Platform: iOS
Developer: Jam City
Publisher: Jam City / Warner Bros. / Portkey Games
Release Date: April 25th, 2018
Genre: Role-Playing
Nerd Rating: 2.5 out of 10
Reviewed by Kikopaff
The thought of entering your very own Harry Potter RPG adventure is an exciting dream that many fans have. In fact, it’s so exciting that a recent video leak has emerged of what appears to be an upcoming Harry Potter game. So when I saw Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery available as a free-to-play app (the first of its kind) in the iOS store, I squealed a little too loudly. However, upon installing it and experiencing grindy hours of tapping and waiting, Hogwarts Mystery feels less like magic coming alive, and more like a part-time job that barely squeezes out enjoyment. It squeezes the bread out of your pocket instead, and serves as an ongoing disappointment into the world of many free-to-play game apps we’re so familiar with today, and the exploit of microtransactions.
Your letter from Dumbledore arrives as he welcomes you into Hogwarts, and you’re quickly whisked into Diagon Alley, where your magical journey begins. Your books are bought, your wand has chosen you, and you aboard the Hogwarts Express anticipating all the friends you’ll make, the spells you’ll learn, and the thrill of becoming the best witch/wizard in your grade. But the magic quickly fades the moment you wear the Sorting Hat, as you discover that the experience is zero sorting, and just choosing which House you want to be in. With countless quizzes online and even an official Pottermore quiz that sorts you into the right House, Hogwarts Mystery quickly robbed me of an experience that I felt should’ve been the bare minimum. Disappointingly, this will be the tone for the rest of your gameplay experience.
The storyline itself is mediocre at best, with the timeline being set seven years before Harry begins his Hogwarts journey. It is refreshing to take a break from the trope of “The Chosen One” arc, but none of the other characters around you adds any unique experiences. Even your own personal Draco Malfoy is just as petty, malicious and moody and feels like a copy and paste into the game. As you interact with your fellow peers, you begin to learn the backstory of your character which involves your older brother Jacob, who was previously expelled from Hogwarts and is in search of The Cursed Vaults. Throughout your gameplay, there are instances where you and your newly made friend will attempt to uncover the mystery behind your brother and how this leads back to you, but none of it feels exciting enough for you to really care, or even remember without prompts in the story progression. The storyline spans across seven years in your Hogwarts journey, but disappointingly (and almost expectedly at the low quality of the game) every year plays out almost the same way.
The majority of your gameplay, you spend time doing very little but very much the same things. You tap repeatedly on objects and people, draw simple patterns on the screen, play rock-paper-scissors and participate in dull dialogue and mini quizzes. No matter what class you’re taking, whether it be Herbology or learning to ride your broomstick, every part of your Hogwarts Mystery experience is a monotonous chore. None of the gameplay mechanics requires any brain use, and there never seems to be any meaningful choices throughout your time in Hogwarts. At least, not meaningful enough to really drastically change the tone of the storyline.
A massive part of your gameplay experience involves spending energy, and this begins from the moment a Devil’s Snare is strangling you in a small, locked closet. This part of the story chapter deliberately forces you to spend all of your energy and you’re left with two choices: wait several hours for your energy bar to fill up (and risk redoing this part of the story, as there is a timer included) or pay gems to refill the bar now and save yourself. It’s the beginning of the shameless exploitation of microtransactions throughout Hogwarts Mystery, and quickly lets you realise that nothing you do in this game is free. You have three in-game currencies to spend. The first is gold, probably the easiest currency to gain as you earn plenty from simply participating in the mind-numbing activities laid before you. It’s the next two that are the wallet eaters to watch out for, energy and gems.
Progressing throughout the game involves spending energy. When you run out of energy, it can take literally hours before the bar is full, and if you want the detailed maths then it’s 1 energy every 4 minutes. But if waiting 8 hours is too long (literally), you can use gems to fill your energy bar instantly. Gems can be earned throughout your gameplay, but this occurs very rarely and Hogwarts Mystery essentially finds ways to force you to use real money for pink, pointless gems. If you’re someone like me who is patient towards these money-making tropes in gameplay, you’ll endure the hours of waiting. But that’s what makes Hogwarts Mystery feel more like a chore than an actual game. My experience involved waiting for the notification to let me know that my energy bar is full and quickly tap my screen again, until either the class is finished or to beat the timer. It really surprises me that Hogwarts Mystery has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars in the iOS store, and leaves me thinking longer about the traps of microtransactions.
As a role-playing game, you have different attributes of your character to level up, but again, none of what you’re racking up in XP ever feels important. Attributes range from courage, empathy and knowledge, and these sound fairly interesting until you realise that the only thing they change is your dialogue options and upgrading your wardrobe. Even if you acquired the appropriate level of attributes, the extra dialogue options don’t add any excitement or paths in the storyline, so it really doesn’t matter. Your wardrobe is a waste of time, as for the majority of your gameplay you are wearing your House robes anyway, so the striped yellow shirt and jeans I bought barely see any game time. There are also different pets you can purchase, which is basically impossible if you’re hoping to only spend your gold as pets cost either gems or again, real money.
Game events are frequently added such as a recent Halloween event, where you help Dumbledore decorate the Great Hall with quirky Halloween ornaments. But guess what? Decorating requires energy! There’s also another event where you partner with players online to earn House Points by attending class and getting perfect performances. You guessed it – you can’t perform well in class without spending energy! At this point, Hogwarts Mystery is like a broken record player that screams, “Pay more!” until you pass out from negative funds and sheer boredom.
Hogwarts Mystery is disappointing, because of its wasted potential. Harry Potter is a cult fandom, a world rich with stories, characters and attributes to explore, and Jam City tried to replicate such a fantastic world. It certainly looks like a Harry Potter game in the way it uses colour, iconic locations and symbols in its graphics and settings, but even then, Hogwarts Mystery also looks like a recycled version of The Sims with costumes thrown on top, repetitive animations, and awkward facial expressions. The storyline and dialogue are shallow and poorly utilises dull, mediocre gameplay mechanics – if not any. The microtransactions throughout Hogwarts Mystery is one of the most shameless exploits I’ve seen, and I’m certainly uninstalling this to save space for more games that deserve my time. Solitaire sounds more exciting. For more iOS and Android games, check out our first look at Command and Conquer: Rivals or our iOS review for Warhammer Quest.
Written by Kikopaff
Kikopaff is an avid fan of comics, slurps many bowls of ramen, and lives in the Land Down Under. When she’s not writing about video games, she is playing Sid Meier’s Civilization VI or buried in a Terry Pratchett book. She also loves cooking up a storm in her kitchen.
