TL;DR : A weak often repetitive RPG that is also one of the best experiences they could have done as a massive modern game to get back into the Harry Potter universe. It’s bad at being a RPG, mixed in it’s gameplay, but great at gathering everything cool about Harry Potter books, films, and often past games while creating a game with a good atmosphere, music and nostalgia.

Gameplay : I’ve even read some debates about whether it’s even a RPG. I think that it is, it has most of the characteristics of a RPG, they’re just all very weak.

There’s “caves” or “dungeons” but that are usually repetitive and are only a bit more interesting when tied to the main story. Inventory system isn't incredible and you're flooded with too many pointless items that are just good to go sell almost right away considering your inventory space (But then again I feel like it’s pretty common among other games). You’re never really hyped by what you find. At times you see the item has a little green arrow implying it’ll raise your stats a bit but that’s it. Items are upgradable which is cool. There’s no class system. The skills tree isn’t very interesting. There’s no morality system or ways to shape your character’s identity and personality beside having the choice to give an answer or another during dialogues and that have no impact on the story.

But I don’t think they could really have done a great intricate RPG, something to rival Skyrim or the Witcher. It’s a game that’s targeted to a lot of people who are going to play for the lore, the story and the nostalgia, including kids. So while I was a bit disappointed in some of these aspects, I’m not sure if they could have done better to make it accessible to everyone who wanted to have a cool Harry Potter universe experience.

Now as an overall action game, it does the job well. Especially when you consider the combat system, which is pretty much one of my favorite combat systems ever. It's super fun, non-stop action, you can get rid of enemies in a lot of different ways, through the use of a wide range of spells with which you can find a lot of cool synergies. The “shield” systems work great whether it’s for your character or as an added challenge with the enemies. I loved every single time I came into combat. It was often too easy but I believe I could have upped the difficulty.

I played most of the game with a mod, “Mouse gesture to spell” that made it much more fun and makes you feel like you’re actually moving a wand. I really really recommend it. Before it it was a bit annoying to circle through the different spell.

Exploration is a mixed bag. Trying to find everything on the map can be a chore. There's too much, and too much of the same thing. When you come across one of these "puzzles" or "caves" you often can't be bothered to do the same thing for the 67th time. I wanted to complete he game so I went through with it but it wasn't fun on that aspect. There could have been easily 3 times less caves and Merlin Trials. Some of these puzzles, secrets or challenges scattered around the map are more fun and less numerous than others though which is cool.

The difference is night and day when you compare Hogwarts itself to the rest of the map. Exploring Hogwarts is one of the best part of the game, it gave me strong Harry Potter 3 nostalgia where you could also try to find a lot of secrets and puzzles hidden in the castle. It’s HP3 times a hundred. It can be challenging to find everything but it's fun to take the time to find how to open every single door, reach all the chests and field guide pages. The puzzles are often not too complicated, but as explained above, they had to go for a very accessible experience and despite the easiness it was very fun to find most of the secrets. Actually one or two were very challenging now that I think about it. What they did with the room of requirement is perfect : customization, herbology, magic creatures… etc. It was the best possible use of this important part of the castle as a personal room to centralize almost all the crafting and personalisation.

Most of the more challenging steam achievements were cool to get, although it would have been nice to be able to track your progress through it. Just a bit ridiculous to have 3 of them only reachable by playing the whole game again as another wizard house, considering how little this “class” aspect impacts the game. It basically requires you to play through a few hours of the game 3 times without any novelty each time. Can’t be bothered.

Story / atmosphere : The story is OK. Some themes and elements are great and engaging, others cliche and more boring. I read a lot of negativity about it, but it’s really not that bad.

They also tried to be inclusive in the characters identities without forcing it and assuming you can fix racism or transphobia by simply adding the right pixels to a video game without getting rid of class society as a whole which is the root cause of oppressions and how our institutions function which is cool. Maybe I’m getting a bit off the subject. There’s just that African student, that transgender character (who is a good addition considering the whole JK Rowling thing. I don’t get why she’s portrayed as a literal nazi by everybody when her positions aren’t that extreme really, even though I disagree with them), and it’s perfectly normal and mundane, it didn’t make me feel like they were trying to make a game just to put that in.

I just really hoped I could have participated in something like the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare a hundred years before it’s time but there was no clear way to liberate them from the slave work they’re subjected to.

The references to Harry Potter whether it’s in the dialogues, story, exploration, are cool. I’ve had a lot of moments where a mission reminded me of another in the first Harry Potter game, some story in a parchment of something in books, or a puzzle from the movies.

The overall vibe and music really get you back to the best aspects of the movies, which is clearly the biggest selling point of the game, nostalgia. That with the beauty and richness of the castle of Hogwarts make the game a real success. Some aspects are just a bit too simple or wholesome compared to the universe we’re used to. Walking through Hogwarts at night for example isn’t a problem, whereas if you’re used to the books or the movies you know it’s supposed to be scary and forbidden. There’s no real “mean” teacher or Slytherin kids which is disappointing too. The worst I’ve seen from a teacher is the Headmaster cancelling Quidditch because the developers didn’t have the time or means to add it to the game.

Performance : pretty bad in the beginning. I tried playing around with the settings to find a sweet spot of quality / performance but it was never really satisfying. My system is getting a bit old (i5 4690 / 980ti) so can't complain too much. Over time it improved. I tried various mods or patches when it came out that helped a bit, not sure if they're still useful. The game looks good overall while not trying to be hyper realistic.
There was some buggy parts, I fell under the map once (managed miraculously to get back up by using my broom and flying back up) and some broken "skeleton physics" forced me to restart the game once or twice.

[b] TL;DR : A weak often repetitive RPG that is also one of the best experiences they could have done as a massive modern game to get back into the Harry Potter universe. It’s bad at being a RPG, mixed in it’s gameplay, but great at gathering everything cool about Harry Potter books, films, and often past games while creating a game with a good atmosphere, music and nostalgia. [/b] [b] Gameplay [/b]: I’ve even read some debates about whether it’s even a RPG. I think that it is, it has most of the characteristics of a RPG, they’re just all very weak. There’s “caves” or “dungeons” but that are usually repetitive and are only a bit more interesting when tied to the main story. Inventory system isn't incredible and you're flooded with too many pointless items that are just good to go sell almost right away considering your inventory space (But then again I feel like it’s pretty common among other games). You’re never really hyped by what you find. At times you see the item has a little green arrow implying it’ll raise your stats a bit but that’s it. Items are upgradable which is cool. There’s no class system. The skills tree isn’t very interesting. There’s no morality system or ways to shape your character’s identity and personality beside having the choice to give an answer or another during dialogues and that have no impact on the story. But I don’t think they could really have done a great intricate RPG, something to rival Skyrim or the Witcher. It’s a game that’s targeted to a lot of people who are going to play for the lore, the story and the nostalgia, including kids. So while I was a bit disappointed in some of these aspects, I’m not sure if they could have done better to make it accessible to everyone who wanted to have a cool Harry Potter universe experience. Now as an overall action game, it does the job well. Especially when you consider the combat system, which is pretty much one of my favorite combat systems ever. It's super fun, non-stop action, you can get rid of enemies in a lot of different ways, through the use of a wide range of spells with which you can find a lot of cool synergies. The “shield” systems work great whether it’s for your character or as an added challenge with the enemies. I loved every single time I came into combat. It was often too easy but I believe I could have upped the difficulty. I played most of the game with a mod, “Mouse gesture to spell” that made it much more fun and makes you feel like you’re actually moving a wand. I really really recommend it. Before it it was a bit annoying to circle through the different spell. Exploration is a mixed bag. Trying to find everything on the map can be a chore. There's too much, and too much of the same thing. When you come across one of these "puzzles" or "caves" you often can't be bothered to do the same thing for the 67th time. I wanted to complete he game so I went through with it but it wasn't fun on that aspect. There could have been easily 3 times less caves and Merlin Trials. Some of these puzzles, secrets or challenges scattered around the map are more fun and less numerous than others though which is cool. The difference is night and day when you compare Hogwarts itself to the rest of the map. Exploring Hogwarts is one of the best part of the game, it gave me strong Harry Potter 3 nostalgia where you could also try to find a lot of secrets and puzzles hidden in the castle. It’s HP3 times a hundred. It can be challenging to find everything but it's fun to take the time to find how to open every single door, reach all the chests and field guide pages. The puzzles are often not too complicated, but as explained above, they had to go for a very accessible experience and despite the easiness it was very fun to find most of the secrets. Actually one or two were very challenging now that I think about it. What they did with the room of requirement is perfect : customization, herbology, magic creatures… etc. It was the best possible use of this important part of the castle as a personal room to centralize almost all the crafting and personalisation. Most of the more challenging steam achievements were cool to get, although it would have been nice to be able to track your progress through it. Just a bit ridiculous to have 3 of them only reachable by playing the whole game again as another wizard house, considering how little this “class” aspect impacts the game. It basically requires you to play through a few hours of the game 3 times without any novelty each time. Can’t be bothered. [b] Story / atmosphere [/b]: The story is OK. Some themes and elements are great and engaging, others cliche and more boring. I read a lot of negativity about it, but it’s really not that bad. They also tried to be inclusive in the characters identities without forcing it and assuming you can fix racism or transphobia by simply adding the right pixels to a video game without getting rid of class society as a whole which is the root cause of oppressions and how our institutions function which is cool. Maybe I’m getting a bit off the subject. There’s just that African student, that transgender character (who is a good addition considering the whole JK Rowling thing. I don’t get why she’s portrayed as a literal nazi by everybody when her positions aren’t that extreme really, even though I disagree with them), and it’s perfectly normal and mundane, it didn’t make me feel like they were trying to make a game just to put that in. I just really hoped I could have participated in something like the [i] Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare [/i] a hundred years before it’s time but there was no clear way to liberate them from the slave work they’re subjected to. The references to Harry Potter whether it’s in the dialogues, story, exploration, are cool. I’ve had a lot of moments where a mission reminded me of another in the first Harry Potter game, some story in a parchment of something in books, or a puzzle from the movies. The overall vibe and music really get you back to the best aspects of the movies, which is clearly the biggest selling point of the game, nostalgia. That with the beauty and richness of the castle of Hogwarts make the game a real success. Some aspects are just a bit too simple or wholesome compared to the universe we’re used to. Walking through Hogwarts at night for example isn’t a problem, whereas if you’re used to the books or the movies you know it’s supposed to be scary and forbidden. There’s no real “mean” teacher or Slytherin kids which is disappointing too. The worst I’ve seen from a teacher is the Headmaster cancelling Quidditch because the developers didn’t have the time or means to add it to the game. [b] Performance [/b]: pretty bad in the beginning. I tried playing around with the settings to find a sweet spot of quality / performance but it was never really satisfying. My system is getting a bit old (i5 4690 / 980ti) so can't complain too much. Over time it improved. I tried various mods or patches when it came out that helped a bit, not sure if they're still useful. The game looks good overall while not trying to be hyper realistic. There was some buggy parts, I fell under the map once (managed miraculously to get back up by using my broom and flying back up) and some broken "skeleton physics" forced me to restart the game once or twice.