Hogwarts Legacy Review

Legacy Review

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Title: Hogwarts Legacy

Platform: PS4/5 Xbox One/X|S Switch PC

Reviewed on: PC

Publisher: Warner Bros. Games

Developer: Avalanche Software

Release: Feb 10, 2023 PS5 Xbox X|S PC April 4, 2023 PS4 Xbox One July 25, 2023 Switch

Time Played: 39 Hours

Genre: Open-World RPG

ESRB: T

I’ve put close to thirty hours in Hogwarts Legacy and there is still a lot to do. However, I’ve seen enough to give you a really good idea of what you will be getting into if you happen to find yourself being whisked away into a magical world full of mythical beasts, evil goblins, and adventure. If your interested in some game play check out the live stream and make sure you stick around till the end to see, how this game ranks.

Story:

The game starts off following a newly accepted student to Hogwarts, but not as a first year, they are coming into Hogwarts as a fifth year, a unique occurrence nobody at the school has ever heard of happening. On their way to the castle with their mentor Professor Fig, an accident prevents them from getting to their destination, setting into motion a long journey of self-discovery and solving a mystery hundreds of years old. Get ready, this school year is going to be crazy.

Kiddos:

I would say if Harry Potter were ok for the kids, this game will be alright too. Mild violence, perhaps a little more fighting with magic than Harry Potter, and a little bit of alcohol. No foul language or graphic… graphics. It’s whimsical fun through and through. Entertainment for you, and the kids.

Gameplay:

Hogwarts Legacy starts off with a considerably lack luster character creation. There were quite a few options for body, but they are all preset, no fine tuning for placement or size. After the body is decided a voice can be selected, there were only two options of voices, a feminine and masculine, each with five different pitches. But they were all the exact same voice, just modulated at a higher or lower pitch. The modulation was too obvious for me to enjoy anything but the actual voice.

After character creation the game starts what feels like the never ending tutorial. It is a game centered around learning various spells and lessons in school, so it makes sense to always be learning. But from the very start there are puzzles or collectibles locked behind knowing a specific skill or going through a side quest explaining it. It could be fifteen hours of gameplay before it’s brought up. So there is a lot of backtracking necessary to collect everything. I hate back tracking, especially when feels like it’s never ending. To me it feels like a cheap way to add to the length of a game. And this game is big already. The castle alone is big enough to explore for hours and still never see everything. Secret passages and locked doors hide so much, until a skill or mechanic unlocks them. So even if I explored everything from the start I’d have to come back after learning more.

Outside of the expansive castle, is an even larger open world. Not long after the start of the game the outside opens. All of it can be traveled right away, but tough enemies could block the paths until the character is strong enough to take them on. Given the size, thankfully there are plenty of mechanics to travel around. Scattered throughout the castle and highlands are floo flames, magic green flames that can be used to teleport at a moment’s notice. I did initially have to touch the floo flame before it could be used, but after its activation I could travel to it via the map screen at any time. I liked the fact I didn’t have to be next to a flame to use their network. And of course being a school for witches and wizards, there are magical brooms that can be ridden, flying through the sky all over the place. That was so much fun flying above the trees and rivers taking in the beautiful views. Learning how to fly was pretty simple, the broom was easy to control. One thing I don’t like about flying was the inability to move my camera up and down. When searching for things it would be nice to look directly down, but I can only move the camera left and right. I was constantly trying to look down and the lock almost feels like an itch that can’t be scratched, ya know?

But it’s not all exploration and discovery, the world is full of ne’er do wells ready to take out anybody not on their side as well as puzzles only solved by specific skills. So the knowledge of useful spells to defend oneself is paramount for survival and exploration. There are a lot of spells in the world, but they have been condensed down to a select few for the game. Some spells are locked into specific hotkeys or body placement to use, like revelio, sensing everything around to see what can be interacted with, or Alohomora used on locks. Spells like repario and levioso could be placed in a set to be used whenever I wanted. There are a total of four sets that can be unlocked, each holding up to four spells for quick use. Starting out there was only one set available which quickly turned into a chore when I had to use a lot of spells in quick succession. If the spell I wanted to use wasn’t there, I would have to open the menu and drag the spell I needed, replacing another on the set. When exploring it’s annoying, when in combat, it could mean death.

The combat in the game felt like it could be quite complicated with all the different spells at my disposal, but when fighting I could make it as complicated or simple as I wanted. There are a lot of different combos that can be used, I’m sure if I spent a little while learning and testing everything I could come up with some devastating attacks, but I found a few spells I liked and stuck with those for combat. But decent knowledge of the spells was very important. The spells have different classes, denoted by a specific color. Red for damage, yellow for control etc. When fighting a fellow magic user, they would sometimes shield themselves from attack, the shields used change color depending on the magic, that would let me know how to break their shield, hit a purple shield with a purple spell and bam, enemies are open to attack. One thing that was tough to keep track of was what certain enemies were weak to. Some beasts are more prone to specific spells. Thankfully that can all be read about in the collections journal.

The collections journal is one of the most important things in Hogwarts Legacy. It plays many roles, one of which being a bestiary of sorts for specific enemies so I could learn more about them. It also kept track of all the different collectibles or actions I took rewarding me after so many. Usually with a cosmetic item. So, there are six pieces of gear that can be worn, a hat, gloves, glasses, scarf, robe, and attire. Sometimes an upgrade would not quite fit my style, so the game actually let me make any piece of gear look like anything else of the same type, that being other pieces of gear or something that is only cosmetic. With that someone could really immerse themselves in the game, making their character look like a steam punk witch, or even a troll slaying knight.

I would say where character creation was lacking, it was made up for with the customization of gear and room of requirements. What’s the room of requirements you wonder? In one word I would have to say, amazing. In the world of Harry Potter the room of requirement magically appears for someone in Hogwarts that requires something really need, and it’s where all the lost things go. Inside I have the option to conjure various utilities like a pot for growing something or a cauldron for making potions. All of the utilities have different variations so there is a main theme that can be followed throughout the room, or rooms rather, it’s quite a big place. All the floors and walls can be customized too, so I can easily imagine hours spent customizing the room of requirements to fit someone’s taste perfectly.

So, we’ve established that the map of Hogwarts Legacy is big, but what about the story? Well, there is a lengthy main quest line to follow moving the story forward, but there is a plethora of side quests that almost have to be completed. Side quests are the main avenue for new spells and learning about different collectibles. There are a few spells learned through the main story line in classes and such, but there are follow up classes that are technically side quests and the rewards are pretty important. In order to know all the spells and stay at a decent combat leve, side quests and collections are the way to go.

Hogwarts Legacy is a large open world RPG, so that means levels, and points to allocate into specific stats. After a few hours of gameplay talents will unlock. For every level a new talent point will be acquired, after level five. These points are used to add special effects to spells, make some items more powerful, things like that. But beware, there is no changing where the points are after they are placed, so I had to think carefully about what I felt was most important for my game.

One thing I just have to bring up is the atrocious inventory control. Only when it comes to gear, everything else seems to have an infinite amount of space. But gear has a small space to cram it all in. Inventory can be increased as the game moves forward but it’s never enough. First, all the gear currently equipped takes space in the inventory, so six spaces are gone right off. There were chests all over constantly adding gear to the bag. More often than not I was unable to loot a chest because my inventory was full so I would have to destroy a piece of equipment to make space instead of selling it. When I finally got to town to unload my back, I would have to select the gear and keep my finger on the select button for EVERYTHING. There should really be a sell all or check box system. I can see why they wouldn’t want me to accidentally sell something with a single click, there is no buy back option for anything sold. It was just another thing that adds to the length of the entire game.

There is still so much more to this game, but I don’t want to spoil anything, everything I brought up you will see in the first eight hours and this game is easily over fifty hours. If you’re a Harry Potter fan I’m pretty sure you will love everything Hogwarts Legacy has to offer, but how do I ultimately rate the game? I wouldn’t say I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, but I enjoyed the books and it is a really cool universe. This game however, I would say belongs on my mid-shelf. I felt like a lot of the things to do in the game were more fluff than anything, making it feel larger than it really is. I’ve said it once I’ll say it a million times, I hate back tracking. Having to remember to come back for a treasure or a secret after I unlock a specific skill is just a pain. The game is fun, definitely worth the price, but I wouldn’t say it’s all it’s cracked up to be. If you’ve played it or disagree, tell me all about it in the comments below, as for me, I’m finished here and moving onto the next one, I will see you there.