Harry Potter is on a rampage and Iâm in control.
Armed with a wand, I dispatch a gathering of witches and wizards as I maneuver Potter deftly through an abandoned factory. Swirling red lines spew from Potterâs wand as I watch over his shoulder, the dancing lights lance into an enemy wizard until he collapses in pain.
This may not be the Harry Potter youâre used to: A wide-eyed bespectacled youth of confused powers and wholesome values. No, this Harry Potter uses spells to torture his enemies into unconsciousness, snipes witches with magic that turn them on allies and unleashes wall-crumbling blasts of magic from the safety of cover.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is nothing like what youâd expect from a video game based on a popular series of family-friendly books. And thatâs just what the developers hope.
Last month I had a chance to sit down with developers Bright Light Studios at EAâs LA offices and take the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 for a spin.
The game, built using a new graphics game engine, looks and plays a lot like a third-person shooter. You control Potter from a perspective just behind and above the teen. Potter is pretty fast on his feet and can even scramble into cover. Most importantly, you use magic to dispatch enemies.
The Bright Lite folks likened each of the spells I used while testing the game to different sorts of weapons. Confundus, which can be used to turn enemies upon each other from a distance, is like a sniper shot. Stupefy, which knocks people and things over, is like a rocket launcher and Crucio, an unforgivable spell used to torture enemies in the universe of Harry Potter, is like a machine gun, the developers explained to me.
âThis is a very, very different experience,â one of the developers say. âThere is no Hogwarts, no school rules, just life or death.â
And there also isnât much on the screen, besides the action. Thereâs no life bar or targeting reticule. No magic gauge or currently selected weapon icon. Instead you pick up how youâre doing by whatâs going on and how Potter is reacting to things.
The game played exactly how you would expect it to. It was sort of like playing Medal of Honor with magic. The cover system was snappy, controls tight and the battles surprisingly colorful. Most importantly, the game didnât feel like a childrenâs title. There was in the portrayal of the characters and the detail of the settings, a sense of gravity.
This wasnât a bunch of cartoons shooting fireworks at one another, this was a life and death battle with magic that could torture a person to death.
My very short time spent with the game left me impressed with the titleâs new direction and how aptly it handled as a shooter derivation. What I couldnât tell was whether the game would quickly get old, sending me from one magical firefight to the next until the game was over.
Hopefully in re-imagining the video game take on Harry Potter, due out this autumn for the DS, PC, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360, Bright Lite didnât forget to tap into the compelling fiction of the franchise.
