Game is "Ok" at best i would put a little more than a 6 less than a 7 from a Wizarding World fan standpoint. At one side is everything a Harry Potter fan would want, at the Gamer side of things is a tad bit clunky. Combat is solid and it is (aparently) brutal, but as you get the stealth mechanics you often are opting to it because fighting 6+ enemies is kinda bad at higher dificulties, you dodge more than you "Protego" around and use OP Edurus Potion and finish it up to 20 secs, enemy shields are ridiculous at most as you need to use specific skills to break it as a "Bombarda" which blows stuff up does nothing. Exploration gets in a gameplay loop FAST, like really fast, but...Name one RPG open-world game that doesn't nowadays, the world is bland but that was to be expected as there is...Hogwarts...Hogsmead...Forbidden Forest...Land?...It's not like the Groundkeeper's home would be a big location at the first place, if you were expecting some incredible living world outside of Hogwarts you are a goddamn moron, hell Hogsmead is lively with it's inhabitants and it feels fine be thankful for the world having smaller villages with their own minor stories and not be a world filled with even more Merlin Trials.History is good, Side stories are fine, BUT (BIG BUT HERE) where are the options, I know Tom Riddle was polite with their teachers and all but why can't I be sacarstic with the student, mess with them...I don't need to Bully them (as it's a trend of every school in the world) but my choice of dialog is even worse that Cyberpunk 2077, I'm always polite even if i have a scar that covers half of my face, game devs needs to remeber to whom they are making these games for, as more and more ppl ask for various dialog options, i would be slightly greatful if i had the Fallout 4 options on this game (this kind of option is shit btw)Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a movie form 2001 and the deathly hallows 2011, ppl who love this universe are over 25 Y/O now with a few expections. This game is fine for a fan as stated above, but for someone that have only seen the Fantastic Beasts and where to find them and has a small curiosity about the universe created by J.K.Rowling, this game is a disaster in everyway.
Deep dive Gameplay/Exploration:
The game sells as an Open world game but it actually wants you to spend one and a half hour doing the main quest (and some assignments) so you could actually get in to the open world game, that happens because the broom mount takes that amount of time to get, and before that walking/running around the world is extremely slow, and that happens not only for the broom flight but for the various spells in-game, it takes way too long for you to have all spells that you need to solve Merlin Trials and some other exploration stuff that makes it frustrating and boring, most people look at a open world RPG and think about exploration and if it takes too long for you to actually start doing that without skipping something because you don't have that one tool to do that what you skipped it makes you feel bad about it and start rushing the main story which in a RPG does not feel great. BIG minus to the game is that you can explore the castle at night and no one cares about it (even tho a mission early in the game suggest otherwise)
Deep dive Combat:
Combat is fine, it is rewarding as a Batman Arkham series combat when you go without taking damage, but that's extremely rare, some times you dodge and the skill still hits you just because, the shields of the enemies are a way to make the combat more dinamic but just make it clunky and often feels like you have to use some "battle plants" to be able to not feel as you are hitting a wall, and the plants consumable are bad, the only one that has some use is the mandrake for it's ability to break those annoying shields, potions in this game are more than just OP, Edurus Potion with it's talent is just not balanced, Maxima + Focus Potion makes quick work of any enemy (even the last boss of the game on Hard) and you don't even need to invest on them. but that saying on Hard, what about Story dificulty? avoid that if you even want to play the game as it will slow time and breaking the flow of the game waiting for you to press either Circle or Triangle when an enemie attack you making you feel like a complete moron playing the game, but makes you be able to play only the story, aside from the assignments, of the game and have 0% fun with it and makes you wonder "why am I playing this and not watching on YouTube".
Deep dive Quests:
Good story, not gonna leave spoilers here, makes me want to rush the story after some point, cause it start a little too slow but gets on a high gear fast and makes you wonder what happens next, but the assignments break a litte this feeling and you easily drifts in to side quests, instead o doing a lot to talk about them let's say they are short stories that doesn't matter at all exemple: rescue a Mooncalf from a Random dude, do that and Urray you got some xp...Boring and stupid. Relationship quests are storylines that you relate to one specific character and i'm sorry to say that one was make for you to really care about it, when starting you may feel like it is a Loyalty misson from Mass Effect but it's a "let's make it right!" to one of the many problems that plague Hogwarts and their surroundings but the respectable adults do nothing about it that's the feeling that all of the side quests of the game, aside from one specific side quest where you get an unique business oportunity in Hogsmead.
Deep dive Gear:
Short one this topic, gear is important until you hit level 30, after that you get a good gear and upgrade it and you don't need to change it anymore as if you explored some bandit camps you will have the extra glyphs upgrades that will make the rest of the game trivial, all in all gear system of this game is shallow but it makes it easy for everyone to use and build around what they are most confortable with.
The Pros:
Hogwarts Castle is a marvel, you can spend hours just to memorise the layout of the castle so you have fun running around it, every fan of the Wizarding World will love just to be able to explore the castle and Hogsmead. Combat against limited amount of enemies is good and fun and the spells are fun to use on multiple instances.
The Cons
Limited choices of dialog makes the game more like a Visual novel than an actual RPG. It takes way too long to learn some spells. Side quests gated behind main quests. Gear system is weak for a RPG. Housing in this game is kinda pointless. Xp progression hits a wall that can be frustrating.
6.9 for a Fan of the Wizarding World (Like me)
4 at best for everyone else