[Originally written on 22nd Sep 2019]
I just
finished playing HP Deathly Hallows Part 2, having completed the part 1
yesterday.
When I started Part 1, I was straightaway
disappointed because the game threw a few missions at me that felt less related
to the story and more like they were included just to make it lengthier. Then
there was repetition – a fair amount of it. For instance, Harry had to rescue a
bunch of muggle-borns from the snatchers. This involved fighting the enemy and
liberating the muggle-borns from the evil enchantments. The same theme is
repeated in various locations, giving the developers some sort of reprieve
whilst increasing the game length. They succeeded, although sacrificing the
game’s excitement.
It started
off quite well, though, with Bill and Fleur’s wedding, Shaftesbury Avenue and
then to Grimmauld Place. Up until then it was fairly enjoyable, but as I progressed,
I began facing issues. To begin with there were these side missions to be
completed in order to progress onwards with the story. Totally unrelated to the
plot, they sucked all my interest out of the game. I mean, at one stage you’re
planning to find RAB’s locket and the next you’re in some sort of abandoned
settlement, fighting death eaters and snatchers and freeing muggle-borns. Talk
about continuity.
When I dived
into this stage (reluctantly, and for the only incentive of unlocking the next
story mission), I tackled it with an aggressive approach, fighting and killing
every single enemy I met on the way. Only later into the game, and in a similar
level with only the location changed from the abandoned settlement to the
Ministry of Magic, did I realize that my approach should be more towards the
stealthy side. It was then that I put on the invisibility cloak and glided past
the sentries to liberate the unfortunate wizards. Even this I did because of
the sheer number of enemies and I was playing at Medium difficulty (I had
already changed the difficulty level from Hard to Medium and restarted the game
all over again because my aggressive approach wasn’t yielding results).
Going
further, Harry unlocks new spells, and this introduced another frustrating
gameplay element – cycling through the spells until I got the desired one. As
if this wasn’t enough, this mechanism was programmed to be unidirectionally
cyclable. In simpler terms, if I were looking for Expelliarmus and, through an
unfortunate, extra press of button, landed on Stupefy, I’d have to cycle all
the way through the wheel once again, carefully this time, to land on
Expelliarmus. Fancy having an enemy waiting that long!
There’s one
level in particular which was especially exhausting. The trio discovers that
Dean Thomas is wandering in the forest with Griphook, the goblin from
Gringotts, and decides to follow them. There are cutscenes as the trio catches up to Dean, and the
player drags on with the game, in hopes of catching Dean and Griphook,
expecting some sort of reunion. Guess what, it never happens. The sole purpose
of this level is to create an event that would let the trio know about certain
information regarding the sword of Gryffindor. This the trio achieves through
eavesdropping as if Dean weren’t actually Dean but Draco in disguise.
Once I
discovered the approach of using the Invisibility Cloak, though, it was a
smooth sailing for me. However, the repetitive missions continued to frustrate
me, such as freeing the muggle-borns yet again, this time in Godric’s Hollow.
The only
positive aspect about the game is its graphics. Quite appealing, the abandoned
settlement, Ministry of Magic, Godric’s Hollow and all other locations are
modeled and crafted very well. So something paid off, at least. EA
concentrated its resources on location modeling instead of level building.
After
somehow finishing Part 1 I moved on to Part 2, and the first thing I noticed
was – no invisibility cloak! I had already made plans to abandon it if this
game were to turn out like its predecessor, but fortunately it didn’t. The
spell casting system was a lot better in this one. There was no cycling
mechanism, and the spells were mapped to the buttons A,B,X,Y, so I could choose
my specific spell just at the press of a button instead of cycling through
them. This enabled prompt spell switching, which can mean the difference
between life and death.
Another
improvement was there were no side missions, and even the ones that were
included as fillers felt relevant, like the one where Seamus Finnigan plants
“magical charges” underneath the bridge leading to Hogwarts in order to prevent
Voldemort’s army from entering the school.
All in all,
Part 2 was a lot more interesting than Part 1. But I also feel that I can’t
blame EA for part 1 though; there wasn’t much scope for a game in that movie.
After all, there was far more action and excitement in part 2, but part 1 could
have been better and less boring.
Part 2 also
rewarded me with an end credit recap of all the EA+Harry Potter games made so
far, which brought back memories, so plus points for including that.
With this, I
have officially played all entries in the Harry Potter PC game series (except
the Lego ones and Sorcerer’s stone). Played, not completed. I left Goblet of Fire midway because
(surprise) it was getting repetitive, and the gameplay was not to my liking.
Sorcerer’s Stone I didn’t play because, well, I had already played Chamber of
Secrets and knew the gameplay and graphics were similar, and weren’t that
impressive for me to give it a go.
Out of all
the 8 entries I’ve played:
· Chamber of Secrets
· Quidditch World Cup
· Prisoner of Azkaban
· Goblet of Fire
· Order of the Phoenix
· Half-Blood Prince
· Deathly Hallows part 1
· Deathly Hallows part 2
I liked Half-Blood prince the best,
though there’s tough competition between it and Order of the Phoenix. This is
because Hogwarts was modeled pretty well in both of these games. The Potterhead
in me finally got the satisfaction of roaming around in Hogwarts and accessing
all areas, which hadn’t been done in previous games. Hogwarts was introduced as
a free-roam environment and that gave me the feeling of actually being in
Hogwarts. I could go to the library, the Owlery, the Gryffindor Common Room,
Myrtle’s Bathroom, even the Prefects’ bathroom; as and when I wished. On top of
this, Half-Blood Prince introduced things like Quidditch and potion making
which was like the cherry on the top. At the same time, it shut off some places
in Hogwarts, which is why it’s closely followed by Order of the Phoenix. The
perfect Harry Potter game would be the Hogwarts of OOTP + the activities of
HBP. Oh, and those unlockable interviews in OOTP were a treat to watch too! I
might give OOTP another play sometime just to roam around Hogwarts again.
This concludes it, I suppose. Thanks
to EA and Bright Light for developing this awesome series with its highs and
lows. I really enjoyed going through it.
Cheers!
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