Better than I expected, which in turn made it more of a disappointment; the world is so beautifully realized with amazing environmental details. Hogwarts is really beautiful to wander around in. But it's quickly clear this is about as engaging as that Matrix Unreal 5 tech demo. You clip through other students, everyone stands around cluelessly, everything you can interact with serves no purpose or offers you a mindless puzzle to solve for nothing other than a piece of trivia--errm.. lore, as the kids call it.
The combat is surprisingly engaging. It takes a working formula and doesn't change it, and that's fine. It's just too bad so much of the game is running back and forth from lifeless room to lifeless village talking to lifeless characters and doing nothing of consequence. Had they embraced that this is a SCHOOL and that there are all kinds of strange secrets hidden in its walls, this could have been great. But instead, it's made to satisfy everyone in the possible world who might ever see it, so it's braindead simple. And so much of it is spent doing fuck all.
The combat is surprisingly engaging. It takes a working formula and doesn't change it, and that's fine. It's just too bad so much of the game is running back and forth from lifeless room to lifeless village talking to lifeless characters and doing nothing of consequence. Had they embraced that this is a SCHOOL and that there are all kinds of strange secrets hidden in its walls, this could have been great. But instead, it's made to satisfy everyone in the possible world who might ever see it, so it's braindead simple. And so much of it is spent doing fuck all.