A game for everybody or for Harry Potter fans only?

[MeadWolf]

I have never read any Harry Potter book or watched any Harry Potter movie. This is a very well established franchise so does the game make the effort to explain lore to newcomers or does it assume you already know at least the basics?

[Swamp Fox]

If you're not invested in HP in some way you should run screaming from this game at $60. There are just so many better options for lower price you probably haven't played. Decades of stuff stacked up.

This is an extremely generic, by-the-numbers, AAA, safe, corporate-designed game and if you have no interest in HP whatsoever, just no.

[..::[the_mobkiller]::..]

The game itself takes part about a century before the events of Harry Potter. You won´t need any HP related knowledge to play it. Hogwarts itself and it´s many special locations will be introduced during the game as well.

[[HdF] Almut Grete]

Originally posted by MeadWolf:

I have never read any Harry Potter book or watched any Harry Potter movie. This is a very well established franchise so does the game make the effort to explain lore to newcomers or does it assume you already know at least the basics?

The franchice is mostly a children book series (yes with some teenage adult books in there). HP does not explain much (even in the books) and it works. You "learn" silly things about magic and get the general overview how what works. There is no "deep lore", it is fun and "magical". ;)
The game does exactly that, too.

So, you might wanna check if HP is offputting in general for you first.
Game is a good action-RPG in arkham style with puzzle and such for collectors and riddlers.

[Seifer]

It's a game for superior UGANDANs only

[silentzoner]

Ok i feel the need to write this review seeing all the other reviews on here seem to be very misleading and tbh just wrong..

This game is an ok game FAR FROM A GOOD GAME, il run threw some key points in hopes it helps people come to a decision on there own on whether they want to spend the £50-£60 on it..

good points..
game has great graphics
lots of side quests and puzzels
its basicaly harry potter
amazing magic and animations
room of requirement is amazing

and now for the
bad points..
charecter creation is rubbish
no height or weight sliders
every face and hair is basicaly identical
1 male voice with bad pitch changes
male voice is soo anoying
sorting cerimony is useles 2 questions
story for game is pure liner
no concequinces for actions or decisions
no point in the house system whatsoever
thrown together for fans
theres 1 ending and thats the only ending
no replayability once its complete no point
no quidich probably to be added as payed dlc
playstation bonuses were far better than rest
extra quest and a shop to sell items only for playstation
this is not a AAA tytle yet cost is definetly AAA
flying is annoyingly tied to camera makes akward
game has really bad lag atleast for me it did
not playable because of stuttering and fps drops
the game will randomly quest glitch and corrupt saves
very poorly optomized especialy for AMD systems

i could go on for a while with a list of negatives but most will get the point
its a great harry potter fan game thats about it its not what id call an rpg
nor is it what id call a good open world game, there is lots to do but all the
gear you get is rendered absolutly worthless and pointless as its all gated
behind a lvl system and all the puzzels hold bad gear and usualy of low grade
the best gear in the game is legendary found not behind puzzels but usualy in
the open not even behind a lock, completly the oposite of what it should be.
worst of all is not a single decision you make, your house,being nasty,being good,
from being a slitherin to a gryfindor makes the slightest diference anywhere in
game all the dialog ends up meaningless and you end up feeling cheated.

most of my info comes from watching streamers as iv been unable to play the
actual game due to insane lag spikes, hard fps drops, and somtimes complete
stupendus stuttering from what iv read on forums and other places im not alone
seams to be the game isnt optomised in the slightest for amd systems which is
strange to leave half there customer basis in this much issues but guess il have
to wait and see if it gets fixed not holding my breath tho as many games launched
on steam rarely see fixes.

sorry for the spelling and punctuation im not good with that stuff and spellchecker
doesnt seam to work on steam.

[Luckiernut]

Well this is also the best game where you get o play as a wizard so if you like wielding magic you should try this

[Amateur Nitpicker]

As a Non-fan its an "Okay" game. Not really ground breaking or terribly exciting. I don't really get the Game of the Year thing

The "plot" is pushed to the back side for "slice of life". A lot of refences from the book and movies so if you don't get it not your fault. Like why is "Gaunt" important and such and why this Headmaster is "well-known" to the harry potter fans

Its really hard to get attached to the characters and NPCs

[Moist Butt]

Probably not worth it for the price tag if you arent a HP fan.

[Patricia Hapon]

Typical classic RPG. It don't bring anything new, don't glide on the actual blockbusters waves... It just... Do things we saw some years ago. You can even just completly forget the whole HP part and it work pretty much the same way.

[Swamp Fox]

Originally posted by Patricia Hapon:

Typical classic RPG. It don't bring anything new, don't glide on the actual blockbusters waves... It just... Do things we saw some years ago. You can even just completly forget the whole HP part and it work pretty much the same way.

It's actually an action game with barely-tacked-on RPG elements

[FriendCalledFive]

I would say you probably could enjoy it, but you get 100x more out of it if you have read the books or seen the films.

[Patricia Hapon]

Originally posted by Patrick Swayze's Ghost:

Originally posted by Patricia Hapon:

Typical classic RPG. It don't bring anything new, don't glide on the actual blockbusters waves... It just... Do things we saw some years ago. You can even just completly forget the whole HP part and it work pretty much the same way.

It's actually an action game with barely-tacked-on RPG elements

Well, you can make choices in dialogs, loot stuff, have an inventory that bother you being full, some bits of crafting, customizations for your character and a room, have a talent tree, skills that you've to change...

Honestly, it's not a deeeep RPG... But as deeeep RPG can be counted with your fingers, it's still a rpg, let's say arpg.

[lee]

Originally posted by silentzoner:

Ok i feel the need to write this review seeing all the other reviews on here seem to be very misleading and tbh just wrong..

This game is an ok game FAR FROM A GOOD GAME, il run threw some key points in hopes it helps people come to a decision on there own on whether they want to spend the £50-£60 on it..

good points..
game has great graphics
lots of side quests and puzzels
its basicaly harry potter
amazing magic and animations
room of requirement is amazing

and now for the
bad points..
charecter creation is rubbish
no height or weight sliders
every face and hair is basicaly identical
1 male voice with bad pitch changes
male voice is soo anoying
sorting cerimony is useles 2 questions
story for game is pure liner
no concequinces for actions or decisions
no point in the house system whatsoever
thrown together for fans
theres 1 ending and thats the only ending
no replayability once its complete no point
no quidich probably to be added as payed dlc
playstation bonuses were far better than rest
extra quest and a shop to sell items only for playstation
this is not a AAA tytle yet cost is definetly AAA
flying is annoyingly tied to camera makes akward
game has really bad lag atleast for me it did
not playable because of stuttering and fps drops
the game will randomly quest glitch and corrupt saves
very poorly optomized especialy for AMD systems

i could go on for a while with a list of negatives but most will get the point
its a great harry potter fan game thats about it its not what id call an rpg
nor is it what id call a good open world game, there is lots to do but all the
gear you get is rendered absolutly worthless and pointless as its all gated
behind a lvl system and all the puzzels hold bad gear and usualy of low grade
the best gear in the game is legendary found not behind puzzels but usualy in
the open not even behind a lock, completly the oposite of what it should be.
worst of all is not a single decision you make, your house,being nasty,being good,
from being a slitherin to a gryfindor makes the slightest diference anywhere in
game all the dialog ends up meaningless and you end up feeling cheated.

most of my info comes from watching streamers as iv been unable to play the
actual game due to insane lag spikes, hard fps drops, and somtimes complete
stupendus stuttering from what iv read on forums and other places im not alone
seams to be the game isnt optomised in the slightest for amd systems which is
strange to leave half there customer basis in this much issues but guess il have
to wait and see if it gets fixed not holding my breath tho as many games launched
on steam rarely see fixes.

sorry for the spelling and punctuation im not good with that stuff and spellchecker
doesnt seam to work on steam.

To be fair, this is more of an adventure game than an RPG. Also it's perfectly plausible that all Houses can be "normal" at a certain period of history. Slytherin doesn't have to be always evil, and Gryffindor doesn't always have to be good. These are human institutions, and only as good (or bad) as the people that lead and make up their constituents. What I do agree with you is that decisions should have weightier consequences, but for a first foray into this genres, we should give credit to Avalanche where it's due.

The game played great during the pre-order, on both my PC and the Steamdeck. My PC is at the middle of the pack in terms of specs, but I was playing in Ultra with only a few hitches. The public release and the update that came with it killed my playing on the PC, however, but at least it still runs on the Deck. So, I'm thinking that the majority of the performance issues that were reported after this game went live are caused by whatever was in that update. They should rollback that update so that most people can enjoy what I did during the pre-order period.

[Swamp Fox]

Originally posted by Patricia Hapon:

Originally posted by Patrick Swayze's Ghost:

It's actually an action game with barely-tacked-on RPG elements

Well, you can make choices in dialogs, loot stuff, have an inventory that bother you being full, some bits of crafting, customizations for your character and a room, have a talent tree, skills that you've to change...

Honestly, it's not a deeeep RPG... But as deeeep RPG can be counted with your fingers, it's still a rpg, let's say arpg.

Those elements, as presented in this game, are mostly superficial. It does have some meaningful dialogue choices. The loot and equipment etc in this game is really just treadmill tedium. Checking boxes of "how today's games are designed"

[Nex]

I am loving it and I am not a fan of Harry Potter stuff. I mean, it is alright.. I bought the game cause I was bored. I feel immersed. I love the story and atmosphere. The world design. It is the only open world game to hold my attention since Elden Ring.