11 Jul, 2023
Harry Potter: Magic Awakened
Harry Potter: Magic Awakened is a 3D adventure RPG with card-based real-time PvE battles, ranked PvP, a large campaign, and even open-world broomstick flying.We start as a first-year Hogwarts student and then gradually progress to the second year while exploring the open-world school, solving mysteries, and fighting monsters.
The story takes place after the last book and features lots of hints and references to the original story and characters. We often even get to reenact scenes and battles from the books.
During combat, we use a deck of 11 cards to defeat our opponent. When we play a card, it spawns a unit or triggers a spell at the spot we aimed it on the playing field. Meanwhile, the opponent does the same, and the last man standing wins.
What sets the combat apart, however, is that we can also freely move our character around to avoid incoming attacks. This makes the combat highly engaging and – at times – somewhat chaotic.
There’s a total of 75 cards to collect and level up, most of which are gathered through loot boxes that we get some free keys for every day. Thankfully, the 1v1 and 2v2 PvP modes use a tiered ranking system, with each tier capping the max card level.
So overall, the game is a mix of playing PvP matches and completing the story-based PvE campaign while exploring Hogwarts. We can even fly around outside on our broom, and there are several mini-games along the way.
The biggest downside is that the game glitches and freezes. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s definitely frustrating.
Harry Potter: Magic Awakened monetizes via iAPs for more cards. The monetization isn’t horrible, but I’m sure it’ll get worse over the years – so I recommend staying away from the competitive ranks. But as a casual experience, it’s great fun.
If you’re a Harry Potter fan that likes CCGs and RPGs, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this one – at least until the monetization likely kicks in in the future.
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