Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the new augmented reality game from the makers of Pokémon GO, is now available to play in Australia and New Zealand as a beta version.
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In a blog published overnight, developer Niantic said Android and iPhone users can now download and use the app.
Pedestrian accessed gameplay via Android, revealing the setting and gameplay mechanics of the beta. Players are greeted by a delightful Irish wizard who explains that magical artefacts have been flung across the planet, and it’s up to the player to retrieve them – lest the muggles of the world discover what’s been happening away from their non-magical eyes.
Then Harry Potter himself rocks up, voiced by none other than Daniel Radcliffe. Potter, who has well and truly settled into his role as a high-level auror, tells the player they must roam around the world – our real world – to contain ‘foundables’.
Those ‘foundables’ appear in AR, just like Pokémon do in the earlier game. Please observe the Pedestrian office, messed up by Hagrid himself.
Players are then asked to cast spells on the magical entities they find. This is done by tracing your fingers over the screen to mirror the path of a wand. Those ‘foundables’ are then placed in a player’s inventory, emulating the Pokédex mechanic.
In the five minutes we toyed with our phones, we experienced no major lags or glitches. Still, Niantic says “the product might be buggy and unstable at times,” and has asked beta users to report back with any weirdness they encounter.
So, get out there, we guess. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite can be accessed via the Google Play store right now.
