Harry Potter in an Ark'ish world

This game is a bit strange and takes some getting used to. There's a quite good tutorial quest giver at the start of each safe zone but there is a flaw. As you progress through the standard abilities learning it requires you to build a camp fire. In most games you build this in your inventory and then place it. In Citadel, you use a build menu by pressing B but it is not obvious at all!
That annoyance aside you venture out into the big wide world at level 1 or 2 and go into a level 1-12 area where you are chased across the lands by level 5 or 8 boars, wolves, bears, sprites... pretty much everything except Hares and Elk want to eat you.
So you set about building a base; at the low level harvesting takes forever but is pretty with the Extract Spell. You draw the materials out of the trees and rocks, getting not enough wood or stone so that it takes ages to build anything remotely big enough to get all the building benches inside. Of course, early doors your defending against the woodland creatures so you're not too worried about a roof, you probably can't afford it anyway.
This becomes a problem when you level to the point of flight and either use a potion or a Broomstick and you discover your base id somewhat accessible from the air.
The game is designed for PvP play. Personally, I would find that toxic in this game where base-building would become a logistical nightmare so I will talk about the game from the PvE perspective.

You can use up to four weapons and scroll between them. Each weapon can have two 'spells' added to them and each weapon type creates differing effects from the same spells so there are many combinations to be trialed. Three very important (non-attacking) spells that you should consider are:
1) Haste - This gives you a speed boost and makes traversing the lands or escaping trouble much simpler.
2) Extract - This is the harvesting spell. Add range at creation by adding Faery Dust
3) Pacify - Used to tame wild creatures to aid you.
You can tame almost anything, even quest creatures which is a flaw in the game. You need to knock their heath down without killing them; the lower their health the faster it is to tame them. Many creatures can then be equipped with a saddle for mounting and faster travel.

The game feels like it was meant to be played in groups, the healing other spells are far more efficient than the heal self spells for example and yet, some quest items are singular and require re-spawn for all the party members to complete. Resources re-spawn is relatively speedy though so it's not too much of an inconvenience.
Overall, the game is entertaining and challenging although I do not see it as something I will play long term, but then there are very few games that do that these days. It's fun and looks good although it appears to be difficult to make a good looking character.
The combinations of crafting options are staggering and the farming provides more resources than those found naturally, there simply is so much to do that is not combat, however as with most games, fighting is where most of your XP comes from.

If you're a fan of Magical or Wizarding combat; if you like the Harry Potter journey and want to wield those effects yourself, this game is entertaining.

Originally published on 6 January 2021.