The first 15 hours of this game are everything a Harry Potter fan could possibly ask for, and then some. The design of the castle itself is absolutely spellbinding, and I'll never forget staying up until 4 in the morning picking apart every corner of it. If you were a fan of the books before the movies, you'll be delighted by the easter eggs on display. Things that were mercilessly cut from the 700 page tomes for the feature films to fit their ~2 hour runtimes, and subsequently lost to time, are back! And sharing screen real estate with all of the other, more familiar elements.
The graphics are unbelievable, and although I experienced an avalanche of bugs pertaining to the lighting, I was stopping to take screenshots constantly. I just wish there were an easier way to make the HUD vanish so I could do so.
The combat is slick, and the open world is vast. But I must say, once you've done enough of it, every fight does unfortunately become the exact same routine. The lack of enemy variety, and the lack of strategy required to pop the differently colored bubbles, makes bandit camps eventually become a rote spinning of the wheels.
The broom traversal is superb. The animations and the control scheme, once you get used to it, really make you feel the speed and handling of the thing, and it's a joy to pop on and off of it as you explore. The downside here, though, is that once you've unlocked the thing, hoofing it on foot begins to feel too slow by comparison. But once you're beelining from one objective marker to another on the map, up in the air, as the crow flies, you're suddenly missing out on all of the intricacy of the design down on the ground. I don't know how I'd solve this problem, but the game lost a bit of its magic the second I had access to the broom.
The story is, unfortunately, the weakest part of the game. When I started this experience, my internal monologue was going "game of the year! masterpiece! 10/10!" but as I hit hour 30, hour 40, and beyond, I was gradually feeling myself entirely losing my grip. Well before its runtime had ended, the illusion had diffused. Where once I was hypnotized by the majesty of the castle, and finally seeing all of my favorite HP lore brought into the AAA spotlight, by the end I was frustrated and sobered by the realization that the story just wasn't very good.
Any time Avalance went off book to create their own slice of this world, they failed to conjure up any magic. The characters have backstories and whatnot, but there's next to nothing compelling going on. People praise Sebastian's subplot, but I found it to be about as predictable as one could imagine. The overarching narrative of the goblin rebellion never feels even remotely threatening. The game lacks the air of mystery that was so crucial to the books. The lengthy dialogue sequences during sidequests are hamstrung by the same 6 camera angles every. single. TIME. And altogether, it eventually had me wanting to skip the voice acting altogether. I really, really wish I cared more about the characters. And my young self would kick me for saying this, but I wish I got to spend more time in the classroom! I was looking forward to the wizard student simulation, and that aspect was available in extremely short supply.
And this is what has me worried for the inevitable sequel! Hogwarts itself was by far the best part of this game, and you can't really cast that spell twice. Simply making the open world bigger would do absolutely nothing for me, not because elements felt copy-pasty (necessarily), but because zipping from Merlin Trial to Merlin Trial on a broom becomes a tiresome activity even in small spaces. And if Avalanche attempted to bring the second game to a NEW castle, one which did not have a massive pool of lore to draw from, I am not sure I'd trust this team of writers to do anything truly compelling with it.
One last thing - the loot. Drove me nuts, man. Shouldn't be randomized at all times. Finally getting Alohomora Lv 3, and rushing to that chest I'd always wondered about, only to pull some green Dragon Spectacles out of it that were about 30 pts lower than my current facewear.. yeah.. that was disappointing.
The graphics are unbelievable, and although I experienced an avalanche of bugs pertaining to the lighting, I was stopping to take screenshots constantly. I just wish there were an easier way to make the HUD vanish so I could do so.
The combat is slick, and the open world is vast. But I must say, once you've done enough of it, every fight does unfortunately become the exact same routine. The lack of enemy variety, and the lack of strategy required to pop the differently colored bubbles, makes bandit camps eventually become a rote spinning of the wheels.
The broom traversal is superb. The animations and the control scheme, once you get used to it, really make you feel the speed and handling of the thing, and it's a joy to pop on and off of it as you explore. The downside here, though, is that once you've unlocked the thing, hoofing it on foot begins to feel too slow by comparison. But once you're beelining from one objective marker to another on the map, up in the air, as the crow flies, you're suddenly missing out on all of the intricacy of the design down on the ground. I don't know how I'd solve this problem, but the game lost a bit of its magic the second I had access to the broom.
The story is, unfortunately, the weakest part of the game. When I started this experience, my internal monologue was going "game of the year! masterpiece! 10/10!" but as I hit hour 30, hour 40, and beyond, I was gradually feeling myself entirely losing my grip. Well before its runtime had ended, the illusion had diffused. Where once I was hypnotized by the majesty of the castle, and finally seeing all of my favorite HP lore brought into the AAA spotlight, by the end I was frustrated and sobered by the realization that the story just wasn't very good.
Any time Avalance went off book to create their own slice of this world, they failed to conjure up any magic. The characters have backstories and whatnot, but there's next to nothing compelling going on. People praise Sebastian's subplot, but I found it to be about as predictable as one could imagine. The overarching narrative of the goblin rebellion never feels even remotely threatening. The game lacks the air of mystery that was so crucial to the books. The lengthy dialogue sequences during sidequests are hamstrung by the same 6 camera angles every. single. TIME. And altogether, it eventually had me wanting to skip the voice acting altogether. I really, really wish I cared more about the characters. And my young self would kick me for saying this, but I wish I got to spend more time in the classroom! I was looking forward to the wizard student simulation, and that aspect was available in extremely short supply.
And this is what has me worried for the inevitable sequel! Hogwarts itself was by far the best part of this game, and you can't really cast that spell twice. Simply making the open world bigger would do absolutely nothing for me, not because elements felt copy-pasty (necessarily), but because zipping from Merlin Trial to Merlin Trial on a broom becomes a tiresome activity even in small spaces. And if Avalanche attempted to bring the second game to a NEW castle, one which did not have a massive pool of lore to draw from, I am not sure I'd trust this team of writers to do anything truly compelling with it.
One last thing - the loot. Drove me nuts, man. Shouldn't be randomized at all times. Finally getting Alohomora Lv 3, and rushing to that chest I'd always wondered about, only to pull some green Dragon Spectacles out of it that were about 30 pts lower than my current facewear.. yeah.. that was disappointing.