Many of today's adults have fond memories of the time when Harry Potter was just working his way up to become a legend, while they waited with blazing eyes for the next volumes to find out what would happen next. Years pass and many people still wonder when they will be visited by an owl who will bring a magical invitation to Hogwarts.
Whether the game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery could be such an invitation? The latest production allows the player to become a rookie who has just crossed the threshold of the most popular school in the world for the first time. Now we can start learning, learn how to control a broomstick, prepare potions and even gain knowledge on how to effectively fight against black magic. However, people who are convinced that will now accompany a certain boy with a scar are mistaken. Yes, we can meet a number of characters known from the next pages of the novel, but our story will be unique. In fact, we cannot complain that it will not intrigue us. After all, it is difficult to count on peaceful learning if we know that our brother was accused of favouring Death Eaters, and then disappeared in unexplained circumstances.
A few years spent on books is to improve our skills, but during the game we also have to find out what happened to a close relative. And here comes the first problem. Although the game occasionally checks how carefully we listen to our interlocutors, it's hard not to get the impression that dialogues are generated regardless of what decisions we make. Determining which genre this game belongs to is no easy task. It may seem that we are dealing with an RPG, but it often turns into a puzzle game, and even - arcade. Already during the game we can move from one location to another. This allows us not only to learn new classes, but also to chat with friends.
Casting spells is not easy, so you have to reckon with the fact that without diligent learning we won't make spectacular progress at all. Unfortunately, learning itself is a repetitive process, not very creative, and from a certain point on - just plain boring. And here we come to the most serious problem, because after only a few minutes of playing we can get to know the true face of the game, which interested us. The whole is based on the energy system, which can be increased really effectively only through micropayments. As if that wasn't enough, some tasks can't be described otherwise than as completely pointless. Sometimes we just have to stare at the students on the bench next to us for a while. There is also no logical continuity of any kind, which only adds to the frustration. The energy system is extremely tiring not only because it condemns us to perform dozens of meaningless tasks. It's also important that very often their execution is brutally interrupted, because ... we run out of time. There is also no way to keep the progress we have made so far. If we fail, the task will have to be repeated in its entirety.
