The Hogwarts Mystery of Why They Couldn't Do Better Than That

There has been a lot of criticism regarding the long-awaited and anticipated Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery Game by JamCity. Primarily, people have criticised the permanent request to invest real money into completing your tasks as a player. In fact, you would be required to pay about 15 Dollars a day to have twenty minutes of fun - which sounds pretty lame, doesn't it? 
But why does it suck on so many levels? Well, as a true Potterhead I have obviously taken on the task to play through the whole bloody thing and I know many people have already finished, but as I am definitely NOT investing real money into this stupid game, I am still stuck in year 2. 
When I started playing the game, it all looked pretty promising and soon my Ravenclaw character Rory Hill was created and I could buy my wand, books, etc. The graphics are surprisingly good, considering it is a phone game, but as soon as school started, fun literally was drained out of my character. The game provides a ridiculous little amount of energy to play with and as soon as you run out, you can either buy more with real money or wait till your energy stash has been replenished, which takes forever, as you only get one energy point every four minutes. 
In the end, you can play for about five minutes before you run out of energy and you can definitely not get through one class with your energy stash, which means permanent interruptions and, often, failure in completing your classes. 
OK, this sucks already, but apart from the Potter part, I also must say the game in itself is pretty boring. It is not like in Sims where you can freely roam the castle and choose what your character should do, but you have specific missions and classes to fulfil and your main quest is to find out about your lost brother and the Iced Vaults (which, inasmuch, I like as a storyline, but they should have given the characters more individual freedom on the side). Also, the rest of the storyline falls pretty flat as we have a for-no-reason bullying Slytherin (what a surprise) who wants to permanently duel her, even when you've beaten her a thousand times (just accept it, Merula, I am BETTER than you!) and who bullies you for a brother who sought out the Iced Vaults but actually wants to get inside the Iced Vaults as well. We have a cowardly Gryffindor with a weird voice (Neville 2.0 says hello) and a know-it-all, bookish Ravenclaw best friend who conveniently has read books on all topics you are lacking to fill the gaps in. 

But back to the actions. Instead of choosing your actions, you can tap on pre-set blue-lined items with which you can interact by tapping on the bar which costs you energy each time. So mostly, you will only be tapping around with little else to do. And the actions...seriously, someone should have put more thought into the actions you can do as they include "Consider", "Ask a question" (even if the person is on the other side of the room) or Examine couch" when you're supposed to learn a new spell (Concentrate, Hill, for God's sake!). The actions also repeat themselves very often and you even need energy to TAKE A BREAK or think about something, which makes the whole game pretty ridiculous.

---

Apart from tapping your phone, you can do duels, which are probably the most fun as they don't cost energy and you can use your hard-studied spells against a fellow student. Additionally, there are pre-set conversations with your friends which make weird noises and are basically all cowardly gits (yes, Rowan, take that!) 
So, in total, not a good review and the only cool thing I can say about this game is that you meet familiar people like Bill Weasley or Nymphadora Tonks during their time in Hogwarts, but apart from that and the convincing graphics, this game is a total and complete failure. ​​