Posted in: Games, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, Mobile Games, Niantic | Tagged: harry potter, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, hpwu, Niantic, Wizards Unite

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Prisoner Of The Vow Part 1 Review

The Prisoner of the Vow Brilliant Event Part One ends today in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Let's see what worked and what didn't work in this Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban-themed event.

What worked in this Harry Potter: Wizards Unite event

• The storyline: This time around, the narrative was tightly wound and sharp, with exciting twists and a surprising number of character moments. Harry is tasked with making an important and potentially deadly choice, and the imprisoned Gareth Greengrass shows intriguing character depth. We're getting a bit away from the plot regarding Ron's memories, which is good because that story started out compelling but is now a blatant way for Niantic to make the current surges of the Calamity make sense.
• The Registry: As always, the artwork was well-done.
• The Brilliant Dementor: Super creepy and initially a challenge to chase across the screen. A fun challenge, though… unlike what we're about to get into.

What didn't work in this Harry Potter: Wizards Unite event

• Insurmountable glitches: The glitches made certain aspects of this event nearly unplayable. Twice, I was booted from my Highest Chamber in the middle of a Wizarding Challenge. This wastes all of the Potions used in the battle, generates zero XP with the Challenge being incomplete, and has no "return to the battle" function like Pokémon GO does when you're booted from raids. This was the most frustrated I've been playing Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, which you'll notice is a trend this event.
• Truly Riddikulus tasks: There were not one, not two, but three tasks involving non-Brilliant Foundables. This time around, we were tasked with performing the Riddikulus spell to defeat Boggarts, which would have been fine in a small dose. However, the Bonus Assignment tasked players with returning 25 Foundables using the Riddikulus spell.
• Ineffective Tonic for Trace Detection: Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is not currently possible to play effectively from home and Niantic should not suggest that it is. For my reviews, I like to play both from home and out to compare the experiences. Out and about, it was still quite a task to find 25 Foundables guarded by Boggarts, but I was able to do so. At home, using Tonic for Trace Detection, I'd receive lowest one and highest four Foundables guarded by Boggarts per Tonic. Even with a ton of Tonic, though…
• Horrible return rates: I've never experienced Foundables that were so difficult to return, which became a major issue considering how many of them we had to do. I'd hit Masterful after Masterful, only to see the Trace depart.

Overall

While this event had an impactful storyline, the lack of care put into the game's functionality, spawn rate, and Assignments led to this being the most frustrating and least fun Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Brilliant Event I've played. It's well-known that the game is Niantic's red-headed stepchild (sorry, Weasleys), but it's events like this that make me wish they at least tried to hide it.

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