Set #5000210 Harry Potter Years 5-7: Well I completed this game to 100%, enjoyed all there was to enjoy with it and so now let me discuss it briefly and go over if it's worth your time to track it down.

This game was obviously built upon the same engine as the original game, it features very similar designs and looks that are actually a little bit improved upon compared to the in-game textures of Years 1-4. That being said some of the game is a bit bland.

Once again you learn your spells, and get to experience what it's like to become a wizard in the world of Harry Potter... At least for a small extent, seeing as how most of the last two films didn't involve any Hogwarts lessons they couldn't very well interrupt the flow of the story by having you run off to learn a new spell. Which sadly makes them a bit pointless this go around. (Especially the unlockable spells at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

There are a lot more glitches this time around as well, certain elements in the game remain from previous instances, to explain this I'll just say this. When Lavender Brown is around in Hogwarts castle at one point there are little hearts floating above her head, these hearts remain as a serious glitch in the castle and are still there long after that moment in the story is over.

The spell work is quite finnicky, not like the first game, there are a lot of buggy moments where the cursor refused to highlight the proper component to levitate or interact with.

Free Play mode, a huge and fun aspect of the LEGO games doesn't work nearly as well in the LEGO Harry Potter games, the first one at least didn't turn out so bad, unfortuantely with the way some levels are designed in this game I just didn't see a point to some of the puzzle elements being so difficult that they needed you to be in Free Play mode to figure them out. Also the game forces you to move along much too fast, the exploration aspect which made earlier LEGO games fun can be really bad when you're being chased by Dementors or Death Eaters and have to run down a set path that won't let you go back to collect an item you missed for the collectibles because the game is forcing you to move constantly forward. In story mode this isn't such a problem, and I suppose changing the way the level works for Free Play mode wouldn't have been so easy, still it would have improved upon the fun of the game a lot more.

The cut scenes as always are really fun, and Hogwarts has expanded to offer up even more areas to go to such as Hogsmede and the like for exploring. Some of the puzzles are a bit too complex I feel, while others are just downright simple to the point of stupidity. Instead of doing something to earn a Gold Brick it'll just be sitting out in the open and you can obviously see it to claim your prize... For shame LEGO, for shame.

The Student in Peril function is also quite annoying as they don't have any unlockable Student in Peril detector, this wasn't a problem in the first game because you had time to explore the stages and could easily find where a student was in peril. This time, due to poor camera design and clunky levels you wind up missing an obvious location at least three times before you finally realize what you did wrong. And once, in a level in Movie 8 the Student in Peril was trapped in an easily found place, but when you went to free him/her the target lock wouldn't let your spell actually hit what it needed to destroy to free them.

The build levels and Gringotts Bank are entirely gone from this game, a small shame as they had so much potential and if given enough time for development could have worked out wonderfully. Sadly this limits some of what you can do, as there are no mini-kits to build in either of the games and at least the build levels tried to do something new.

In all probability this game might have benefited from another year in development, especially when one glitch in the game allowed one-time destructable elements to suddenly reappear on screen making you think you could destroy them again for studs, only to find they were just glitches and couldn't be interacted with. Cluttering up the screen and making them stand out as poor design.

Overall this game isn't too terrible, still it could have stood a bit longer time in the de-bug and development stage. And while it is nice to see something new for a change from Travelers Tales the lack of Mini-Kits to find really is something that shouldn't have been left out of the Harry Potter games, to this point I believe they are the only games without some kind of Mini-Kit to find in Free Play mode. Also the levels themselves aren't as much fun to replay over and over again in order to get all the unlockables, and the controls could have used a bit of extra work. To change spells normally you hit the one or two button, but in Free Play mode those buttons change your characters, meaning you have to press and hold C to select your spells. This leads to great frustrations as a new aspect of this game is duelling in levels, fighting against certain characters to progress you need to select the correct spell and then unleash it and hit the B or A button until you take off one of their hearts. Since you have to be quick on the button presses otherwise you lose the duel and have to start all over again the slow switching between spells in free play mode just doesn't work.

Mildly recommended if you can ignore the obvious flaws.