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This review is a little biased because this is the first Harry Potter universe game I’ve fully completed and gotten 100% achievements in.
First of all, I’m so glad this isn’t another game where you just play as Harry Potter. Instead, you get to create your own character and fully experience the world of Hogwarts. That alone made it worth playing for me.
Gameplay
The developers clearly put a lot of love into this game, and it shows. Hogwarts Castle is absolutely stunning so much so that it actually made me tear up at times. Everything feels alive, from NPCs casually using magic to paint pictures or prank each other to weird potion experiments happening in the bathrooms. I could spend hours just listening to NPC conversations.
The game has three main areas:
- Hogwarts Castle – Easily the best part of the game, full of detail, personality, and magic everywhere.
- Hogsmeade – A charming, lively village that’s fun to explore and next to the castle.
- The Open World – This was hit-or-miss for me. It has some interesting moments, but compared to Hogwarts, it feels less polished and emptier. It honestly felt like two different teams worked on these areas—the castle is bursting with life, while the open world feels weaker in quality. Most collectibles and side quests take place in the open world, which was fine, but I personally would’ve loved more focus on the castle itself.
That said, side missions were actually fun and never felt like a chore. The Forbidden Forest, while well-designed, didn’t feel as scary as I imagined it would be.
This game also has a ton of collectibles and optional content for 100% completion. Unfortunately, three of the achievements require replaying the game three times up to a certain point, which felt like a grind and should honestly be removed.
Spiders. Spiders everywhere. Every five minutes, the game throws you into another cave full of horrifying spiders. Thankfully, the devs included an Arachnophobia Mode for those who can’t handle them.
Combat
I’m absolutely in love with the combat. It’s even better on Hard difficulty, but Normal strikes a great balance between fun and challenge. Honestly, this game has ruined traditional mage/wizard combat for me nothing else feels as good after playing this. The spell combos, dodging, and enemy variety make every fight feel pretty dynamic.
Although opinions on this are mixed, I personally really vibed with it.
Story
The story was okay nothing special. It’s your typical "kill the bad guy to save the world" kind of plot. The side quests and relationship quests were way more engaging than the main story, and I actually found myself more invested in those.
❌ Cons
- Major Lighting Issues in Interior Areas :
(As of new update on January 30th 2025)
Many caves and rooms are blindingly bright, like a flashbang directly to the eyes—completely white screens that are painful to look at. If you have epilepsy, be careful. This is a weird bug since these areas are fully enclosed with no sunlight source, but the moment you step into certain spots, it’s like staring directly into the sun.
- Performance Issues :
I’m running this game on an RTX 4060 at 1440p, and while it looks great, it has some serious issues:
Texture Pop-in / Loading Issues – My biggest complaint. This is a well-known PC bug that happens even on the lowest settings. NPCs, grass, and objects suddenly pop into existence right in front of you, completely ruining immersion. What’s frustrating is that the game used to run way better at launch, but the last update (around six months ago) broke a lot of things, and they never fixed it.
Some examples of texture pop-in issues:
- NPCs suddenly appearing a few steps away when I turn the camera.
- Half-invisible cows in Hogsmeade.
- Grass abruptly loading every time the camera angle changes during a conversation or cutscene.
- Even opening the menu and returning to the game makes textures freak out.
>Edit : As of the new update on 30th January texture pop in issues is mostly fixed, its still here and there but nothing immersion breaking.
Ray Tracing is a Mess – Turning on RT causes micro-stutters and makes texture pop-in even worse. It’s simply not worth using in this game currently, it used to be way better before.
>Edit : As of the new update on 30th January, they added ray reconstruction, DLSS 4 to this game. RT performance is a bit better but its still a mess in open world areas.
Winter Season FPS Drops – For some reason, when it snows, my FPS gets cut in half. It’s a massive bummer because winter in Hogwarts should feel magical, but instead, it just lags. (I have not checked this in the new update)
- Low Replayability – While each house has an exclusive quest, replaying the whole game just for one extra mission isn’t very appealing. However, the upcoming PC modding update should help with this issue. I'm honestly depressed this game is over I want to experience it more :(
>Edit : New mod update did not help with this but there's rumours about them adding possible new story content to the game, nothing concrete tho.
If they ever fix these issues, this game would be so much more enjoyable.
Final Thoughts
I just want to thank the devs for creating such an amazing game. It was one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had. Despite its flaws, I still highly recommend it. This game is worth picking up at full price and even more so at a discount!