KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Yesterday, I worried about normal things. Did I call my parents? Should I put away the stack of clothes that's been on my floor for a month? Is my cat looking at me or actively plotting against me?
That was before the release of 'Harry Potter: Wizards Unite'. Now I care only about this centaur who I battled in front of a local Pottery Barn.
The long-anticipated app 'Harry Potter: Wizards Unite' was crafted by the same company responsible for the 'Pokemon Go' craze that hit a few years back. The hype around this next Niantic creation has garnered similar excitement.
Honestly, if you didn't get chills when that woman says 'calling all wizards' well, your Uber is here and I think you should leave.
It rolled out yesterday unexpectedly and so today, my bosses let me go full Weasley twins and ditch work to see what this cool app is all about.
Plot twist: I'm likely to never return and my social life is already a thing of the past.
Here's what to know about the game:
The story takes place after 'The Battle of Hogwarts', but of course the whole wizarding world is in trouble. Again.
When I open the app, I'm greeted by Constance Pickering, a witch who gives off big Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff hatstall energy and helps guide you through the beginning of the game.
Set in the present day, 'Wizards Unite' sees the Wizarding World face a post-Voldemort crisis which threatens to expose the entire magical world to Muggles. Umbridge would vomit.
In this event, called 'The Calamity', according to my pal Constance, "everything that anyone ever feared, revered, or held dear in the wizarding world has been stolen and displaced. Tossed across the world."
Your task, confirms Mr. Harry James Potter himself (who has aged finer than a Hogs Head spiced mead might I add), is for you to recover these traces of magic and return them to the wizarding world! That could mean finding Horcruxy type artifacts, rescuing your favorite characters, encountering some fantastical beasts, or even dueling some serious foes in the process!
All that pressure on our weak Muggle backs, and we haven't even studied for our OWLs.
Gameplay is magical, intuitive, and lets you fully reimagine yourself within the Harry Potter universe.
You aren't just going around town finding things. I made it to Level 4 and was shocked to find myself gripped in a fight for my life with a Common Death Eater that soon.
I didn't fare too well.
Rumour has it that on the higher levels, you get sorted and even choose a profession. Niantic has replicated the exploratory adventure qualities of Pokemon Go and applied them here to great effect.
But don't worry about studying up on gameplay so much. If you just take time to explore and hit every 'Foundable' you can, Harry Potter, and a slew of other characters are there to guide you through the journey!
For Harry Potter fans, a lot of the elements in the game will feel familiar. But there are a few new terms to know as well.
Foundables - These are the things you actually find and help you level up. These are the "traces of magic" you are capturing and delivering back to the wizarding world! You have to explore to find them, and then catch them with your "wand" a.k.a. finger once you do. During my time playing the game, I was delighted to find several magical creatures and artifacts I already knew like this little baby hippogriff!
Inns and Greenhouses - This is where you get your energy and refuel for battle. Greenhouses give you special ingredients to make potions, inns offer up actual fuel for energy. Once you fuel up though, you have to wait five minutes to get more fuel so make sure you use your time wisely!
Fortresses - This is the place where you do battle with other characters and earn points! From what I experienced, these battles are more intense than ones you have with 'Foundables'. You combat for multiple rounds.
Combat - This is where things get super fun. Even though I didn't make it to the higher levels, I've already battled Pixies, and sent them back to the magical world! It's pretty addicting but watch this battle I had with an acrumantula....you have to make sure your spells and targets are pretty exact!
Professions - If you've ever spent hours pouring over Tumblr trying to figure out what job you would've had in the wizarding world, fret no longer. You're given three options here; Auror, professor, magical creature caretaker.
You can also customize yourself at a certain point, but again I haven't got that far!
So, where is the best place to play in Knoxville?
Much like Pokemon Go, public places like parks, historical sites, and even places of business are now a hotbed of magical activity. I originally hit up Cumberland Avenue on campus, but could never get the app to load long enough to play.
This game has reportedly been loading slowly for a lot of players and there wasn't free WiFi available. But I got a tip from an avid Pokemon-goer that malls in the area are the perfect place to play. And she wasn't wrong. The mall I went to was a hotbed of magical activity and that's where I leveled up twice in like thirty minutes or so.
For comparison, this is the level of activity on Cumberland Avenue....
And this is the level of activity you can expect at a local mall...
Especially if you don't have a car, playing at a mall or another place with a lot of high traffic is ideal. And I certainly didn't mind swinging by the food court and collecting some Foundables while snacking on Taco Bell. The cheese quesadilla was great, by the way.
The big takeaway here after an entire afternoon spent at the mall playing this new game is that I honestly had an incredible time. Especially if you're already a Harry Potter fan, it's great to be able to battle different characters in my own backyard.
And, so you fully comprehend why both my actual career and social life will absolutely suffer because of this, here's an example of uninterrupted gameplay! Happy hexing!
