Winter Break at Hogwarts

This game lovingly recreates Hogwarts, with dozens or possibly hundreds of rooms, down to sub-corridors.

In this huge world, everything Hogwarts has in the holidays is implemented: Hagrid's hut, the owlery, Dumbledore's office, all of the classrooms, the dungeon, Filch's office, Hogsmeade, etc.

In this vast and sometimes overwhelming maze (for which lavishly illustrated maps are available), there is a mystery afoot. After a longish introduction where you explore and look for your wand, you discover a missing student and a professor with a cloud over his head.

This works, but its exceptionally long, and this makes the usual adventuring process diluted. The lack of regular gameplay can be ameliorated by the wonder of exploring a Potter world, but this will vary a lot from player to player.

I played for 2 hours and decompiled to read the ending. It seems exciting in parts, but the great spread-out-ness and the difficulty in finding clues made me bounce off emotionally.

I do love this story as a Hogwarts Walking Sim, I really do. The amount of effort and detail put into mapping the world is phenomenal. However, this is the second time I've tried to play this, and find myself continually frustrated at going nowhere fast. Cues are less than straightforward, and by the time you've located an item or a secret, finding your way back when it becomes relevant is a major chore. I'll set this one aside again, and maybe pick it back up in the future, but the grindy feeling of just simple movement is really turning me off of this one.