PC Gaming

Different take:

What we got was a pilot, an experiment to see if it is even worth going all in on the 'Portkey Games' route in the future. Sure, there's young adults out there who played the old school movie tie-in games of the GameCube era. But they aren't enough of an audience to warrant spending big on something that might flop.

Most of the game's systems and gameplay are underwhelming, yes. And they could probably have spent some time writing a more compelling story with a lot less chosen one bullshit tropes in it. But they did manage to build a wizarding world that convincingly lets you immerse yourself in it. The game has a real sense of scale to it, unlike the older games, and my favourite thing is just walking around looking at details and letting my own fantasy do the rest.

Now here's the thing. They did a succesful little experiment: They made a game that isn't outright hated and lives up to some of the dreams we had as kids playing the original movie games. And they managed to do so without defaulting to the shitty loot box practises so many publishers are known for this day and age. Especially WB stuff. It all depends on what they do next.

From here they can go one of two ways: Either take the easy route and create a carbon copy of this game, rake in some profits and watch as people start seeing the cracks and slowly lose interest. Or take it seriously, spend the extra attention and actually improve upon anything this game has to offer and stand to gain even more revenue.

Chances are they take the first path and everything comes crashing down, and they'll blame fans for losing interest. If they do opt to go the second route there is a lot of work to be done. Interested to see where it goes either way.

If it wasn’t using one of the most well known IPs in modern history it would be a financial flop and have terrible ratings.

That’s everything though, a good unknown game will always do worse than a bad known game

Thanks. This is the first review I’ve seen of the actual game... glad somebody rated it as a stand alone product on its own individual merit rather than by all the other noise around its release.

I think being cancelled can affect small groups and fan bases, but doesn't have any impact on the larger population.

It didn't help that boycotting it didn't make much sense. The game itself goes out of it's way to make sure it's "inclusive", actually boycotting it will hurt a lot of people involved in the game more than it would hurt Rowling. Supposedly the royalties are very minor for stuff that doesn't actually include any of the Harry Potter storyline, and JK Rowling is already richer than God.

The (Dixie) Chicks.

Exactly this. I'd've taken those niche depth mechanics over that huge mostly-empty world and hundreds of collectibles in a heartbeat. Free-roam, yes but a HP game doesn’t need to be a Ubisoft-a-thon

What, you dont even need to go to class at all?

It is a fun game. If you are someone who is into HP, then it is probably really enjoyable.

I'm playing it at the mo on the recommendations of friends. As some comments here say, the quest system is a bit goofy, but I'm enjoying it. It has the same 'go here do this' and collectibles vibe as the recent Spider Man from Sony. I'm fine with that! Lots of puzzles, maps, treasure hunts, collectibles and so forth.