I am never touching this game, not because of the controversy surrounding it, but simply because I watched a friend play through most of it and it looks like one of the most bland, soulless and casualized open-world "RPG" experiences since fucking Skyrim and I know it'll be a waste of money and I'll hate it.

Slap one of the biggest names in fiction on something like Skyrim and it's just guaranteed to be a hit with the most casual, entry level gamers so no wonder it's selling like crazy, this wasn't made for people who actually enjoy gaming. It exudes nearly every trope in modern gaming that is simply popular because people who have never played a game before in their lives eat that shit up, bland open world, checklist collectathon, MMO elements like glam and gear level, the most barebone RPG elements "choices matter!", ffs you don't even get experience for fighting enemies, just from completing "challenges" Excuse me for coming across as a gatekeeper, but this is WHY RPGs weren't meant to be made for everyone. RPGs have always been meant for the most hardcore fantasy nerds since the earliest days of D&D so making it appeal to the casual market might make a best selling game due to appealing to more people, but it will also alienate your core demographic and make the final product just come off as corporate and soulless.

Also if that isn't bad enough the combat in this game is just as shallow as everything else, no matter what spells you use or what enemy you fight every encounter ends up feeling the same, there's no depth at all and you will get insanely bored of it because it just becomes repetitive after the initial awe wears off.

Legit the only redeeming quality of the game is that it captures the lore and setting of the Wizarding World™ very well and I'm sure for hardcore HP fans who aren't big gamers that'll be enough for them to think the game is amazing, but for the rest of us? There's really just nothing here you haven't seen done before over the past decade of gaming.