Terrible third-person gameplay elements, horrendous AI and a lack of fun are just the start of Harry Potter's problems.
Deathly Hallows Part 1 follows Harry's quest to find Horcruxes; specific objects hidden throughout England that contain excerpts of Voldemort's soul. With help from Hermione and Ron, the trio begin the fight against the tyrant of wizardry, setting up an inevitable, impending showdown with the Death Eaters. The story is, of course, fantastic but is somewhat lacklustre in it's translation to the game. Cut-scenes are iffy, the dark tone doesn't feel atmospheric in the slightest, and there are pacing issues, most notably with stupid side quests that must be finished in order to advance the story. Objectives are boring and repetitive, and the whole experience feels empty. Now, the real problems begin.
Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a third-person shooter of sorts, though using a wand instead of guns. If you thought that this could be a good, fun change of pace from the adventure gameplay of previous games, don't be fooled. The third person gameplay is probably the worst implementation, as it contains so many problems that ruin the experience. Firstly, the aiming system put in place by Bright Light is one of the worst targeting systems in recent memory. Locking on with L2 is unresponsive, unintuitive and the actual shooting is hit-or-miss, literally. Enemies just stand there brainlessly firing stupefy spells at you while you try and work out why he isn't dying. The controls don't help things, either. L2 and R2 are aiming and firing, and there is a spell wheel utilized with R1. Tapping the button cycles through each spell individually, or holding it down brings up a spell wheel, wherein you can select any spell using the left stick. Strangely and more complex, though, is that the defence spells are used by tapping or holding L1, which is bad controller configuration. You can also sprint, which you will use for most of the game, seeing as Harry is oh so slow normally.
Next, the level design is just boring and awful. Structures are repetitive, cover is conveniently placed thus signalling a predictable upcoming battle. The cover system is awful, as you can receive damage while in cover, which leads to frustration. Aiming and firing from cover is all the more excruciating. Its slow, hard to control and unresponsive. Suffice it to say this is a seriously terrible system.The levels are extremely linear, so there is no room for exploration like in other installments, and that linearity just kills any enjoyment, any at all, which might be miraculous. Killing any satisfaction even more is the horrendous enemy AI, which is just atrocious. Enemies appear predictably and always ahead of you, in a puff of black smoke, which looks like 1980s CGI. They almost always run at you while firing, ignoring any opportunity to take cover, or they fire countless spells while looking emotionless at a wall. I'm not sure how Bright Light could make invalids out of "scary" invaders, but they have succeeded. Friendly AI is just as terrible. Hermione and Ron have the strange knack of shooting at walls that contain enemies behind. They even fire their most powerful spells at walls and cover that is clearly blocking their view of the enemy. X-Ray vision does exist, it seems, in Harry Potter. Another annoying aspect is constant enemy spawning, which is so tedious. When you've cleared the area, another crop of dummies will appear, lending even more boredom to the experience. There is also another fatal flaw: camera panning. The camera will sudden spin on Harry when he is in cover, clearly blocking any vision of where you are, which is downright frustrating, particularly when I've been killed a few times because of it.
That's basically it. There is no ample atmosphere or immersion. This is supposed to be a dark, dangerous trip across hazardous territory, where safety is non-existent, but I just never felt that at all during my playthrough, and all I did feel were negative thoughts. It's just a shame that Bright Light didn't make anything noteworthy.
Deathly Hallows doesn't even get it right visually. There is a lot of texture tearing and pop-in, as well as aliasing on each environment. There is also a lot of clipping, particularly when downing an enemy or stumbling after an explosion. There is also a lot of screen tearing and textures appear murky and unattractive. The background vistas are also disappointing, often a poor blur of black outlines. Not everything is horrendous, though. Deathly Hallows benefits somewhat from a nice art direction with some nice colour on the skies and greens of the countryside. Some facial animations are decent, especially in the London stealth sequence, although character animations appear static and poorly conceived. There is some nice lighting though, complimented by solid shadowing effects. Like previously stated, the visual effects are underwhelming. Everything from the emergence of enemies, spell effects and explosions all look poor.
Audio is, however, the best part of Deathly Hallows, and that is undebateable. The voice acting is solid, but enemy chatter is repetitive. Sound effects are decent, and spell commands can become tiring. But the orchestral score is fantastic, with fast pieces during the dragon level and slow, riveting music during battle sequences. It gives the game that kick it needed, but unfortunately, it doesn't save the title.
There are challenges to play through, to post online to friends for competition, but they are just not worthwhile. The collectibles, consisting of newspapers, items and audio items are just boring to find and a chore. You will play through the game (well done if you do) and leave it at that.
With a dark tone, gritty storytelling and maturing characters, Bright Light had great possibilities with Deathly Hallows Part 1, and endless ways to invent and innovate in the gaming series. However, nothing even "decent" could come of it. Awful gameplay, abysmal AI and underwhelming visuals and presentation issues are the beginning of Deathly Hallows' woes. What could of been a riveting experience turned out to be a nightmare. Lord of the Rings: Conquest may have met it's match. Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the most disappointing game in years.
SUMMARY
Presentation 3.0 - A poor story, bad cut-scenes and poorly structured content.
Graphics 5.5 - Decent lighting overshadowed by poor animations, underwhelming character models and muddy textures.
Audio 6.0 - The actual music and sound effects are decent.
Gameplay 3.0 - Awful AI, terrible controls, poor game mechanics and tedious content.
Replayability 3.0 - Annoying mandatory side quests that are tedious to complete, poor challenges that you won't want to participate in.
Overall - 3/10