Leave the Muggle world behind you and join the final battle at Hogwarts with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. In this magical adventure, follow Harry, Ron, Hermione and other favourite characters from the Harry Potter universe as they take on the dark lord, Voldemort for the last time.

Story Mode

Plot

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 starts off where Part 2 ended. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are on the run, fleeing Death Eaters, Snatchers, Dementors, and even Voldemort himself in their mission to destroy Horcruxes and collect the Deathly Hallows. Harry, Hermione, and Ron have just escaped the Malfoy Manor and learned where the next Horcrux is located. Paired with that knowledge, the gang set out to find the four remaining pieces of Voldemort’s soul.

The search takes place over various locations at Hogwarts and the surrounding areas, starting off at Shell Cottage. Harry, Ron, and Hermione plot with Griphook, a Goblin from Grigott’s Bank, to break into Bellatrix LeStrange’s vault, Voldemort’s most devote follower. At Gringott’s, a security breach will have the player, as Harry Potter, fighting for their life against Wizard Security Guards. After fighting your way to the vault, Harry, Hermione, and Ron secure Helga Hufflepugg’s cup, which Voldemort used to create a Horcrux. Upon obtaining the cup, the player is double-crossed by Griphook who takes the Sword of Gryffindor; the only weapon that will destroy the Horcrux. The player must then battle their way out of Gringotts, using a dragon as a means of escape.

The group then plans on returning to Hogwarts with the notion that they will find another Horcrux hidden in the castle. They Apparate to Hogsmede, the town which surrounds Hogwarts that is now occupied by Dementors and Death Eaters. The player must fight the hordes of Death Eaters and Snatchers to make their way to the safety of the bar: Hogs Head. Once at here, the player will be introduced to Aberforth Dumbledore, the late Professor Dumbledore’s estranged brother. Aberforth opens a secret passage which allows the player to enter Hogwarts undetected. Upon their arrival, they are greeted by allies known as Dumbledore’s Army, who vow to aide Harry on his quest. They are soon joined by The Order of the Phoenix; the members have sworn to defend the wizardry world against dark wizards.

Shortly after the player’s arrival to Hogwarts, Voldemort is alerted and attacks the castle. This is where the battle for Hogwarts truly begins. Players must fight off countless Death Eaters, Snatchers and Voldemort in this epic battle. The game is broken down into smaller battles where players will have the opportunity to play as other characters, returning to play as Harry for the finale.

The plot of the game is almost identical to the movie, which in turn is loosely based on the novels. I will not even compare the game to the book as the inaccuracies would have me writing for days and leave me uber frustrated; however, after just seeing the movie, playing the game left me with the ultimate déjà vu. With that being said, If I was not familiar with the books (I am embarrassingly familiar with the books) and had not seen the movie, the game would have seemed like it was missing key pieces of information. In some areas of the game, characters would disappear and others would appear out of nowhere. These are consistent with the movie, but are left unexplained in the game.

It was incredible to see how accurate the characters looked in comparison to the movie as they were all dressed in the same clothing they were wearing in the film. The dialogue was also accurate, only leaving out minor lines to speed up the cut-scenes. The cut-scenes in this film were plentiful and well done; however, you could not skip them. This proved to very frustrating when the when you had to watch the scene each time you died (my controller was almost thrown out the window a few times).

Weapons

In my opinion, what really set this game apart from Part 1 was the weaponry. In Part 1, whenever gamers wanted to switch between spells, they would have to use a selection wheel or select through a scrolling list. I really dislike both of those options in games. Most of the time selection wheels are super sensitive and it takes me forever to select the item I want; scroll lists are no better as I always pass the item I want at least once. So bonus marks to whoever got rid of the old selection method and introduced the short-key method!

Similar to every game that uses weapons, Harry Potter starts you off with the worst weapon possible. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the weapon that you start your adventure with is Stupefy. Seriously… how do they expect you to fight the guards at Gringotts (the most secure bank in the Wizarding World) with Stupefy?! Well according to the game, it works. Stupefy is a stunning spell that Harry gets mocked for using in the books and in the game it allows you to take down trained guards with a few hits. This annoyed me as the developers could have made better use of the spells that have been used in the books. As the story progresses, so do the spells. The only other spell I had a problem with was Expelliarmus; it is a disarming spell, yet in the game it was only useful for breaking an enemy’s Protego (shielding spell). The Protego spell was great to use against enemies, but it would have been more useful if there was a health meter on your shield.

The other spells were great as they ranged from a low accuracy but very powerful Impedimenta, to a high accuracy and moderately powerful Pertrificus Totalus. The player is also equipped with a rapid-fire spell which shoots continuous short bursts. Spells were easily interchangeable as each spell was assigned its own short-key. The game had a mediocre auto-aim system which was beneficial for targeting long-range enemies.

List of Spells and their uses

• Stupefy – Short range, low power. Used to stun opponents
• Petrificus Totalus – Long range, medium-to-high power. Used to freeze/defeat opponents
• Expulso – Medium range, medium power. Short bursts of the spell used to defeat opponents
• Impedimenta – Medium range, high power. Used to cause explosions, can hit multiple targets
• Expelliarmus – Medium range, no power. Used to break an enemy's Protego
• Confringo – Medium range, high power. Used to knock back an opponent
• Protego – No range, low power. Used to shield against opponents, can do damage to an opponent with physical contact

Note – These spells perform very differently in the game than they do in the books

Characters

This game was great when it came to characters because it allowed the player to play as other characters instead of only Harry throughout the game. Each character had a specific battle that they had to win, so you could only play them during that specific time. This was beneficial as it did not take away from the overall plot.

Professor McGonagall

As the first playable character other than Harry, the powerful Witch was used to defeat the Carrows, a brother and sister pair of Death Eaters who were placed in charge of torturing disciplining children at Hogwarts. She also had to defeat Severus Snape, former bad-guy-gone-good gone-bad but secretly still good. This quadruple agent flees the scene before he feels the complete wrath of McGonagall.

The option of playing McGonagall was very exciting as a Potter fan, as she has always been an understated power-house; however, her character did not feel any more powerful than Harry, which was very disappointing.

Ronald Weasley

His turn did not come until later in the game, and it was very anti-climactic. The majority of the other characters had battles which were specific to achievements in the movie or personalized; howeverm Ron was one of the exceptions. As one of Harry’s best friends and a main character, one would think there should have been more emphasis placed on Ron’s battle, or that it was at least personalized consistently to the movie.

Hermione Granger

Hermione was playable twice. The first time gamers are able to play her was protecting Ron from spiders, his greatest fear. This part of the game came after defeating many Death Eaters and Snatchers, so it was very out of place and boring to be fighting off spiders. The second time was much more personalized and had a profound meaning to the storyline. The player, as Hermione, must take on Fenrir Greyback, a sadistic werewolf who tortured her in Part 1.

Seamus Finnigan

As stated in the preview, I still don’t know why Seamus is a playable character. I feel like this decision was last minute and unnecessary. As Seamus, the gamer must work together with Neville Longbottom to blow up the wooden bridge into Hogwarts.

Neville Longbottom

I was really excited to play as Neville as this is where he steps up his game and evolves into a very confident and powerful Wizard; however his part of the game was also very disappointing. As Neville, players must protect Seamus from Death Eaters by using Petrificus Totalus as a sniping spell, which is very ironic. Neville has an incredibly important job in this game, which is to kill Nagini (Voldemort’s snake who is also a Horcrux). I feel that having Neville as a playable character in his mission to kill Nagini would have been much more effective.

Ginny Weasley

Ginny Weasley is a very spunky young Witch who had some incredible parts in the book/movie. In the game, her character is playable during a tough battle between a group of three Hogwarts students (who really only serve as targets for the Death Eaters) and a seemingly endless horde of Death Eaters and Snatchers. Ginny must hold off the incoming Death Eaters and Snatchers to provide more time for Harry to finish his mission. Her character was fun to play, however it was not much different than any other character so far.

Molly Weasley

Playing Molly disappointed me more than any other character. She was the only one I could tell a difference when I was playing, and it was so very frustrating. Molly moved on the slowest speed possible, and did not have the option to run or apparate. When gamers are playing Molly, it is the highly emotional battle between her and Bellatrix LeStrange immediately after Bellatrix attacks Ginny. Previous to this battle Bellatrix had killed Fred, one of Molly’s twin boys. This isn’t clear in the game, but has been shown in the book. I was so excited to hear Molly’s famous line “Stay away from my daughter you b*tch!”; however the adjective was removed from the game to maintain its rating. That really took away from Molly’s passion and anger towards Bellatrix, which leads to her demise.

Bosses

In the game, the “bosses” followed the direction of the movie quite smoothly. The only problem that I had with the bosses was the fact that the difficultly level of each boss did not seem to make sense in regards to the character. For example, the first real challenge players face is Snape and the Carrows when they are playing as Harry and McGonagall. It is up to Harry to defeat the Carrows, who are quite easy to defeat in comparison to some of the other characters in the game. This is nonsensical as they are very strong Death Eaters. As McGonagall, the player must defeat Snape, who proves to be more of a challenge than the Carrows. That concept made sense to me; however, I still thought that McGonagall should have been more powerful than she was. The other bosses that the player must defeat are a Giant, who is trying to gain entrance into Hogwarts, Bellatrix LeStrange, after she attacks Ginny, and Voldemort. Voldemort’s first battle was difficult as you had to constantly Apparate to escape his curses; the second part of the battle seemed really silly and out of place as all you were required to do was keep your spell focused on him. The level of game difficultly seemed very inconsistent with the progression of the game.

The Final Battle

When you have to defeat Voldemort, it is a four part battle with various cut-scenes thrown in. The first part has the player pinned against Voldemort in the courtyard. The courtyard is a great location for battles as there are many hiding spots you can use to protect yourself. In this fight it is imperative to hide and Apparate as Voldemort is very fast and his curses are very powerful. After a lot of dodging attacks and well-timed spells, Voldemort’s health will perish. Voldemort will scream and throw a tantrum and the next part of the battle will begin. This time you have to run away from Voldemort as he is Apparating behind you. I definitely had 'Lost' flashbacks as Voldemort looked very similar to the 'Smoke Monster'. If Harry gets touched by The Man in Black Voldemort, he will die. This part of the game requires you to run while shooting at objects which are highlighted (although I use the term “highlighted” loosely) to slow Voldemort down. After you successfully escape, there is a rematch of spells and curses inside the Hogwarts building. When Voldemort’s health drops, a cut-scene shows Harry jumping off the building with Voldemort in tow; the two land in the courtyard and it is time for the final showdown. After an intense battle where curses are flying, the final scene is very anti-climactic. As Harry, you must aim your wand at Voldemort and keep the stream of the spell targeted at him. Really?! I really wished the final battle was a little bit more exciting than focusing a spell on a static target.

Playing with Move

When I played the game, I played it with my DualShock controller. I just feel much more comfortable aiming and shooting with my pretty pink controller. I tried to use the move controller to see what it was like and I was slightly impressed. The move system requires you to have both the Move and Navigation controller using one for controlling Harry’s movements and the other for the camera. I definitely felt like I had less control and accuracy when I used the move controller than I did with my DS3. I did really enjoy the fact that using the move controller made you feel like you were casting spells yourself, as your movements controlled the “wand”. I would suggest using move for some of the game, but not necessarily for the entire adventure.

Challenge Mode

After waiting for the game to load, I was brought to the main page of the game. I read through my options which were Story Mode, Challenge Mode, and Extras. I was really excited for what the Challenge Mode would bring to the table, but again I was disappointed. Essentially all the Challenge Mode contains are mini-battles which you compete against yourself to beat your high score. I feel that they could have done a lot more with the Challenge Mode to make the game more socially interactive. Another downfall of the Challenge Mode is that none of the challenges are available until you unlock them during your game play by picking up glowing orbs.

Extras

Another feature that you can unlock by collecting items in the game is Extras. When exploring Extras, players will be able to collect characters and music which they can review later. After you have collected a character you can go into the Extra menu, select the character and… spin them around. At least you can listen to the music you collect.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I would give this game a 6/10. It was a decent game to play and was pretty entertaining, it just did not have that WOW factor that I look for in a game. After beating the game, which did not take very long, I do not think I will play it again.

Written by Jessica