Considering this came out a couple months back and I’ve had it since day 1, it’s taken me a mighty long while to complete. This is no bad thing, mind. This game is based on the not so known series that is Harry Potter. Only this time taking place in the 1800’s, you’d expect that the game would only take certain queues from the book and film series. It leans fairly heavily into it though so it’s pretty much what you’d expect. Again this isn’t a bad thing.
First thing I have to mention is Hogwarts itself. Honestly not only does it look incredible, the design and functionality of it is truly remarkable. From all the hidden rooms, moving pictures, ghosts flying around to students casting spells as you go past them. The moving staircase, or the snake that magics the door to the Slytherin common room and disappears as you walk away, all the way to the talking goblins and sets of armour. The castle is littered with tiny details that really build a sense of a living breathing school of magic. As the game progresses so does the season within the game itself, so Hogwarts is decorated differently from Halloween to Christmas. Even the floating candles in the great hall differ. This also changes Hogsmeade’s appearance as well as the terrain of the world that lays out of the walls of Hogwarts. With Hogsmeade being the next big area and contains most of the shops you will use to buy brooms, broom upgrades, different equipment benches for the room of requirement, or bits and bobs for the areas where you can look after and breed the fantasy animals of the magical world, kinda like fantastic beasts.
The next big thing I should talk about is the magic itself, having 27 different spells you can learn, with some being passive like Alohomora. With most being combat focused and learning the three unforgivable spells. For the most part you’ll only use some spells outside of combat, such as duel challenges or for puzzles. Which is a shame as you’d like a bit more functionality from some of them. Oddly you learn up to level three for Alohomora as this acts as the lock pick mini game. I’d rather it just auto unlocked stuff though, it gets a bit tedious sometimes unlocking a door to unlock a chest or another door for some usual lower stat bit of clothing. Plus the lack of a morality system makes for no reason to not crucio the ever loving shit out of everyone and then hit them with Avada kedavra. As with two of the upgrades you get means the curse spreads to other enemies and then you can one shot all the poor afflicted in one go. You can’t do this till late game though which is a shame, as by the time you get to do this you’ve only a few main missions left and have probably completed or close to finishing the main side quest stories. The combat is pretty decent, standard spell casting hot keys for your special higher damage moves, you can dodge, or upgraded apparate out the way, and use protego which can be used to stupefy enemies briefly. Mostly the upgrades you get are a bit wank, some aren’t really worthwhile or others just don’t do much. With your damage and defence coming from the rating attached to your clothes. They can be upgrade slightly via the loom in the room of requirement and you can attach a charm trait per each piece. At no point do you learn an auto cast so if you just hold down the trigger for it which would make life so much easer, especially with trolls, which just sponge standard attacks. They really missed the mark by not allowing your wand to be a semi or full automatic.
The world is filled with mini villages to explore, all the same as Hogwarts. Filled with hidden field pages to find, chest, loot bags. More specific collectibles such as collection chests and everyone’s favourites the demiguises. If you want to go for a more thorough play through there are 96 merlin trials which blow ass. Honestly they are tedious as fuck. I’d have much preferred like 15/20 harder puzzles then the shitty 96 you get. Honestly one of my only flaw with the whole game. You can also find; highland field pages though as well, along with popping balloons on your broom, landing pads, bandit camps, animal dens, ancient magic hotspots, mini dungeons which reward you with some new clothing items, and a few other smaller things to find that off the top of my head I can’t remember. There’s enough to keep you occupied for a good few extra hours if you choose to mop up the trophy list. There are three flying challenges, and five bigger dungeons to explore most are locked behind the side quest stories though. Flying in the open world is dandy, the race challenges on the other hand though, pure dogshit. They aren’t that hard to do as long as you’ve upgraded your broom and hit most of the speed bubbles, but it could be a it more loose in the turns. Overall your most fun in exploration will come with Hogwarts itself and the three hidden secrets you can find.
Amongst the main story and the three main quests, which you should definitely do Sebastian’s as soon as they are available as these give you the three unforgivable curses. There are 57 side quests in total to do. So not as grand as other rpg’s out there but enough to tide you over, and for the most part they aren’t all the same. They all help build the wizarding world, and introduce to varying aspects of the game. You have assignments early in the main story these are what unlock your new spells.
As well as having many spells in your arsenal, you also have potions and varying attack plants. Which honestly I barely used, not because they aren’t of use it’s just that it’s normally easier just to blast the shit out of all your enemies. You do have the option of stealth, but this is definitely a mechanic that needs work. Even with the upgrade to be harder to be seen, you are almost immediately seen by an enemy. So going in all gung-ho is a far better choice. There isn’t too many enemy types, so getting used to how they will attack isn’t too hard. Other then formidable foes, which are just named villains with more health and can usual be eviscerated with your special ancient magic move. Which is gage that fills up during battle, and then can be used to annihilate a poor unsuspecting goblin or spider.
The story isn’t great to be honest, it starts off intriguing then it just meanders and doesn’t build up with the big bad in Ranrok being a fairly non involved bad guy and doesn’t amount to much. With the final boss fight being fairly disappointing. If at any point of the game where the use of magic or quick time events could be used to enhance a mission of fight, this was it and it missed the mark. The game is far better when you are wondering around, or doing quests for better written side characters. I’m currently just under the 40 hour mark and have done pretty much everything, just mopping up collecting everything, and then doing the beginning part of the game again three more times so I can get the platinum. So it’s not the longest game going, and once you have done everything there really isn’t much re-playability outside of going through it all again. Which is a shame. As inviting as the castle itself is, overall the game doesn’t come off as a Borderlands, Elder Scroll, Fallout or Witcher type of game. Where you have all these different builds, or new game plus to return for another round.
Overall I’d rate this game a very high, 8/10, Highly Tasty.
For a first entry in a new triple A game, it’s a very strong start. The game world is fantastic and this is exemplified in Hogwarts itself, all worthwhile to explore. Combat works well but is lacking finesse, along with weak upgrades from the skill trees. There could be a few more enemies for variety, and a slightly better or at least in-depth upgrade system. I’d argue even having quests not always ending in caves or crypts just to build the world up a bit. At the moment it seems unlikely but this game is ripe for DLC, even just a new game + just to breath a smidge more life into the game. Hopefully in the inevitable sequel the game hasn’t pigeonholed itself to just Hogwarts and its surrounding areas, as it will definitely need to go further a field to not make the game stale from the get go.
Released 7th February 2023, Sony Playstation 5
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