This review will contain minor spoilers, but no storyline spoilers!
In Hogwarts Legacy you play as a student at the famous school of witchcraft and wizardry around the end of the 19th century. It means characters like Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore are nowhere to be seen. You will certainly find fimiliar names like Weasleys and a member of the Black family though! Before the release of the game we didn’t really know what to expect from it. We’d seen a couple of trailers and gameplay showcases. The scope of the game, the open-world ascpect and the Hogwarts castle all come out feeling magical. In our review we’ll discuss some of the different features the game has to offer. Like the storyline, the Hogwarts Castle and the combat system.
Storyline (no spoilers)
Hogwarts Legacy is at its strongest when you let the story guide you and you get the feeling of playing the lead role in your own “Harry Potter” movie. In addition to taking lessons at school, you will venture outside the castle walls several times to unravel the storyline. Hogwarts Legacy has different elements in it’s story: from simulating a magical school life, crushing enemy rebellions with brute force, to completing all kinds of side missions spread across the Hogwarts castle and the large world around it. You certainly won’t be bored at any point.
Hogwarts Castle
The halls and classrooms are almost identical to some of the film variants. When you walk through your House’ dormitory, details such as moving paintings, stacks of books that you can destroy and chatting students make it feel warm and cozy. The atmosphere of the Harry Potter universe is perfectly recreated and expanded upon. The sound design makes the whole experience complete and will certainly give you chills if you are a big Harry Potter fan.
Around every corner you find something new to look at. The Hogwarts Castle almost feels like a museum. At the start it can feel like a bit of a maze, but the minimap will always tell you the right way to go. The castle is filled with hidden treasures. Sometimes you can find them literally in treasure chests, but usually you have to solve a small puzzle with your spells. Even puzzles that have you solve math equations using glyths of different Beasts that can be found in the Wizarding World. Every treasure found makes your character a little stronger.
The only downsides to the castle are that it’s loaded in different sections and it will sometimes take a second for a door to open, with a little loading symbol showing. Other technical negatives are texture pop-ins. Sometimes students all the sudden are popping in and some of the lighting changes while walking around. It is not bad enough to take away from the magic of Hogwarts. The only times you might really notice it is when you run from one side of the castle to the other. Nothing gamebreaking though!
Combat System
Combat in Hogwarts Legacy can be incredibly brutal. Those who feel at home in action games can go ham with this combat system. You could almost call Hogwarts Legacy a button masher. Combat sometimes feels a bit chaotic. It’s all about reaction speed when having to defend yourself, blocking and dodging is essential to stay alive. You will eat through your potions in no time if you are not defending yourself. With a little training you can get really good at the combat and it only makes it more fun when you unlock more spells to use. The use of “ancient magic” is the most brutal, these finishing moves are a lot of fun to play with.
Verdict
The atmosphere of Hogwarts Legacy is perfect. The areas from the movies and books have been beautifully recreated. That alone is good news for fans, because it makes it feel like you are really roaming the grounds of Hogwarts. It has a solid storyline and even the side quests feel fun to do and makes you feel like you are part of the Wizarding World. A combat system where you can button mash, but have to make sure to defend yourself and dodge spells when needed. Minor technical negatives, but nothing that is gamebreaking or can’t be fixed in a coming patch.
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