Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

 iOS
User Score
2.9

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 24 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 24
  3. Negative: 17 out of 24
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  1. Zentriefugal
    Jun 27, 2019
    0
    A sentence to put it in a nutshell: "One rancid wardrobe just does not match the charm of a Pikachu."
  2. MMBosch
    Jun 29, 2019
    3
    The Pokemon Go model of gameplay really does not work applied to the Wizarding World, it feels forced and unimaginative, and all of it is neatly wrapped in the Pay to Win model.
  3. SuddenRush
    Aug 17, 2019
    4
    The good:
    Like Pokemon GO, the game actually forces you to move and excersise to progress.
    The graphics are amazing. You can customize your profile picture, I find that pretty cool. Leveling up gives you DECENT rewards, and spells are also easier to cast once you reach a certain level. The interactive Portkey game, better than hatching one of Pokemon GO's eggs. The bad: Storages.    The good:
    Like Pokemon GO, the game actually forces you to move and excersise to progress.
    The graphics are amazing.
    You can customize your profile picture, I find that pretty cool.
    Leveling up gives you DECENT rewards, and spells are also easier to cast once you reach a certain level.
    The interactive Portkey game, better than hatching one of Pokemon GO's eggs.

    The bad:
    Storages. Items such as potions, ingredients, etc. have a certain storage, and once you progress, the storages fills up fast, leading you to discard ingredients, etc. Also, if you enter a portkey and gain an ingredient if you're storage is full, you'll have to pay gold coins to fill up your storage or miss out if you don't pay, which leads to the almost complete waste of a portkey that you tried so hard to open.
    Energy. Many Foundables require more than one Foundable to obtain, and even worse, equivilent to a pokemon running away, the Confoundable (the thing guarding the foundable) can disappear with the Foundable, leading to a complete waste of your energy with nothing to gain. Due to this, you run out of energy fast, and the only way to refill it is, of course, paying coins, or going to a Inn or greenhouse. If you live on a rural area, you are most likely screwed.
    Flawed gameplay mechanics: The mechanic of tracing a spell is amazing, but the rate to obtaining the foundable is just plain rigged. Even if you get the highest cast in the game "Masterful", you can still MISS even with the easy to catch Foundables, but at the same time you cast a "Fair" spell and obtain the Foundable. Also, less accurate traces can sometimes be interpreted as "accurate" by the game's AI, which is pretty flawed.
    The Pay to win factor. All the above qualities of this game leads to its unbelieveable pay to win mechanic. You literally run of of everything, most notably ingredients, fast, and the rate at which you gain coins isn't enough to prevent you from losing some of your stuff to clear storages. This alone feels like this game is intentionally trying to take my money.
    FYI, just because of these negative aspects doesn't necessarily make this game a "rip off copy" of Pokemon GO. Both were created by Niantic, and not many people said that Pokemon GO was a rip off copy of Ingress, a similar game to both of the above games and which came before Pokemon GO.

    Overall: Potentially great gameplay destroyed by pay to win mechanics.    … Expand
  4. dangyosabyss
    Jul 11, 2019
    1
    Theres no feeling of progression. It is mainly 'yay congrats! you did the thing! now you can up your stats to do the thing again!'. And it has a cashgrabbing predatory design from the get-go.
  5. crayne777
    Jul 5, 2019
    4
    As a long time fan of Pokemon Go and the Harry Potter franchise, i was really stoked on the release of Harry Potter Wizards Unite.
    However I’m quite disappointed tbh. There a lot of things that this game has in common with Pokemon Go
    positive stuff first: - You have to actually get OUT to play and unlock the full potential of the game. It won’t work if youre just sitting in your basement    As a long time fan of Pokemon Go and the Harry Potter franchise, i was really stoked on the release of Harry Potter Wizards Unite.
    However I’m quite disappointed tbh. There a lot of things that this game has in common with Pokemon Go
    positive stuff first:
    - You have to actually get OUT to play and unlock the full potential of the game. It won’t work if youre just sitting in your basement and hoping for stuff to happen.
    - it has a storyline. It was kind of overwhelming at some points because you happen to read more than actually play the game at some parts but thats okay with me.
    - daily quests to keep you motivated
    - the prestige system is pretty cool
    - an energy system that actually works out. I‘m probably getting hated because people like to cry over the energy system, but i think thats just the rural players (focus on that later) or people that missed the point of the game and stay at home. If you are out walking and playing you wont have an energy problem
    - brewing is really cool. If you need a certain potion, just make it.
    - skill system

    neutral:
    - greenhouse planting. First thought it was cool but became obsolete really quick. However this is a nice idea
    - spell mechanics are kinda okay i guess. Main problem with this is sometimes you make a perfect spell and it wont recognize it correctly and you just get a good spell. Other times you mess it up but the game manages to read it as a masterful spell
    - friend system and hogwarts houses dont have any use so far
    - wizarding challenges are a great thing (especially to level up) but level 5 challenges gets you 50 xp more than a level 1 challenge while being incredibly harder. And since you get about 250 xp for a level 1 challenge, 10xp per level is not worth it tossing out all of your energy for harder challenges
    negatives:
    - microtransactions. Honestly this game forces you to buy coins to fully enjoy the game. Upgrading bags costs 150-200 coins (you got like 5 bags or so) and they fill up really fast so you are constantly tossing stuff out. You only get 10 coins per day if you play actively. This means it takes you 2 weeks of gameplay to upgrade a single one of your bags by a mere 5-10 storage. This is ridiculous and a huge game killer!
    - you are bound to play in. If you are living in a rural space you have NO chance to play at all. Energy drains quite fast and if you dont have an inn nearby you are lost. All you can do is to collect ingredients and walk for port keys.
    - you are forced to use AR when using your port keys. This probably looks super dumb when other people are looking at you.
    Played this game for a week and lost motivation and went back to pokemon go. I might try it again in half a year and hope stuff changed for the better but until that i wont touch it anymore. Big bummer.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

33
#33 Best iOS Game of 2019
8
#8 Most Discussed iOS Game of 2019
2
#2 Most Shared iOS Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
64

Mixed or average reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 15
  3. Negative: 1 out of 15
  1. Destructoid
    Jul 19, 2019
    60
    Beyond that feeling of individuality, I'm just not sold on what Niantic has created here. There are small, annoying issues with storage, access to necessary potion ingredients, and the wild inconsistency of how well it rates my spell tracing, but the far bigger problem with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is its inability to utilize the IP and the technology in a way that is not only engaging but also distinct from Niantic's other games. I have no doubt in my mind there is a great Harry Potter AR game out there. This just isn't it.
    Read full review
  2. InsideGamer.nl
    Jul 19, 2019
    75
    You do not have to be a fan of Harry Potter to enjoy the game, as it is more important to be patient and open to sink into the wizarding world. Especially if you love collecting this is a fun game, though you have to guard yourself for not spending real-world money.
    Read full review
  3. Meristation
    Jul 4, 2019
    70
    Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will transport you to the Wizarding World without using brooms or Floo powder. There are room for things to improve but it is a good start, way better than the beginning of Pokemon go.
    Read full review
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