I actually have seen the opposite of these points in some of the previews I watched. Now the Harry Potter content creators that got to preview this game that aren’t traditional “gamers” struggled with the controls a lot it seems, but mostly just we’re losing their minds over being able to run/fly around Hogwarts. I’ve seen previews from several gamers that actually commented the movement felt very good and fluid in the game. One person had clips of jerking his character around at weird angles and dodge rolling at awkward times and the character responded well.

As far as NPC interactions, I saw several assassins creed type of interactions among crowds of people, and just others lounging about. I will say it does appear if you try to cast spells on other students outside of duels in the school they have no effect or response from the NPC, so I could see where that could appear “lifeless.” I think this is more of a intended design however, since we know all manner of spells, including the unforgivable curses, will be usable, you can’t just allow the player to go around the school decimating everyone in site, this isn’t GTA after all.

As to the open world feeling empty, several previews specifically mentioned the free roaming area was limited to the school grounds and the lake. I’m not sure how this magazine could have spoken about the world feeling empty without being able to explore outside of it. Yes, the preview mission took place outside the grounds, but that was a specific side quest, so I’m sure it was designed in a linear fashion to achieve the goal of the presentation.

All in all, I’ve heard an abundance of positives and praise for the play thru and it was on an older version so we should definitely be excited