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391 people found this review helpful
12 people found this review funny
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Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 31.9 hrs on record (31.8 hrs at review time)
Posted: Feb 10, 2023 @ 12:57pm

Meh. Stylistically the game is great. The castle feels pretty alive and and it has many of the environmental elements I would expect from Hogwarts. The environments/areas outside the castle are similarly polished.

Unfortunately, such appearances only go skin deep. There is very limited interactivity with your environment outside of the scripted quests or the various treasure hunt type items. You can't interact with any of the people that aren't vendors or active in a given quest, can't sit down in a chair or on a bench, no real commentary on player actions whatsoever. I have yet to feel drawn into the world as none of the characters are ever really present to engage with. I have no companions unless they are needed for a quest, there are no rivalries to be had (which is rather more noticeable as I went Slytherin) and that's well before any of the immersion breaking progressive nonsense is added in. Short of it is, I don't ever feel like a student at Hogwarts, I feel like a "Mary Sue'd" outsider partaking in a magical murder mystery theater.

Speaking of quests, they are also "meh" for the most part. The main quest line is rather engaging and keeps you moving forward to find out what happens next, but the side quests are quite boring and often just boil down to your standard "go fetch" type quests. I have not found any side quest of substance as of yet.

Combat is one of the saving graces so far. Generally quite intuitive and enjoyable. Presents a decent challenge while also making you feel like a spell slinging bad-ass on occasion.

Oh, and the loot. Seriously the loot system and types of loot is ridiculous. The mechanics aren't horrible, but the immersion break is. My eyes ache from the rolling whenever, after traversing an "ancient" dungeon/crypt/cave, bypassing puzzles, slaying enemies, etc. I then spy an impressive looking chest, only to open said chest and be awarded with... a new scarf/house robe/glasses. -.-

Still have a ways to go in the game, so I'm gonna keep an open mind till I complete the game, but so far... Meh.
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66 Comments
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ofLegends Mar 10, 2023 @ 9:27pm 
Idk why they bothered putting in hats and glasses. They're almost all horrible, and if you have long hair it becomes short with a hat so why would you wear one?
Ralathar44 Feb 19, 2023 @ 11:06am 
And you can tell people miss just how much of a disconnect it is to have such a murder heavy teenager in this universe when people argue about how they didn't get to break the rules enough as Slytherin or how the Dark Curses are not treated as evil enough.

Like no shit, when you murdered 500 people by slamming them into the ground repeatedly with ancient magic, fire, heavy objects, literal sicing attacks, freezing them to death then Avada Kedava just becomes your green flavored murder tool lol. Really stops standing out when you spend half your time murdering people.

Still a fun game...but man...the teenager MC must be an extreme sociopath with no empathy.
Ralathar44 Feb 19, 2023 @ 11:04am 
TBH my biggest criticism of the game is something nobody thinks about because they're too busy nitpicking to see one of the biggest conflicts between setting and reality in video games.

Quite the opposite of the folks who feel like there are too many puzzles and not enough combat or that you can't be evil enough this game is a murder hobo simulator and you're fairly authoritarian. As a teenager your body count is higher than anything Voldemort has ever dreamed of and you take murder so lightly its insane. Ahh they are a poacher eh? Better murder them. "your life was lost the moment you supported x" ....jesus MC chill the fuck out you're a child just joining a magical school not a die hard authoritarian crusader.
Akaya Feb 18, 2023 @ 4:46pm 
Totally agree with you Reisender. I don't get how people just love the game unconditionally only because it is a HP game or only because it got an amazing open-world and then also don't allow anyone to criticise the negative points without feeling the need to insult them. This game is lacking immersion to me, which is really disappointing, but I still enjoyed the time I played it. I just wish it would be more than... just amazing looks and fun combat.
Smarty_Susie Feb 17, 2023 @ 2:32am 
Totally agree.
jerry Feb 14, 2023 @ 9:26am 
It's weird, dead, and empty. It seems unfinished.

Most of the time when you enter an interior there's an NPC standing around with an idle animation but there is no recorded greeting or dialogue or anything. It's just a human prop.

I think the scope of the game was too large to deliver a real high quality RPG experience. It's more like an open world action adventure. Still lacking polish in everything but visuals.
GrepCaffeine Feb 14, 2023 @ 7:53am 
@Ralathar44: Hmm, seems I hit a nerve, and you're the one lecturing on pride?? I'd recommend a bit of self-reflection mate.

I have no pride tied up in my purchasing or review. I clearly stated my case the context in which my review was being made.

Failing to hold companies to the claims they make are the one of the reasons we get mid-tier bait and switch junk like this, and my review is to highlight those issues for others that also care about such things.

This review obviously wasn't written for folks like you. I know that may bruise your pride, but I'm sure I'll get over it.
Ralathar44 Feb 13, 2023 @ 6:21pm 
So go on an choose. Your pride vs better purchasing decisions in the future. If the internet has taught me anything though its that most people value their pride over almost anything else including their own happiness and economic situation. So you'll prolly just double down and repeat your same mistake again in the future.

But, I hope you don't. Both for your own happiness and so you better support and empower the types of games YOU want to play. Chances are I want to play them too :).
Ralathar44 Feb 13, 2023 @ 6:18pm 
The utter irony however is that if we take you at face value you still screwed up :D.

Brass tacks you shouldn't be listening to marketing in the first place. So in additon to the hurdle of interpretation the mere idea you've decided to believe marketing already shows a rather large lapse in judgement. Gaming is no spring chicken, we've had our Fallout76s and No Man's Sky's and Cyberpunks and etc. Anyone taking marketing at face value automatically is a less than wise person. For any game, Hogwarts included.

It's amazing how little people learn over time. Both about the world and about themselves. as the saying goes "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." You've got a 10 year old gaming account mate. Time to grow up and put on your big boy pants and stop listening to marketing. The delivered game is never going to match marketing, that is...btw...the entire point of marketing. To sell more than a game would on its own.
Ralathar44 Feb 13, 2023 @ 6:14pm 
Marketing is truly in the eye of the beholder. Because every person's idea of how a game was marketed depends on their interpretation of it. You can see how much peope's interpretation of the same words vary in politics, but lets stick to gaming for a recent example.

Cyberpunk 2077 is an an amazing case study in that regard. I've heard people disappointed in that game saying that game was supposed to be like GTA, like Bioshock, like Witcher, like Disco Elysium, like Mass Effect, like dues Ex, etc. Those are very VERY different games with different focuses and things they are good and bad at. And people arguing for each game type would inevitably link me to the same marketing videos where, to them, it was clear as day what game type it was being marketed as.