlayStation 3!
My word, has this been a challenge! It’s been draining having to play these games consecutively for you, and watching these games rise and fall as the years have passed between them. But, here we are with the last one, and like I said, I won’t be reviewing ‘Quidditch World Cup’ or the Lego series, because they aren’t really an integral part of the story… well, okay the Lego ones technically are as they do follow the movies, but I like to think of them existing in their own universe, so this will be the final chapter of the ‘Harry Potter’ game saga. Let’s pop it in and see if they can end on a high note.
First of all, the game has the same engine setup as Part 1, so it’s again, a third person cover shooter. Wonderful. The cutscenes used to move the story forward again looked awkward like they did in the last game, the graphics and character designs are again shit, and the voice acting for the most part, is bad. Now some do work, like Neville, Seamus and Professor McGonagall, in fact I am sure they’ve had the same woman voicing McGonagall throughout all the games, but some like Voldemort and Snape are… well they weren’t even trying. So again, it’s everything like the last game was, and if you saw my last review, that’s not a good thing to say.
Now there are some places where EA have done some improvements for this cover shooter, like for one, THERE IS ACTUALLY COVER!! I’m really surprised they picked up on that, otherwise we would be in the same problem as last time. The spells that you forgot you had in the last game are actually of use this time around, and it is easier to use them, as they are equipped to each button, like it was in the original games. So, this game is already better than Part 1 in terms of its gameplay design and its spells engine… but that really isn’t saying much, the game is still, in my opinion, one of the worst ‘Harry Potter’ games out there, and here is why!
Like in Part 1, you are going to be smashing hard on that R1 button a lot throughout this game, that after ten minutes of playing, you may not be able to feel your fingers, if you have them. I’m using my magic, and that still can go stiff. Remember, I’m the Princess of the Night, so any dirty thoughts you had about that last comment, get them out of your head before tonight! Now this does become less painful slightly when you get the Expulso spell, because that spell is the equivalent… of a machine gun. In fact none of the spells in this game work the same way as they do in the books and the movies; Expelliamus was used to disarm your opponents, here, it’s to break shields. Impedimenta was supposed to slow down your opponents, while here it’s a homing missile, and Petrificus Totalus is a body-lock charm, as we will remember from that iconic scene from ‘Philosopher’s Stone’, but it’s now been changed, to be a fucking sniper rifle!
Also, the game does stop you from just running through the levels without doing any fighting, by having blockades in your way so you will need to defend Ron or Hermione from your enemies, as they try to open the pathways… AND IT TAKES FUCKING FOREVER!! You have to do this everywhere, Hogsmeade, the Chamber of Secrets and even Gringotts, which is fucking hilarious seeing as you have to fight off the security guards, and the one question that you ask yourself throughout this whole level, is why the fuck do the Goblins need security guards, and HUMAN SECURITY GUARDS AT THAT?! Didn’t we establish in the first book that it’s not needed, seeing as if you tried to open a lock and you weren’t a goblin, you’d be sucked into the vault? And even if you did manage to get something, you’d never be able to get back out again due to how far underground the vaults are. This is not just me scraping for things to gripe about, this is basic knowledge! Not to mention that by this point, Goblins are completely distrusting of wizards, so why are they hiring them to guard some of the most protected artefacts in the Wizarding World? And again, why does it need to take so long to open the doors? I do not recall Alohomora taking so long to be cast, and it is just to try and pad out this game, but even there it fails, because I am not joking, I completed this game in under 3 HOURS!! How is it that ‘Deathly Hallows-Part 1’ a game where very little actually happens in it, is longer than the game that is supposed to have the most action in it?! I even went back and played ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ a while ago, and do you know how long that game took to complete? 6 to 7 hours! Need I say more?
You do get to play as other characters in this game, like McGonagall, Seamus, Ginny, Ron and Hermione. I thought that this could be really good, but then I realised that they all function the same! There is no variation to them, no one is more powerful than the other, in fact McGonagall is the slowest moving character in this game as she just shuffles around the place, the worst example of this is when you’re fighting the giant on the bridge, she moves so slowly, it’s really difficult not to get hit by the giant’s club! The only interesting character to play as is Seamus, as you need to set explosives under the bridge and detonate it in order to stop the Snatchers from getting into Hogwarts, but that’s all there is.
The side-missions that were in the last part have been dropped, and really, that was the wrong thing to do. Yes, I hated those side missions, but that was because they were just unnecessary, but they could have worked here. We could have had a chance to play as other minor characters, like having Lupin or Tonks go around the school helping to raise the defences of the castle, or playing as Fred fighting up to the point where he gets killed, that would have been something to improve on from the movie, as that moment was just completely brushed over in the film and it had been one of the most heart-breaking and tear-jerking moments that I have ever read in a book, you could have done justice to that and give one of the most beloved characters in the franchise some closure, I don’t even think it was mentioned at all in the game! You could have used those side-missions and the ideas that I have mentioned to better the game.
The game also falls into the same problem as the last few games, in that you get bored of its constant repetitiveness. You fight the same villains, over and over again, use the same tactics over and over again, and keep hitting that R1 button over and over again! And the final boss is just awful; Voldemort was easier to beat than Bellatrix! You pretty much fight him multiple times as you travel through the castle, until you get to final showdown in the courtyard. You know how in the movie when Harry and Voldemort are in that Priori Incantatem moment, which really shouldn’t work as neither of their wands share the same core anymore? Well you have to steer the anlog stick so that the beam is level off the ground. It’s really just a game of skipping. The final fight with the great and powerful Dark Lord is settled with a magical skipping rope.
What a massive disappointment! All the problems that I had with the first ‘Deathly Hallows’ game are present here, with new ones added. Repetitive gameplay, poor handling of the story, terrible graphics short amount of time to complete the whole thing, all around to create a horrible game! Why did they have to split the games into two? I can understand for the movie, but it really is not needed here, they should have just waited until both movies had been released and then release the game. It would still be shit, but it would mean that we would have had to deal with one less shitty game. The game is at least playable, more so than the last one, but it is such a crying shame to see a franchise like this start with such great movie licence games, to be reduced to this third rate shooting knock off.
And there we have it mares and gentlecolts. We have gone through all the ‘Harry Potter’ licence movie games, we have seen these games improve over time, while also decreasing in quality, but we are not done yet; return for next time where I shall be ranking these last eight games from worst to best."