Yes, I am an unabashed Harry Potter fan. I love the series, but have yet to play any of the games for whatever reason. I think the stigma of movie-game tie-ins is too hard to overcome. With EA promising to make the newest in the Harry Potter games darker and more in-line with a third-person shooter, I decided to at the very least give the game a shot. So it was that I found myself inside EA’s pavilion at E3 with a PS3 controller in my hand and a virtual wand in Harry’s.

One of the new contributions touted in the press release earlier this year announcing the game was a new engine, an engine that promised next-generation graphics for the young wizard and his adventures. Starting the demo, I could see that the graphics were indeed improved over what I’d at least seen in screenshots and videos of the former games. To call them next-generation might be stretching the truth, however. I suppose a definition of next-generation graphics could be argued, but with any game released today I feel that the visuals should surpass what we’ve seen in prior years. This particular build of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 looks decent, but not what I’d expect from a game released in 2010.

Nevertheless, it’s easy to look past the slightly wooden character models and frequently broken terrain when there are dark wizards to blast and spells to cast. The controls of Harry Potter do indeed feel like what you might find in an Uncharted or Gears of War. Harry has a reticule, and at least in the demo, access to a half-dozen spells, or thereabouts. Movement is dictated by one analog stick and camera another. One trigger controls aiming, another firing. Spells can either be switched with a directional arrow or one can go into a menu to change them manually. Unfortunately, the camera and reticule controls are very loose. At the time of the demo, there was no option to change sensitivity or any control whatsoever. It made the game downright hard to operate compared to the tight handling of past third-person shooters I’ve played. This is certainly something that could change by the late-year release date, and I strongly hope it does because it made playing through the demo difficult. Even the exhibitor, a charming young woman with a delightful Australian accent, was impressed that I made it to the end of the demo as the majority of people who had passed through that day had had too much trouble to make it past some of the rougher sections.

The portion of the game they let us experience was an area not featured in the book version of the story. It was a hollowed-out warehouse, complete with junkyard in the back for cover-based roaming. The demo gives no story-entrance point, but simply drops poor Harry in this scary place and makes him fight off a slew of dark wizards that apparate (appear from thin air, to you Muggles) and attack him. In short, it’s a combat demo.

Harry’s arsenal is fairly varied, and I actually enjoyed the spells he has access to even if I found them largely inaccurate from a lore standpoint (nerd alert!). His bread and butter spell is Stupefy, which can almost be likened to a rapid fire machine gun and throws out purple orbs that can be fired off quickly but have relatively low damage. With the controls as unforgiving as they were, I found myself using Stupefy quite a bit simply because I could litter the screen with purple orbs and come out alive. The most entertaining spell to use was Confundus, which when cast on an enemy will make them hostile to any other enemies surrounding them. What’s more, the spell has no cool-down and can be cast on an entire group of enemies for some real mayhem. The other spell I found myself returning to often was Expelliarmus. The Harry Potter movies have always taken some liberties with this particular spell. In the books it’s one of the first spells that students learn when attending Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. It’s simple and effective because all it’s supposed to do is disarm an opponent, yanking their wand out of their hand and often into the casters. In fact, it is this spell that Harry uses in the end to defeat Voldemort. The movies give it substantially different properties, and this game takes that one step further by basically turning it into a kill spell. It has a long cast time, and requires more accuracy than the controls of the game allow you, but it one-shot any wizard I managed to hit with it. Useful, but also frustrating. Harry can also heal himself, though the game has virtually no HUD at all, and the only indication of damage taken is the screen losing color. Often Harry dies so fast that it’s hard to get his Protego spell going, which supposedly brings his health back up but I think rather instead protects him while the game’s natural health regeneration fills in (I didn’t want to correct my exhibitor’s words, but that’s how I think it works).

The other spells I didn’t use a whole lot. Harry uses Crucio in the game, which provides a damage-over-time like effect if it’s held on one enemy. Again, lore would dictate that Harry not use one of the “unforgivable curses,” but the game takes liberties and who knows, maybe against dark wizards he would be more apt to. Another spell is Confringio, which creates small area-of-effect explosions. I used this a few times and never again simply because I kept harming myself trying to cast it. The spell I least used was Wingardium Leviosa, which enables Harry to pick up objects and levitate them. At one point I made a rotating shield of barrels to protect myself with, and which I could then throw at enemies. Harry also has a locator spell that when cast will point him in the direction he’s supposed to travel.

For the demo, Harry simply travels around and through this shell of a warehouse killing or banishing dark wizards. The final act sees him protecting a few old, dumpy wizards who’ve been surrounded by a group of Dementors (ghostly beings in black robes that suck the soul out of their victims). I had to use the signature Expecto Patronum spell at this point, which creates a bright white light to banish the fiends and has a cool-down that made this portion particularly frustrating. Also disheartening was the lack of a white stag to accompany the spell, something present in both the books and the movies. Once I’d banished them, the demo ended and I was praised for being one of the few people to complete it.

There was never any dialogue or story to the demo, and despite the wonky controls I actually enjoyed being Harry Potter for a ten minute chunk. The dulcet tones of an Aussie exhibitor may have helped, but mostly I think I just love the series and I am eager to play a game related to it. I’m intrigued and curious at the direction they’re taking this game. The third-person shooter aspect actually makes decent sense with wand-play, and while I’m disappointed that there isn’t some kind wand motion feature involved, I think it could work well. And who knows, maybe there will be Move or Kinect integration by the time the game releases. I can actually see it working in the context of the Harry Potter world, and the game is also headed to the Wii so there may already be something in that vein. Check back later this year for a potential review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

The E3 trailer below shows off some of the action and a few of the spells I detailed. It also has Hermoine in it!

Tags: e3 2010, EA, harry potter, harry potter and the deathly hallows

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at 11:09 am and is filed under DS, E3, PlayStation 3, Previews, Videos, Wii, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.