A story about wizards and witches going to school somewhere in deep Scotland where normal people aren’t allowed to enter under any circumstances should be a pretty good starting point for a D&D campaign that’s about the meaning of classism, but here we are about to talk about the Harry Potter prequel game that somehow feels both fresh and stale at the same time.
Hogwarts Legacy is the return of the wizarding game franchise after a decade’s absence from the spotlight (we shall not speak of those horrid mobile games), and it’s weird to be talking about a game of wizardry months after its initial release but better late than ever, it’s time to dissect if it’s just the hype now that the dust and sorting hats have been put back into storage.
Presentation
One neat thing from the get-go is the level of detail that you see from both Hogwarts and the surroundings being the most crafted and lore accurate with the books series, down to the labyrinth nature of the Hogwarts castle. By far the most articulate of all the renditions of the game that players and fans had laid eyes upon.
On the performance side of things, Avalanche Studios made sure all of their versions are the best that they can do, With the Series S version being a solid 60fps with 1080p resolution everywhere, and without any drops in any intense scene.
Not to mention the solid Last Gen ports and their working hard to make sure the Switch version runs as intended, I applaud them for taking the extra steps and making people’s experience of Hogwarts Legacy the best it can be.
The audio side is what you expect from a AAA production game, the voice cast does their best in selling your experience of being in 19th century Britain as a student, from the teachers to students and even groundkeep (sans Hagrid sadly), and the people of Hogsmeade. They have done a stellar job in recreating the feeling of being in the center of things from the Harry Potter series, even if you’re the self-insert in this one.
Gameplay
The previous Harry Potter games (except one Game Boy version) are more leaning towards an action-adventure sort of venture due to how well it works with exploring the castle ground and fighting the enemies.
And Hogwarts Legacy is no different, with the ability to explore the entirety of the region and engage in combats with the local gangs around it in a sandbox that’s not too dissimilar to the likes of modern titles like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in terms of design and even combat flow, weirdly enough.
The spells stuff are like what you would see in the more outlandish titles like Final Fantasy as they are interchangeable from your own preferred slots and can do buffs and more damage as you learn more spells whilst also unlocking more by doing what most school-based action games would do and attend classes and doing assignments, which in returns rewards players with abilities and items that could be useful later on.
Though it suffers the same issues that had plagued the previous two AC games and that’s their samey feeling combat encounters as you clear out camps filled with goblins and goons that try to stop a 5th year high-schooler from plundering their loot. Which is also categorized like the former’s color coding with numbers…
So in a sense, Hogwarts Legacy plays like a modern-day action game and that’s okay as the school stuff does carry its unique-ness to a respectable high.
Content
Hogwarts Legacy is quite a chunky game, content-wise. From the start of your school life, you uncover a conspiracy and also juggle broomstick riding and astrology as part of the quest line, so you can expect a hefty 15 to 25-ish hours of content as you go deep into all of the characters, and puzzles to uncover what lies beneath your powers, and even more really.
Personal Enjoyment
It is a weird position of a video game being much talked about before and after the release that isn’t about the game itself but rather the creator of the original’s part of the story that this game is spinning off from.
And while I do enjoy the game, its setting and all, the fact that it looks and plays like Ubisoft’s Sandbox number 93/4 that’s set in the great-grandparents’ time, kinda made me turned off after finishing the campaign and not doing the side-content (like their version of SPM, O.W.L.S) except for some companions stuff that I do enjoy, like knowing the Slytherin side is actually more fun than the stuck ups of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, to say the least.
Verdict
Hogwarts Legacy is an action-adventure romp that has captured the child-like wonderment of the books and movies but feels like a sandboxy game bar with a few school stuff that makes the experience sometimes dull. Perhaps wait for a deep sale if you want to try out this game.
Played on Xbox Series S, Review copy purchased by the reviewer.
Hogwarts Legacy
An action-adventure romp that has captured the child-like wonderment of the books and movies but feels like a sandboxy game bar with a few school stuff that makes the experience sometimes dull.
- Presentation 8
- Gameplay 7
- Content 8
- Personal Enjoyment 6.5