I am probably one of the world’s biggest Harry Potter nerds, and I make no apologies for that. I’m sure most of the attendees at E3 didn’t visit the EA booth hoping to play a movie tie-in game about a teenage wizard, but it was definitely on my list. When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was announced just before E3, EA promised a big shift in gameplay to reflect the dark tone of the seventh book, and the first screenshots of the game seemed to support this statement. I’ll admit it, I was excited to play Deathly Hallows because somewhere deep inside me there was a glimmer of hope that they had finally gotten a Harry Potter game right. That glimmer of hope was quickly subjected to the Avada Kedavra curse the minute I got my hands on the game.

By the way, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows spoilers may follow, so look out.

The portion of Deathly Hallows being shown off at E3 was meant to highlight the game’s new combat system, which has been compared to third-person shooters  (though obviously Harry and his wizard counterparts use wands and spells, not guns and bullets). Right away, I could tell that the graphics had barely been improved over the previous Harry Potter game, which meant more awkward character models and unimpressive environments. I don’t think graphics are the most important element of a game by any means, and I understand that tie-ins are usually on shorter development schedules, but the developers really had a chance to recreate the wizarding world in an impressive way, and chance that seems to have been missed once again.

In the E3 demo, Harry appeared to have been exploring a half-destroyed warehouse and the surrounding grounds, which were littered with crates and other items that could be used as cover. I couldn’t immediately pinpoint what part of the story this occurred in, but I’m assuming it was while Harry and his friends were out on their own and trying to destroy the remaining Horcruxes keeping Lord Voldemort alive. Ron and Hermione were nowhere in sight, leaving Harry alone to fight hordes of dark wizards continuously apparating around him.

Harry had a decent arsenal of spells at his disposal, which I assume (or at least hope) take a while to earn in the full game. Expelliarmus, Stupefy, Confringo, Confundo, and Crucio are all available and relatively easy to switch between at a moment’s notice, but I didn’t find all of them very effective. Expelliarmus, which is meant only to disarm enemies (though the movies have made it seem more powerful) did nothing as far as I could tell, and Confringo was really only good for blowing up large obstacles in my path. Confundo was probably the spell I used most, as it confused enemies and made them attack the other dark wizards. At some parts, this made everything diverge into chaos, with dark wizards attacking Harry, dark wizards attacking dark wizards, and Harry (and me) just trying to stay alive amidst the spells flying across the screen. The protection spell Protego was also mapped to one of the top buttons on the 360 controller, but I found that it didn’t really offer much help.

I’d like to call a time-out here and take a moment to talk about the inclusion of the Cruciatus Curse, which is an Unforgivable Curse used for torture in the Harry Potter universe. Yes, dark wizards under the reign of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named might throw around Crucio, and Imperio, and Avada Kedavra like they’re the Conjunctivitis Curse, but for Harry to use an Unforgivable Curse is a really big deal. He only uses it twice in the entire series, once on Bellatrix Lestrange immediately after she murders his godfather, at which point he can’t even muster up enough anger and hatred to cause actual pain. When he successfully uses an Unforgivable Curse for the first time in Deathly Hallows it is a huge deal used to convey the gravity and desperation of his situation. I’m probably not the only Harry Potter fan a tad upset at the fact that Crucio seems to be a main method of attack in EA’s Deathly Hallows game, and there are plenty of other spells in Harry Potter lore that would have made a better fit.

At this point, those of you who aren’t giant nerds are probably saying “Yeah, yeah, torture spell, whatever. What about the controls?” I’m glad you asked, nameless imaginary reader! They’re not great. Like most third-person shooters, one thumbstick aims the weapon, with the other taking control of the camera, but both are far too loose to ever be truly accurate. No matter how gently I tried to aim Harry’s wand, he would jerk his arm back and forth, and were it not for the fact that I was playing the game for my job, I probably would have walked away pretty quickly. In fact, the EA representative watching me was impressed with how far into the demo I got, which is usually a bad sign.

I walked away from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 with a bad taste in my mouth. I wasn’t expecting Uncharted or anything, I just wanted a competent adaptation of the last and darkest part of this story. Instead I found a third-person spell-shooter with sloppy controls that may diverge too far from the lore to even feel like a Harry Potter game. In fact, this makes me worry that the upcoming movie might do the same, but I’m hoping the game stands alone in its inadequacy. There are several months until Deathly Hallows Part 1 is released, and I’m hoping EA takes the time to tighten up everything. Otherwise, it’s going to ship to retailers with a Dark Mark hovering over it.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be out this fall for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, and PC.