Well, I stopped wasting time on Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4. It's all fun while the story mode is ongoing, but you quickly realize that this is a game that tries to force you to replay the game just to get that "100% complete" thing. And unlike many other games that reward the player for doing so, LHP doesn't... so what's the point? I just uninstalled it after getting 72% complete.
I ran into far too many problems with the game to even think of recommending it to anyone. The biggest one are the bugs. I haven't had so many CTDs for no reason whatsoever in quite a while. Fortunately the auto-save is robust, but I read up on cases where the autosave can screw people over permanently, like being unable to use certain characters in certain situations.
What's even worse are some of the design decisions for the game, which are borderline retarded. Like not having a map for Hogwarts. Oh sure, that ghost will act like a quest compass for you every step of the way, but sometimes you don't want to follow him and do your own thing and don't know where to find the bloody room! And before starting the game I had a look at the options menu, and immediately noticed that there were no audio settings available. Very strange, I thought, and started playing the game with the constantly loud music playing ad infinitum. BUT, once you're actually in the game and playing, you get NEW choices in the options menu, including audio controls. Why the fuck wasn't that available right at the start? Can anyone explain that? People are far less likely to look into the Options menu once they've actually started playing the game.
But there's more. One of the collectible items for LHP are "Red Bricks", 20 of them which have to be found to be unlocked, and then bought with Lego studs. The red brick upgrades all serve to make the game easier for you. Fair enough, but what the game DOESN'T tell you is that once you've purchased them, you have to enable them in the "Extras" menu AND that you have to re-enable them every time you start the game. What brand of moron game designer thinks this makes sense?
But that isn't the weirdest decision yet. That is the facgt that 5 of the red brick upgrades are score multipliers; 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x and a whopping 10x the normal value of any collected Lego studs. What's so weird about that, you ask? The bonuses are cumulative. With all 5 enabled, it's 2x4x6x8x10 = 3840x! A purple stud becomes 3.8 MILLION studs! The most expensive stud purchase I found cost 4 million, but with even half of these upgrades it'll be a cakewalk to be rolling with billions of studs with little effort.
I'm actually reluctant to start playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes now, because of how sour a taste LHP left with me.
