Harry Potter: Magic Awakened - How Is It?

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened - How Is It?

We’ve been looking forward to this game for a long while now, just look at some of our past articles to get an idea of how long we’ve been waiting. Now that it’s out, we have been playing it for about a week now, we are enthralled with the magical experience that is playing this game. It is good fun and just like the Harry Potter books, it succeeds at teleporting you into a magical world of wonders and excitement. The last time we were this taken up with a game, letting it consume as much of our free time as possible was when Marvel Snap first came out. Don’t worry, we haven’t stopped playing PUBG or COD: Mobile. We’re just spreading our free time out more, and sleeping a lot less.

 

First Impressions

 

The game is big. Right off the bat, you’re going to be gobstruck by how big the game is. It’s an open-world map with many zones and while the biggest zone, the outside of Hogwarts isn’t as big as say a PUBG map, it doesn’t have to be. While the other zones are smaller, there sure are a lot of them, and each zone, even the small ones has something going on. This brings us to the next point of how big the game is.

There’s so much to do.

 

Seriously, this may be a card-collecting and dueling game like Marvel Snap or Magic The Gathering, but there are so many other mini-games sprinkled about in the game that you’ll be hard-pressed to get bored with the game quickly. Outside of a few of them, you’re not forced to try any of the mini-games either. You’re encouraged to explore the castle and the different locations on your own through daily, weekly, and monthly missions.

 

Incredibly Immersive Gaming Experience

Immersion is a difficult thing to pull off in a game, more so in a mobile game, but Harry Potter has nailed it and that is the biggest reason why we keep picking our phones back up to play some more. This game makes you feel like you’re a wizard or witch at Hogwarts learning about the wizarding world. How did they do it though? It looks like they did it by taking a gamble. They made the game massively more than just a card collecting and dueling game with the addition of all of the mini-games. Each of your “classes” at Hogwarts is a kind of mini-game, some are rhythm games, some are quiz games, matching games, and more. Individually, none of these mini-games would hold our interest, but having all of them and having our success at them benefit our card collecting helps you feel like a wizard or witch learning more about magic and getting better.

 

Something we see more and more in mobile games like Honkai: Star Rail, is how the main storyline is voice acted and this is true in Harry Potter Magic Awakening as well. The voice acting is generally top notch with the story itself being engaging and interesting. 

 

At first, the art style wasn’t our thing, but after a while, it’s grown on us. It harkens back to the unique cover and chapter art from the Harry Potter books. Now when we turn the game on for a quick duel or daily mission, it helps to pull us into the immersion of the game.

 

Some of the Best Cards in the Deck

Seeing as the game just came out, it’s quite hard to tell what many of the summons and spells that can be collected throughout the game do. There are 75 cards in total and they can either be a spell, a summon, or a companion. The ones we’ve encountered so far are pretty interesting and it’s exciting to ponder what else awaits us on our journey. 

 

Our list of the best cards to have in your deck includes the Phoenix, the Thunderstorm, and the Orb of Water which Dumbledore used in his battle against Voldemort. The best (or worst) spell by far is the Avada Kedavra which increases in power every time it is used and becomes fatal after the fifth hit. Another sick card is the Hermione Granger companion card, which uses the character’s incredible knowledge of spells to mimic any attack an opponent may throw at you. Whether you want to keep the gameplay strictly on mobile or decide to switch to the screen of your REDMAGIC Gaming Monitor, you’ll have no trouble keeping up with the deck of cards that constantly refreshes as you play so you’re always in the loop about which spell you can throw next.

Interestingly, we’ve found that playing with only strong cards comes with a few disadvantages, and it appears that the aim is to find a balance between the strong and the weak to better reflect the theme of community that’s present throughout the whole game and the Harry Potter franchise.

 

Experience the Magic

 

The graphics, reminiscent of a book rather than a video game, draw you deeper into a wizarding world, which is something that stuck out on the notch-less display of the REDMAGIC 8 Pro. This is an interactive game that delivers rewards beyond the duels, and the idea that you can score rare collectibles by simply venturing further into the game is worth spending a few extra minutes on.