Months after Niantic delayed the game in November, The mobile game developer has officially unveiled Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Its augmented reality (AR) title designed for the mobile platform.
The game is almost identical to Niantic’s previous mobile game, Pokemon Go. A location-based mobile game that reacts to how you and your character moves around a place in real life. However, instead of cute monsters, Wizards Unite focuses on interacting with creatures and characters of the universe, collaborative gameplay, and a side of narrative storytelling.
You also won’t be assigned to a team or any of the Hogwarts houses. Instead, you play as a new recruit of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force tasked with investigating and containing the Calamity that has befallen the wizarding world. Players get to choose from three classes – the Auror, the Magizoologist, and the Professor. Each class has its own speciality and excels in a different task.
The by-product of the Calamity is events and items known as “Foundables”. Foundables can be found around through the whole map, and as mentioned, the game mechanics function the same way as Pokemon GO. Instead of catching a pokemon, players will destroy or neutralize a Death Eater or Dementor. The spells used by players will cost Spell energy, which can be replenished by visiting Inns found around the map.
Players can also come across ingredients to brew potions, that in turn could assist in the player’s gameplay. The ingredients can be found on the map, varying by the environment, weather, and time of day, as well as in specially designated Greenhouses. Players could also visit Fortresses, where the game hosts real-time multiplayer challenges.
One interesting feature that Niantic is benching with Wizards Unite are Portkeys. Basically, It’s an in-game item that will transfer players to locations in the wizarding world in full 360-degree augmented reality.
Niantic and WB Games did not specify a launch date. Having said that, pre-registration is currently available on Google Play, but not for the iOS App Store. If you’re lucky, you might even be invited to the early access program to test the game.
(Source: Kotaku, Eurogamer, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite)
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