Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Game Review (3/10)

On a positive note, the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 video game tie-in is better than Part 1, learning from the mistakes of the weird cover shooting and implementing more useful cover and a fluent shooting system. However, that the developers chose not to shed the mechanic as a whole and only had a few months to make the game hasn't helped, and it still feels like a pretty empty title. The game follows the same story as the film: Harry, Ron and Hermione are on the hunt for the final Horcruxes, and must travel to Gringotts, Hogsmeade and ultimately Hogwarts Castle to bring the epic battle with Lord Voldemort to an end. That said, if you haven't read the book or seen the film, you'll be pretty lost as Part 2 moves from setpiece to setpiece (e.g. from McGonagoll battling a giant to Neville blowing up a bridge) with no explanation as to how the previous scene concluded or why what's coming next is happening, really hampering the overall experience. Once again, neither the graphics nor the soundtrack impress, merely serving to set the same tone as the film, a darker and visceral conflict, so don't really add or detract from the repetitive gameplay. This established tone setting does feel more faithful to the movie than all the running away that made up Part 1 (1/10), so I've given Part 2 a higher mark, but that is still saying nothing- even the most hardcore Harry Potter fans will struggle to enjoy playing this. It's mercifully short at just three hours, and there is a nice montage of clips from all eight games after you beat the campaign, yet all that really serves to show is just how wasted an opportunity the whole franchise of tie-ins has been, never surparssing the 'average', or in this case 'rubbish' mark.