Hallows Part 2
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 @ 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Memory: 1.5 Gb
Hard Disk: 5 Gb free
Video Memory: 256 Mb
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 6800 / ATI Radeon X1600
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c
Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Memory: 2 Gb
Hard Disk: 5 Gb free
Video Memory: 512 Mb
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD 3800
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c
Screenshots
Description
If you haven't been reading the Daily Prophet, you may have missed the fact that instead of a slow-paced jaunt around Hogwarts, the final two games transfigured themselves into third-person cover shooters. The new gameplay style allows for a focused, linear narrative, which is a good thing when you're telling a story like Harry Potter. The title faithfully follows the movie plotline, taking you to familiar settings like Gringotts Bank and Hogwarts. Told mostly through cutscenes and in-game chatter, you won't just be The Boy Who Lived; you'll also get to play as other key characters in the story.
In the books, J.K. Rowling builds tension and then hits the reader with brief bits of intense action. Here, you get all action all the time. That's the major fault of The Deathly Hallows Part 2 -- no matter whom you're cast as almost every level plays out the same: walk into an area with cover conveniently placed around so you know Death Eaters are going to pop up, kill around three waves of them, and then advance to the next section. Rinse and repeat. It gets tiresome, and the tame boss battles don't help. There are sections designed to mix it up a bit, but all of them are cut of the same run-at-the-camera-while-shooting-at-stuff-behind-you cloth. Although I groaned every time one of these came up, they weren't long or challenging enough to really irritate me.
The level design is certainly lacking, but the shooting is entertaining. Each spell has a unique look and function. For example, Petrificus Totalus serves as a sort of sniper rifle, while Expulso is similar to a machine gun, Impedementia is like a rocket launcher, and Expelliarmus breaks an enemy's Protego spells. Three face buttons house all of your options and it's fairly easy to navigate your arsenal. This could be confusing, but the game does a good job of pacing your access to new spells. I like that this Potter game forces you to think on the fly and it's fun to watch petrified Death Eaters stiffen up and fall over or get blasted in the chest by the explosive Confringo. Now, you can use the PlayStation Move to play, but it's cumbersome and not as accurate or comfortable as a DualShock.
Eventually, though, it all loses its appeal because you're thrown into too many similar situations. Halfway through, I was praying for Death Eaters to stop respawning so I could get on with the game. There's a little bit more enemy variety this time around including some Gringott's guards, but for the most part it's the same old Death Eaters that were in the first game. Most of the characters still have awkwardly stiff movements, and this made me laugh out loud, even during supposedly tense, dramatic moments. At one point there are ghosts and they make this odd, gentle flapping motion with their hands as if they're trying to fly away. Still, I've also laughed inappropriately during the movies when actors fail to deliver their lines convincingly ("Of course! Phoenix tears have healing powers!"), so it could just be my cold, cold heart.
Towards the end of the campaign Harry gains his final power – the ability to apparate (or teleport for you muggles) back and forth between cover areas. This is a really clever feature that finally sets the game apart from all the shooters it's trying to imitate, but I don't think shoehorning it in at the end was the correct way to go. It's not always accurate, but apparating is fun. The problem is you won't get to use it very often because only Harry can apparate in this game. By the final book, the trio already knows how to do it and some of the other wizards you'll play as received their apparition licenses a long time ago, so I'm not sure why the developers decided to restrict their best gameplay element. Of course, once you beat the game you can replay it using apparate the whole time, but that wasn't incentive enough for me.
There's not much to do once the story is over. You can search all the levels for collectibles, which unlock challenge levels, new music tracks, and characters (all you can do is view them from the menu…it's weird). Challenge levels are literally just timed levels from the campaign that count up things like the number of headshots you get and compare to your friends online. There's no motion-control with this game like there was in Part 1, so only die-hard collectors will have any inclination to keep playing.
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