A journey to Hogwarts has always been the dream of all Harry Potter fans, which was finally fulfilled in a sense with the release of Hogwarts Legacy almost two years back. Hogwarts Legacy recreated the magical experience of the Wizarding World in simple video game mechanics, drawing in players who have never even played video games before. But even with all the accolades and highly lore-accurate details showcased in Hogwarts Legacy, the game still missed a core element of the Wizarding World. What was it? In one word: Quidditch.
However, after what seems like an eternity, Harry Potter Quidditch Champions has finally filled the void in the hearts of all Harry Potter fans who desired to not only fly on their brooms but compete in the most famous wizarding sport. Harry Potter Quidditch Champions does a brilliant job of implementing the core fundamentals of Quidditch with very intuitive and simple controls. As a massive Potterhead, I decided to take the game for a fly. Here is my full review of Harry Potter Quidditch Champions to help you decide if the journey back is worth it or not.
Lore Accurate Quidditch in a Simple and Intuitive Way
Quidditch was always considered to be the hardest element to recreate in a Harry Potter game, which is also the reason I was looking forward to it. There seem to be a hundred different things that can go wrong while trying to recreate Quidditch as a multiplayer, but none of those issues affect Harry Potter Quidditch Champions.
The game is very simple to play and highly intuitive for new players. It is very lore-accurate, only making a couple of necessary changes, which makes the experience truly wonderful for avid readers of the Harry Potter series like myself.
The controls boil down to only a few keys, with the movement strictly having forward, backward, and boost keys. The direction of the movement is set by the mouse, which works both for ascent and descent, making flying on the broom feel very intuitive and simple. Other than that, there are keys to focus on the Quaffle or the Snitch, based on whether you are a chaser or a seeker in the game.
Yes, the game also follows the traditional roles of Quidditch players, breaking the game into 4 key positions — Chaser, Beater, Keeper, and Seeker.
- Chasers: There are three chasers in every team and they are responsible for carrying the Quaffle and scoring in the opponent’s goal post. Each score gives 10 points and the match is won after one side crosses 100 points. They can pass around the Quaffle, shoot at the goal, stun other players, or intercept the Quaffle.
- Keeper: Every team has one Keeper is stays near the goalpost and defends it. The Keeper is a bit trickier to play in the game, but I found it easier than controlling a goalkeeper in games like Fifa or PES. The Keeper also can create plays by creating boost circles that other on-field characters
- Beater: The beater is one of the fun roles in the game as you get to beat opponents, even knocking them out of the match for a couple of vital seconds, using tackles or shooting Bludgers. However, they cannot score points or pass the Quaffle.
- Seeker: The Seeker’s main role is to search for the snitch and grab it. After the Snitch is released in the game, both the Seekers will pursue the Snitch and build up progress. The team that gets the Snitch will only receive 30 points, unlike the stories where the team would directly win the game.
Each of the team’s roles is quite fleshed out and fun to play, including the Keeper. Now, the main gameplay of Harry Potter Quidditch Champions is separated into Multiplayer and Campaign. Your team will have six characters, each having a different role.
As you play through the campaign or multiplayer, you will unlock Skill points and other currencies. The skill points can be used to upgrade individual characters of your team, and the currencies can be used to buy better broomsticks and many different cosmetic items.
Main Campaign=Extended Tutorial
The main campaign of the Harry Potter Quidditch Champions is simply a series of tournaments you can play with other NPCs. In this game mode, you will be able to swap all the different roles in the team and play.
There are four tournaments available at the game’s launch — The Weasley Burrow Garden Cup, the Hogwarts House Quidditch Cup, the Triwizard Schools Quidditch Cup, and the Quidditch World Cup.
The best part about this tournament is that you get to play against known Harry Potter characters, like Draco Malfoy, Fleur Delacour, or Cho Chang. But other than fan service, you are basically having a tournament with limited teams, making it kind of a chore after some time. Consider the main campaign as more of an extended tutorial than anything else.
There is also an Exhibition mode, where you can play Solo or Co-Op matches against bots from any team you choose, but’s basically the same as the campaign.
Multiplayer: The Heart of Quidditch
The multiplayer mode is where the game truly shines. At launch, the game only has 3v3 mode, which means players will have to take on two different roles in each team — Chaser/Keeper, Chaser/Beater, and Chaser/Seeker. The gameplay is fairly the same as the campaign, but here teamwork becomes more important and strategies become highly prevalent.
Every player must do their job properly to win and many of the matches can get really close. Thankfully, it does not have a Rank system yet so most players are not sweating so far and simply trying to have fun.
Completely Free of Microtransactions
One of the best parts about Harry Potter Quidditch Champions is that it has no microtransactions at launch, and hopefully, it stays that way. The game’s format with multiple currencies, Battle Passes, and other similar elements screams microtransactions. Surprisingly it has none. Everything available in the game can be only unlocked by playing through the core game.
Unlock and upgrade your Nimbus 2000 and Firebolt brooms by simply playing the game!
From cosmetics, progressing battle passes, getting upgrades, and buying new brooms, all of it is available through in-game currency. The in-game currencies can only be received by playing the game and cannot be purchased with real-life money. This kind of helps to take away criticism for the game’s relatively high price.
Connectivity Can Be an Issue
Harry Potter Quidditch Champions excels at what it set out to be, creating a working and simple Quidditch multiplayer sports game. However, a major flaw of the game is that it is completely online, including the campaign and the exhibition game modes. You cannot run the game in the offline mode, which is a massive bummer for players with bad internet connection.
Even with slight internet fluctuations the game gets disconnected, which happened multiple times on my end while reviewing. This includes while playing through the campaign, which I feel should have an offline mode. The worst part about it is that you lose complete progress of the match even in offline mode when the game disconnects.
Other than that, the game is fairly expensive at $29.99 on Steam for the amount of content it provides. But the fact that it has no microtransactions in-game, unlike many of the popular multiplayer sports games like Fifa, makes the price a bit more tolerable.
Graphics and Performance
Now, let’s talk a bit about the performance of the game. For me, the game ran butter smooth staying 80-90 FPS at the highest graphics on 1080p, while my GPU stayed at 62% and CPU around 30%. The game has an FPS setting that goes up to 320 FPS, although I didn’t see much difference between locking the game at 60 FPS and playing it at 90 FPS.
Test Setup
CPU: Intel i3 8th Gen
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4060
RAM: 16×2 DDR4 RAM@2400MHz
SSD: WD SN570 500GB
Monitor: 1080p@144Hz
Overall, the game should be running smoothly even on lower-end devices, as long as they meet its requirements. The graphics of the game are cartoonish but not unpleasant. I did notice a couple of visual bugs here and there but they won’t break the overall immersion of the game for most players.
Verdict: A Broom Worth Flying
So, should you buy Harry Potter Quidditch Champions or not? As someone who grew up reading and watching Harry Potter, this game perfectly fills the space Hogwarts Legacy left behind for me. I found myself being absolutely addicted and whittling away hours upon hours flying on my Nimbus 2000. I can assure you that most Harry Potter fans won’t be disappointed by getting this game.
However, the game lacks a fair bit of content at the launch, with only a 3v3 option for Multiplayer. I am expecting them to add more game modes shortly, whether a 5v5, 1v1, or even multiplayer tournaments. The base game is quite solid and it can become a lot bigger in the future, as long as the game continues to retain players.
That being said, what do you think about Quidditch Champions? Let us know in the comments below!
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