Hogwarts Legacy Review
Hogwarts Legacy, the game all fans of the Wizarding World have been waiting for, an Open World game where you can go anywhere you want to.
If you can see it, you can fly to it, no questions asked. In this review, I will rate the game based on 5 points, it will be on the Game World, Gameplay, Character, Quests and Combat. This is so that there’s transparency in the review and for further transparency, I would also like to add that I’ve played this game for 10 hours so far. Without further ado, let’s get to the review!
Game World
The game world starts off with just Hogwarts, the school that you learn your magical abilities, with a surprisingly, very open and large-scale recreation. You can pretty much go anywhere in Hogwarts that your house allows you to.
As an example of what that means, if you are a Gryffindor because you want to follow Harry Potter’s footsteps in the movies, you won’t be able to access the Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw common rooms. If you are like me and used the Wizarding World, formerly known as Pottermore, site to sort yourself into a house through the quiz and follow your own house and wand, you will have access to just THAT common room.
But in terms of the world of Hogwarts, you can visit many locations that don’t have any use, but you can go to that location just because. That’s the attention to detail that Avalanche Studios have put into recreating the world in Hogwarts but that’s not all!
The World quickly expands to Hogsmead, a small town outside Hogwarts to buy all your school needs like your Wand and that’s where you realize how much larger Hogwarts Legacy is, a world more than Hogwarts itself but what’s incredible about Hogwarts Legacy is that, when you continue the story, the world expands once more. It expands into a World Map! That’s right, they expand the map twice just to show you how much larger the Game World really is.
But with a large map, there’s two issues. The first will be “Is there anything to do in this large world?” and the second will be “Are the things you can do tedious and repetitive side-quest?” Well, it’s a yes and no.
Are they things to do? There’s a ton of stuff to do and explore, the world of Hogwarts Legacy has been one of the most fun worlds because of the simple fact that, if you can see it, you can go to it. There’s nothing else in-between. Everyone in the world has something they need your help for and there are missions where they are widely differently from the other, but you will reach to a point where the missions can be very similar in task required. That’s just the unfortunate problem with Open World games.
There is other stuff like Ballons popping with the Broom or Merlin’s Trials that make the world exciting
Me personally, I’ve spent a lot of my exploration time just exploring Hogwarts itself instead of the rest of the map, it’s so interesting to be able to walk to a part of the castle where you see something from the movie recreated perfectly in the game.
The Game World gets a point from me for this.
Gameplay
When it comes to the gameplay, it has some of the best gameplay, the menus are excellent and understandable, the gear system almost annoyed me because my character suddenly looked like an idiot who wore mismatched clothes just because it gave a better gear score but then I accidentally pressed square (I’m on PlayStation 5 but on Xbox, it will be the X button) and then I realized that Avalanche Studios knows how stupid and annoying that can be, just like Cyberpunk 2077, and decided to have you choose what actual outfits you want.
The best part about Gear system? You get to keep the outfit you have unlocked. You don’t lose the option to wear your house hood or your uniform, just because you sold it because you needed space or money. That’s huge! I know, that’s weird that it’s huge that having that option is huge but it really is.
Another thing I love about the gameplay on this game is that fast travel is basically everywhere in the world, all you have to do is go near the Floo Flame point and done, you unlocked it. No cutscene or anything, it’s simple
As you continue the story, you unlock more spells and items to help you along the way as well, the gameplay is very well paced as well, unlocking one new spell like Reparo means you get to repair broken stuff, but they don’t force it upon you to have in your spell wheel. The spells are required at times but not always, which is refreshing.
Gameplay gets a point from me as well.
Characters
When it comes to the characters in Hogwarts Legacy, they are very inclusive and interesting.
What makes it inclusive? Well, The characters in the world are from every aspect of life, there’s a blind character (you meet early on if you are from Slytherin), there’s a black character who is from Uagadou, the African Wizarding School, a Japanese Professor who teaches the broom flying, who is actually from the Japanese Ministry of Magic, a transgender character who runs the Three Broomsticks, where you can get some delicious Butterbeer, and many many others.
The variety of characters makes sense because, even though Hogwarts is the English school of Magic, the keyword is Magic and the Wizarding World always seemed like a place for anyone and everyone that has magic. That means, you won’t meet a muggle aka Non-Magic People. As a matter of fact, it’s the only time you will see the characters have an issue with.
Walking around Hogwarts, I’ve heard some magical beings have issues with Muggles, which is very accurate to what the magical world is like, they don’t really want to be associated with Muggles
Every character that you interact with, however, has an interesting story or a past. For an example, Natsai Onai, a former student of Uagadou that transferred to Hogwarts because her mother took up a role in Hogwarts, revealed that she is able to use magic without a wand because Uagadou taught magic without a wand, which is incredible.
Because of the variety and story behind each character that you mean, I give this a point.
Quests
The quests in this game are VERY well paced. They don’t throw a thousand side-quests and 10 main quest at you in the first 2 hours but they also don’t prevent you from having 10 different quest, a mix of main and side quests, later in the game when you have unlocked the Broom
That’s the beauty of this game, it’s the most well-paced Open World game I’ve played since Ghost of Tsushima, it makes you focus on your task at hand instead of wandering around doing side-quests back-to-back but it also doesn’t forces you to NOT do that if that’s what you like to do.
In terms of the Side-Quest, I’ve never encountered the same task twice after 10 hours (Side quest means the quest in the actual Quests Tab in the menu) of gameplay and when it comes to the main quests, they are very entertaining. Playing the game in Fidelity Ray-Tracing on PS5, it feels like you are watching a movie each time you fight someone or watch a cutscene. I know 30fps isn’t forever one but when it comes to a cinematic game with main quests that feel VERY cinematic, I’m really enjoying 30fps for the first time in my life
Talking about Main Quests, you would think that it mainly follows the story and what is happening in this game, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well they introduce the characters to you and how well paced the entire game is with its story. They don’t throw 5 different classes at you just so you can get your Broom, Levioso spell and teach you about combat at the same, they paced them all and make sure you learn all three of them at your pacing so that you can easily understand how to play the game and get used to everything they introduce to you
Because of how well paced and fun the Quests are, it gets a point from me.
Combat
Lastly, let’s talk about Combat. I know and I’ve seen people compare the combat of Hogwarts Legacy to other games that use magical abilities and spells, but you have to understand that the Hogwarts’ Wizarding World is more about Wands and spells, not just swinging your arms around and screaming a spell name with a large thunder hitting all around you.
That being said, the combat in this game is as accurate as it can be from the books and movies. Every spell used was used in combat in the books or movies and my favorite part of the combat, which I honestly didn’t expect, is that you can do a combo with all your spells.
As an example, you can do a basic spell 4 times, cast Levioso to make them float, attack another 4 times, cast Accio to bring them to you and float them and cast Incendio to make them burn and attack another 4 times. That’s the most basic combo you can do but as you learn more spells, you can learn to do more combos.
The best part about these combos? They don’t prevent you from creating your own combos.
The combat in this game is not the greatest but it feels perfect for what franchise it’s using and again, Avalanche Studios recreating the combat from the movies and books perfectly is why I love the combat in this game
Combat gets a point from me.
Conclusion
So, at the end of it all, Hogwarts Legacy gets a perfect score from me, it has everything you want from a Wizarding World game, the timeline is 100 years before Harry Potter’s time in Hogwarts, so it’s a new story in a familiar location and the world around you are as immersive as the movies were when you were younger.
The story, the world and the gameplay fit so perfectly with each other that I can’t wait to see what else Avalanche Studios will be doing in the future or if they are planning to add additional story content in this game
