Harry Potter Wizards Unite Review

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite mobile game has by now managed to spread into every corner of the gaming world and the first reviews are slowly emerging online. Often dubbed as the ‘Pokémon Go of the Potterverse’, the game is naturally being compared to the previous AR sales explosion that took the world by storm three years ago. This comparison has somewhat managed to downgrade its initial sales success as Pokémon Go will forever cast a shadow in the mobile AR world, no doubt, but Wizards Unite does have its advantages and we shall explore them.

“It’s not the ‘Pokémon Go’ level of goodness.” This seems to be the central statement upon which most online critic sources have been building their entire opinion upon. And, this claim is primarily backed up by the sale’s figures comparison of both games in their initially wave after the release. While Pokémon Go earned almost $2M and had 7.5 million downloads within the first 24 hours after the release, Wizards Unite has 400 thousand downloads and has earned $300K so far. If you put it like that, the two cannot even compare.

Development

An extra reason to compare the two titles is that the same developer worked on both games, and that’s Niantic, Inc. However, half of the work was handled by WB Games San Francisco, famous for their Batman: Arkham and Mortal Kombat series.

But, why would HPWU compare to PGO? This title absolutely does what it was set off to do and the Wizards Unite doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. Instead, this is a game which offers a cool new way of enjoying the Harry Potter universe on your phone and the way the team blended it with AR just shows how much work and thought was put into the process. It also sports some cool new features and in some aspects, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is much better than any other AR game currently, and this is why…

Graphics

Having an AR game is tricky and somewhat redundant if your models and graphics rendering are not up to snuff, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite is the first game that has taken that extra step. If you see any online criticism for this game’s appearance saying that it is not satisfying, ignore it. It is beautiful and really advanced. Having an AR rendered like this only makes the experience more immersive. Some of the models seen are actually quite similar to the ones in the movies.

The Story

Unlike other AR games, which can’t seem to manage to mix storytelling and gameplay, Harry Potter is a natural source of immersion. It is safe to assume that most of the people who would be interested in playing Harry Potter Wizards Unite are the people who either read the books or have watched the movies. This means that the average Harry Potter Wizards Unite players come with a significant amount of pre-gained knowledge on the subject matter, which really helps them enjoy the game more.

The story is set separately from the main book/movie arc, and without specifically determining its timeline, it may very well happen while our favorite characters were still at school or immediately after. Instead Voldemort, the threat now comes in the form of a Global Magical Calamity that not only threatens to reveal the world of magic to muggles, but it’s a danger to all. This was the perfect way to immerse the story with Augmented Reality gameplay.

Gameplay

Firstly, the gameplay here is not as you might expect. Harry Potter Wizards Unite does feature all the delights any other AR game brings, but it brings so much more in terms of content and mechanics. The amount of personalization and customization enabled to the player is immense. You can choose your Hogwarts house, for starters, and you will get appropriate training, quests, rewards, and skills. Secondly, there is even new lore and new ways you can delve deeper into the Harry Potter universe.

After you create your own account and customize stuff, your GPS location gets you in the Potterverse and you are set to go. You explore your own reality through the lens of your phone, peeking into the Harry Potter universe as you go. You find items, creatures, and meet characters from the movies and books, with brilliant voice acting.

But, the best part about Wizards Unite is how it handled spell casting. Similarly like it is seen in the movies, spell casting is a tricky thing. It’s Leviosa, not Leviosaaa! Joking aside, the players need to wave their wand, i.e. draw on your screen, in the correct pattern, but the speed in which they do so is an important factor, while precision is also crucial. This really brings the feeling of truly practicing in the Hogwarts class.

Verdict

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite mobile game is exactly what you’d expect it to be – an awesome way of integrating augmented reality with the HP verse. It uses its lore and targeted audience to its advantage and brings a location-based delightful play with motifs from the universe. It is free-to-play, which only adds more points to it and so far it hasn’t disappointed.