I managed to get my hands on the early access of this game and had been looking forward to it since it's announcement.
The story is set before the story of Harry Potter, in fact about 100 years before. We meet a new student uniquely starting in his fifth year and has special abilities that allows him to tap into ancient magic and must go through various trials that only his abilities can defeat. All the while a sort of Goblin rebellion is at hand.
While I know some fans were upset at the Goblin storyline and were a little disappointed that this wasn't a 7 year Hogwarts storyline like the books and films, this is still a very good story, is well written and fits the world that J. K. Rowling built. I particularly love the amount of side stories that flood this game and most fit into the main story.
First and foremost, this is an open world game and despite being in a school, the developers pretty much built a game that allows you to do things at your leisure. The world isn't the biggest you'll play in an open world environment but has so much to access, which more than makes up for it. The world also has plenty of people and objects to interact with. I'm a little disappointed that Diagon Alley wasn't included but that's a small quibble.
There were questions on whether this would borrow from the books or movies with its design and the answer was both as the world is a blend of both of those products. The castles overall look from the outside is very much the films, while the interiors take note from the books. The uniforms and House symbols are also more from the books.
Obviously, due to the prequel nature of the story, there's hardly any returning characters from the other stories, except for the ghosts in Hogwarts, so that might be a bummer for some.
The controls do take some getting use to, particularly with the spell casting, which consists of a lot of spells but only four buttons the execute, so you have to select different spells for different missions and place them under one of the four action buttons, which gets a little tedious but is still a better option than most games in this franchise.
The games progression cycle is smooth for the most part. There are a few times when things seem to come to a halt and you have to really try to scan the map for some clue but those are minimal.
Graphically, the game is both spectacular and lackluster. The environments are gorgeous. The castle looks great and the overall scope of the game is magnificent. The character models are a bit patchy so far as the developers continue to fix elements of the game. The cutscenes a gorgeous but it feels like the character models downgrade once back in the gameplay, which is a bit of a step backwards for this generation.
So overall, this will definitely please fans and should even be fun for those who have never read the books or seen the movies. The are a few flaws so far, but hopefully the developers clean them out.
The story is set before the story of Harry Potter, in fact about 100 years before. We meet a new student uniquely starting in his fifth year and has special abilities that allows him to tap into ancient magic and must go through various trials that only his abilities can defeat. All the while a sort of Goblin rebellion is at hand.
While I know some fans were upset at the Goblin storyline and were a little disappointed that this wasn't a 7 year Hogwarts storyline like the books and films, this is still a very good story, is well written and fits the world that J. K. Rowling built. I particularly love the amount of side stories that flood this game and most fit into the main story.
First and foremost, this is an open world game and despite being in a school, the developers pretty much built a game that allows you to do things at your leisure. The world isn't the biggest you'll play in an open world environment but has so much to access, which more than makes up for it. The world also has plenty of people and objects to interact with. I'm a little disappointed that Diagon Alley wasn't included but that's a small quibble.
There were questions on whether this would borrow from the books or movies with its design and the answer was both as the world is a blend of both of those products. The castles overall look from the outside is very much the films, while the interiors take note from the books. The uniforms and House symbols are also more from the books.
Obviously, due to the prequel nature of the story, there's hardly any returning characters from the other stories, except for the ghosts in Hogwarts, so that might be a bummer for some.
The controls do take some getting use to, particularly with the spell casting, which consists of a lot of spells but only four buttons the execute, so you have to select different spells for different missions and place them under one of the four action buttons, which gets a little tedious but is still a better option than most games in this franchise.
The games progression cycle is smooth for the most part. There are a few times when things seem to come to a halt and you have to really try to scan the map for some clue but those are minimal.
Graphically, the game is both spectacular and lackluster. The environments are gorgeous. The castle looks great and the overall scope of the game is magnificent. The character models are a bit patchy so far as the developers continue to fix elements of the game. The cutscenes a gorgeous but it feels like the character models downgrade once back in the gameplay, which is a bit of a step backwards for this generation.
So overall, this will definitely please fans and should even be fun for those who have never read the books or seen the movies. The are a few flaws so far, but hopefully the developers clean them out.