Recent reviews by Zhyenya

It's not often a game can completely immerse me into its world. Within the first 10 hours or so, this game HOOKED me in, even for someone who's not a huge fan of the HP universe. However, as the game continues beyond that 10-ish hour mark, you start to notice the flaws. Even though this game receives a thumbs up for me, I think it's fair you should know what to expect.


You'll first notice how magical the world is around you. The castle feels alive. You're in classes learning spells and meeting the professors and students. The talking paintings and gargoyles will get a chuckle out of you. You watch Peeves ruin a student's day. You find mysterious doors and wonder how they open. A student is stuck in the air from a levitation charm and can't get down, and his friends abandon him because they forgot about a homework assignment. The headmaster scorns a student for being an idiot. You're slightly scared of the Forbidden Forest as it comes up in the story. YOU CAN PET THE CATS. It all feels wonderful.

But then you start to get used to the charm, and you'll want to interact with it.

You can't cast spells on students, nor talk with them unless they have a quest to give you. I'll walk past a student who was part of a relationship quest, and they won't say anything to me. You'll eavesdrop on other students' conversations, but they have no flow. There are no prefects or other authority to enforce the rules of the castle; it doesn't matter when I show up to class or if I'm out past curfew.

The open world doesn't help either. Although it's fun to cruise on your broom and view the world, there isn't much life or activity outside the castle. Unless you're achievement hunting, all of the collection chests, Merlin Trials, field guide pages, and so on feel like filler.

Also, you can learn the Unforgivable Curses and no one gives a damn if you use them. No consequences, no story implications, not even unique dialogue from NPCs. IF THEY ARE CALLED UNFORGIVABLE WHY ARE THEY SO FORGIVING?


Regarding combat, you'll learn four categories of spells: Force (purple), Control (yellow), Damage (red), and Unforgivable Curses (green). With four spell tabs of four spells each, you can have 16 spells at your disposal at any given moment. You'll first learn how to juggle enemies and keep them in the air for as long as possible. You'll also have "combat challenges" that give you a random challenge to complete, and some of them will teach you powerful spell combos (one of my favorites, Glacius -> Diffendo). Some enemies will have purple/yellow/red shields. Hmm, they have a colored shield, and I have colored spells. I wonder what to do.

After a while, the combat becomes pretty easy, even on Hard difficulty. Also, on the "Collections" menu you can learn about each enemy's specific weakness. For example, if you cast "Flipendo" after a troll slams the ground with his two-handed club attack, the club will flip and smack the troll in the face for decent damage and a stun. You would think this is useful information, but like I said, the combat is pretty easy. As long as you can block/parry effectively, and you have your go-to spell combos and juggles, you don't need to know enemy-specific weaknesses. I didn't even experiment with specific enemy weaknesses until long after I finished the main story and was achievement hunting.


No spoilers, so don't worry.

I actually really enjoyed the relationship quests. I was invested in their personal stories and learned why they were so passionate. I never really understood why the main villain was passionate other than a bad experience with wizard-kind.

You're "the chosen one" who can interact and wield Ancient Magic, an extremely rare ability. To some this is a very boring and cliché story, but that's OK! I can work with that, but clearly the developers didn't work with it.

Outside of progressing the story and a "focus meter" for a powerful attack during combat, Ancient Magic is so boring. This is by far my biggest gripe with the game. BY FAR. I promised I wouldn't spoil the story, but there was so much wasted potential. You can't infuse your modern spells with Ancient Magic. You don't learn more about how your powers work, or what else you could cast. You could add so many game mechanics and RPG elements with this "rare" form of magic BUT THEY DID NOTHING FUN WITH IT.


These were my personal gripes with the game. The Harry Potter universe doesn't fit the open-world format in my opinion. Focus on Hogwarts so you can jam pack it with rich experiences and interactions. Also with so many god-tier open-world games such as Breath of the Wild and Read Dead Redemption 2, the bar is up extremely high, so it will definitely not reach those expectations. I think the developers Confringo'd themselves in the foot by making it open-world instead of hyper-focusing on detail.

With all of that being said, I give these criticisms with tough love. I seriously haven't been so entrenched in a video game's world like this game has. I don't regret playing this game, and there are plenty of magical moments to make the game worth it.

7.5/10 wtf there's no Quidditch

I strongly believe movement is ESSENTIAL for an open-world game. No matter how much content is added to an open-world game, if it's not fun to move from city to city, quest to quest, collectible to collectible, then the game feels like a chore.

With that said, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is probably the most fun I've had traversing through the world. It's so much fun I don't even want to use fast travel. The side missions, random crimes, hideouts, and other tasks didn't feel like a chore simply because it was fun to traverse through New York. I would find myself making a custom route to the main story quest so I could maximize the amount of side quests/collectibles to complete.

10 / 10 will ignore the main story to collect backpacks again

If you're the type of player who will incessantly delete and create characters to test different class combinations (like me), then you're never going to reach the end game. You're going to have too much fun exploring all the different ways you can play this game.

• There are 9 classes (6 from base game, 3 additional from DLC). You choose your first class at level 2, and your second class at level 10.
  
• Some class combinations have better synergy than others, but all class combinations have the capability to succeed in the end game.
  
• You can't undo your class selection, but point respec is extremely cheap in this game, so you can explore all of your classes' abilities and combinations thereof without the fear you built your character incorrectly.
  
• There are many items in the game that can grant unique abilities, meaning it's completely possible to center your class build around an ability given from an item.
  
• You don't want to combine classes, and only play as one class? You can do that!
  
• You don't want to play as ANY class? YOU CAN DO THAT TOO!
  
• You want to play as a Necromancer and Demolitionist, who have absolutely zero synergies, but give your skeleton army the ability to deal fire damage? ♥♥♥♥ IT, WHY NOT!? I'm sure there's an item out there that makes this class combo work.
  
• Then there's Devotion Points... don't get me started

You can, of course, follow a guide to build a strong class from the beginning, or to help you understand how the game works. But after a while, you'll stop following guides and dive head first into the possibility Grim Dawn provides. It's so much fun, and I can't recommend it enough. $25 for the base game, and no pointless microtransactions/paywalls. Completely different from a certain disappointment of a game. Not to point out any games, but it starts with D and ends in iablo.

10 / 10 will delete and create characters again

I think that every single game is more enjoyable when played with friends. It can make a good game great, and a frustrating game tolerable. Unfortunately for this game, it's an experience that's only fun and tolerable when playing with friends, and if a game needs friends in order to have a fun time, then it gets a thumbs down from me.

I call this game friend-dependent because communication is critical. I'm not going to recite all of the game's negatives, because chances are you've seen the popular reviews and their critiques before you saw mine, but all of the game-play problems become fun challenges when everyone discusses their builds and the equipment they'll buy throughout the levels. Take that away, and you are either going to play with poorly-programmed bots and/or online randoms who quit halfway through. A game played with friends should be the cherry on top, not a critical component.

When my friends are online, I'm absolutely still going to play this game (crackheads unite!), but I'm done playing this on my own. If you want to play this game, wait until it's on sale, and you have friends who are on board.

Spangib

This isn't the type of game you play for hours and hours; it doesn't have much replayability. The different classes don't mix up the gameplay, the combat doesn't change besides mobs gaining more health and armor, and the story doesn't branch off, regardless of your choices. I just finished a second playthrough of this game to get (almost) all of the achievements, and I can't be bothered to play a third time to get those final two.

With that being said, this game is AMAZING when you first play it. It retains all of the charm of the TV show, the cutscenes are seamless with the gameplay, and you really feel like a character in South Park. If you're a fan of South Park, and this game is on sale, BUY IT for a fun experience.