Your Hogwarts Experience

By: Robyn Landolfi, senior reporter

Harry Potter fans, your Hogwarts letter is here. The long-anticipated Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery Game has arrived. The game was co-created by Jam City and Portkey Games for both Android and IOS devices.

Hogwarts Mystery is a role-playing video game in which the player gets to create their own character plus experience life as a Hogwarts student. The game is set between the birth of Harry Potter and Harry’s arrival at Hogwarts.

There are some game features that are included beyond creating your own character. You can attend classes up until your seventh year, where you learn spells and create potions. Also, you can choose your own house and build many friendships in the game with characters like Rowan Khanna, Ben Copper, Penny Haywood and Bill Weasley. Finally, you can battle rivals and embark on quests.

One very important factor of the game that players must take into account is that their choices affect the narrative of the story. The player gains different levels of courage, empathy and knowledge by choices in the game. Higher levels of a particular attribute allows the player to choose different dialogue options in game, including being able to change the interactions of other students and staff. Your actions also affect the number of house points you can gain and lose throughout the duration of the game.

The most problematic thing to do in the game is gaining the energy you need to complete the main adventure, as well as the side quests. Energy can be gained by finding them hidden in the game, buying diamonds (with real money), or waiting four minutes for one unit to reload. This causes problems for game play, since tasks and lessons use energy to gain the stars you need to complete the tasks in the game.

“The Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery game is a really interactive game. I think it should be fixed a little bit, so that you don’t have to wait a long time to play after running out of energy. Other than that I believe that it is a well produced game.” said, senior Julia Maldonado.

“It’s a really fun game and it allows me to feel as though I am actually at Hogwarts.” said senior, Ivana Pitino.

Despite the difficulties, personally I find the game extremely engaging and interactive, making the gameplay more interesting. The fact that Harry Potter fans finally have the opportunity to see what it is like to attend Hogwarts is both exciting and a fan’s dream come true.