Harry Potter Wizards Unite First Look: Indian Players Should Wait

Is Wizards Unite, which brings the Harry Potter universe to mobile players, any good as as an AR game?

Wizards Unite brings the Harry Potter universe to mobile with augmented reality.

Photo: Harry Potter Wizards Unite gameplay

Niantic, the maker of the popular game Pokémon Go, has now shifted its focus to bringing the Harry Potter universe to smartphone users with Wizards Unite.

You become one of the Wizards in the middle of an event called "The Calamity" and you are sent on a mission with some guidance from other wizards and return of some familiar cast members. Harry’s voice has an eerie resemblance to the actor Daniel Radcliffe.

At first look, the game might remind you of the game Pokemon Go.(Photo: Wizards Unite screen grab)

The gameplay at first seems like another iteration of Pokémon Go, but it packs much more than that as you start exploring. You start to see people, creatures and objects that you must rescue.

You do this by first finding them through your AR camera and then following the instructions of how to free the creatures, which are also known as ‘foundables. These are added to your registry where you see a sticker of the creature or the person you rescued.

You will encounter creatures from the Harry Potter universe such as Buckbeak and the Giant.(Photo: Wizards Unite screen grab)

There is a weather update feature within the game which I found was a nice addition.     

The game has its own version of a weather update.(Photo: Wizards Unite screen grab)

Having said that, during my time testing out the game, the overall experience felt unstable for a game which works on location tracking. To me it didn’t feel optimised for Indian maps which lead to a lot of inaccuracy within the gameplay. It feels like a lot of the game experience is incomplete and you’re not able to fully explore all facets of the game.

Most of the times the location went to either the grass area or the avatar didn’t move at all.(Photo: Wizards Unite screen grab)

Another feature which I found interesting was that not only can you take pictures of the creature or character you rescue with your camera, you can also take selfies with them.

You can place Harry Potter characters like Hagrid in a real-world setting and take selfies with them. Photo: Screengrab

For Indian players looking forward to playing this game, we suggest waiting for an update which would make it better suited for India. Although the game does warn you to be cautious while playing, we would also further extend that caution to only try this in a safe environment, as sometimes you could find yourself in the middle of a busy street or in the river!