This is a game we’ve been excited about ever since it was first announced. We were super excited to begin playing the game the second it hit 12 am so we could start it up. This brief review won’t contain any major spoilers and only minor ones that have been present in gameplay releases. We’ll try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible.
Honestly, so far I’m impressed. Daniel is roughly 3 hours in and Phil is around 5-6, so we’ve had a lot of time already to get our first thoughts in on this. Please remember, this is our first impressions ONLY and not a full reflection of the game. Our full review will be out at the weekend once we’ve had more time to pump into this.
As with RPGs, you tend to create your own character and it’s no different in this. You get lots of different options in order to create your new witch/wizard. our only gripe with this is there could have been more options. Games like Fallout and Cyberpunk give a lot of options to create your perfect character whereas this didn’t really do that. Albeit the complaint, we still didn’t mind the designs and had a blast creating him.
We’re blown away by the immense graphics. The dragon taking out the carriage looked beautiful, as did the world and water when you finally get to ground level. Everything about it blew us away from the moment you control your character. It’s even to the point of the physics of the game as well. You’ll notice when you’re moving around with high winds, your hair and outfit move all over the place too. It’s small but it’s a nice touch to the game.
It’s just something we’ve wanted for so long. The last AAA game we got was Deathly Hallows Part 2 which came out in July 2011. That’s how long we’ve waited for a game set in the Wizarding World. We’re still thrown back at how another game was never made considering the sheer size of the franchise itself.
The World
With a game that’s set in the world of Harry Potter, you kind of know what you will be getting once you load into the game. While we did know what to expect, what we didn’t know was the immense detail that the developers put into this world. It’s alive.
Without going into too much detail, you start off by exploring some kind of ruins, with this section of the map you could feel that there was so much life to it, you could see little dragonflies, you could see the waves in the distance, the wind, everything was so moving, this was expanded once you arrived to Hogwarts.
This is where the true magic lies. Everything in Hogwarts is alive, you can be walking through the corridors and see a statue move, a painting, ghosts, and even little cats walking around, and one tiny detail is even when you ignore the cat and it walks by you, it purrs and you can hear it through the controller on the PS5. It’s just beautiful.
Another aspect of life that’s in the game generally is the NPCs. Now you might think “well this is in every game” and yes, you would be right but within this game, not only do the main characters, and side characters feel alive and real, the background characters do as well, you can see them doing their own thing throughout the world.
We took notice of this majorly in one of my classes after we stayed to search and we saw the teacher walking around drinking coffee. It was amazing. Everything about the world in this game is just spot on.
The full review will come in a few days after we have progressed and put many more hours into the game.
Information and products Daniel used to play the game;
- Platform: PlayStation 5
- Edition: Deluxe
- Screen: 4K Samsung TV
- Audio: SteelSeries Arctis 7P+
- Release: 7th February 2023 (Deluxe) / 10th February 2023 (Standard)
Information and products Phil used to play the game;
- Platform: PlayStation 5
- Edition: Deluxe
- Screen: 4K Samsung TV 46″
- Audio: HyperX Cloud II
- Release: 7th February 2023 (Deluxe) / 10th February 2023 (Standard)
