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Niantic, developer of Pokemon Go, has revealed more information about his upcoming AR game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, after a trailer late last year. Co-developed by WB Games under the Portkey Games label, Wizards Unite takes the foundation of Pokemon Go to create a magical world. But when Pokemon Go is primarily about collecting, Wizards Unite attaches itself to immerse you in its world, from story to voice to trees of skills similar to those of an RPG.
We recently went to the Niantic office in San Francisco to learn more about Wizards Unite, which included a hands-on demonstration of the game. The Pokemon Go parallels are in the front and center; Instead of PokeStops, for example, Wizards Unite has greenhouses and inns where you can get various items. The map works the same way, but to fit the theme, tortuous buildings dot the map as owls fly overhead. It also includes some of the quality of life features that Pokemon Go has acquired over time: AR Plus, a photo mode and at least the promise of better battery life optimization.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite – Trailer
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Because it's Harry Potter, however, there's a heavy story behind it all, and that's where the differences begin. Wizards Unite takes place nowadays, many years after the events of the Deathly Hallows, and focuses on a "calamity" that has put the wizarding world in jeopardy. In short, everything that is important to the wizarding world has been dispersed and, according to the International Statute of Secrecy, a law designed to protect the muggle wizarding world, you are recruited into the Working Group on the Status of Secrecy for keep the secrets of magic contained.
In practice, this means going out and finding traces of magic to contain them. In real Harry Potter, they have cute names: Foundables are scattered objects, and Confoundables are what traps a Foundable and puts him in danger. You tap the tracks as you would with a Pokémon and enter a meeting with optional AR; we saw Harry Potter (the Fondable) being targeted by a dementor (the Confoundable), Harry's Nimbus trapped in the ice and Buckbeak the hippogriff chained, for example. To free them, you must draw a glyph on the screen to cast the appropriate spell.
Spells also come into play in combat, which really distinguishes Wizards Unite from Pokemon Go. The fight is not complicated, but it is involved. Attacks are based on turns but on timers, so you must trace your offensive or defensive spells quickly and accurately to do as much damage as possible and keep you healthy. You can find traces around the world that lead to these fights, but there are also dungeon-like "fortresses" where groups of up to five can face more difficult challenges in combat against all sorts of wizards blacks or creatures for various rewards the rewards are not yet engraved in stone).
Spells and fights only touch the surface. In many ways, Wizards Unite looks more like a typical RPG than Pokemon Go. You make potions using ingredients that you find while walking, which vary by location, weather, weather, and weather. time of day and even lunar phase. You listen to characters interpreted by voice, whether new or existing, although those that exist are expressed in a bold manner, give you details about the story and tips. You collect parts of a much larger and long-term story while you play. You change profession, such as Auror or Professor, and progress through the long skill tree of each to improve your ability to cast spells. You place Portkeys so you can move wherever you are in a magical world for a short period of time, using AR features to display places like 360-degree Ollivanders.
Everything that happens in Wizards Unite is overwhelming to write on paper, but in practice it was not that hard to follow. In the short demo we played, we managed to see everything. For Harry Potter fans, at least, it's not very hard to understand what's going on, despite everything that's going on. But if that makes Wizards Unite the type of game you open every time you walk somewhere (to the point of walking further to play), remains to be seen.
Harry Potter: Unite Wizards will be launched later in 2019. Pre-registration is now available for some.