Hogwarts Legacy | Review

Initial Release Date: February 10, 2023

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

Genres: Open World, Entertainment, Narrative

Developer: Avalanche Software

Publisher: Warner Bros. Games

Mode: Single-Player Campaign

Introduction: I made myself watch all seven (or was it eight?) Harry Potter films in preparation for Hogwarts Legacy about a month back. I can see why Harry Potter has a mega-sized influence on millennials. Personally, I thought the movies were okay and were geared more towards the younger folk.

Being generation X and at the time of the original Harry Potter movie release (I was 25 in 2001) and attending UWM at the time). I watched some of the original movie back then. Fast forward to present times. I watched all Harry Potter films hoping it would give me some lore to go by which it strikingly struggled to do.

You see, Hogwarts Legacy takes place BEFORE Harry Potter as well the prequel movies Fantastic Beasts. In fact, Hogwarts Legacy goes back hundreds of years prior to those film’s timelines.

To make a long story short, Hogwarts Legacy is a great game for non Harry Potter fans (which I am). Keep reading to find out why I think this game is magical yet has a few dark spells cast upon it!

Presentation: Hogwarts Legacy is a AAA open world fantasy video game that at times feels alive and filled with depth when talking about it’s structure. We all played AAA open world games where it lacks depth in it’s design. Hogwarts Castle itself sits in the middle of the Wizarding World and could be it’s own video game easily.

I have gotten lost inside Hogwarts Castle’s walls dense structure of hallways, rooms with it’s varied secrets. Let’s just say thank god for the wand as it can create a light that you can follow from point A to point B.

Hogwarts Legacy’s atmosphere is fantastical in it’s design in it’s open world, from it’s beasts and or the mannerisms of it’s professors. NPC’s and merchants seem alive in their demeaners as well. Exploring Hogwarts Castle you encounter so many random events that brings out the game’s charm in many ways.

Walking past Armor sets aligning the walls talk amongst themselves. Peeves the Poltergeist creates mischief with the students inside Hogwarts. Petting cats is a game in and of itself in the castle. Combat mechanics and their loops were great. Sound design was fabulous. Story was good and held my interest to the end. More on on the latter later.

The friends you meet along the way at Hogwarts were entertaining and thoughtfully designed. When comparing Hogwarts Legacy to other open world AAA games like Red Dead Redemption, Grand theft Auto V, Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed.

You can put Hogwarts Legacy below Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 but above the others IMO. So kudos to Portkey Games and Avalanche Software. You made a great open world video game with a memorable experience.

Story: Hogwart Legacy is about a 5th year student who has a very rare ability to see and harness ancient magic in the Wizarding World. In the Wizarding World this is like Jedi, no, Sithlord powers if we’re talking about Star Wars.

Anyways, at the start of the game you meet Professor Fig who is given a lockbox from George that his late wife Miranda owned. The student opens the lockbox via his ancient magic abilities which leads the student on a wild adventurous quest to save the Wizarding World from Ranrok and Victor Rookwood.

Ranrok and Victor Rookwood are the main bad guys in Hogwart Legacy searching for a mysterious ancient magical artifact called the Repository used by Isidora Morganach hundreds of year in the past. The magic inside the Repository let’s one inhale emotions from humans turning them into husks sort to speak.

The student must pass four trials set forth by The Keepers who are made up of Percival Rackham, Charles Rookwood, Niamh Fitzgerald and San Bakar. The latter were once powerful Hogwart Wizards and Witches from hundreds of years ago.

The pace of the story in Hogwarts Legacy iwas focused tunneled through it’s missions and cutscenes. The student has to pass four trials to be worthy of the Repository all the while beating Ranrok to the punch.

The story wasn’t very emotional even though a few very important NPCs died in the process. The story isn’t confusing and was pretty much what I expected from the start. The story was easy to read, light-hearted, fun romp with good dialogue.

Gameplay: Hogwart Legacy’s gameplay has depth featuring a gameplay loop that’s fun, lived-in and addictive. Be warned it takes hours of main story missions to unlock many of Hogwart’s greatest gameplay mechanics including spells, Room of Requirement, potion crafting, brooms, mounts, beasts collecting, stats and ability upgrading.

As for the “feel” of slinging spells and curses at Loyalists, Trolls or Mongrels it took a minute of getting used to. However, once I started to color coordinate my spells through three more unlockable spell chart set-ups it was on. Magics/Spells has purple, red, yellow, blue and green symbols signifying types of spells.

Gameplay felt great as you sling, jump, dodge, parry incoming attacks. You can look cool as fuck while fighting in Hogwarts Legacy which takes time to learn. Missions themselves range from Professor assignments which unlock spells and or abilities.

Boss fights consisted of Pensieve Guardians in the first three of four Trials. These giant statues were a fun challenge that kept me on my toes in regards to switching spells for maximum damage spell casting effects.

Students you meet give you side quests that grow your relationships. They also tie into the main overarching story on occasion. The Sorting Hat picks one of the Houses for you to join at the start of the game. The character creator was pretty in-depth as well with a plethora of options.

The Sorting Hat gave me House Slitherin because I wanted to be powerful. Also, dialogue choices with certain NPCs can matter with some missions but not many like say Fallout New Vegas. Early into the story you visit the famous Hogsmeade where you can purchase crafting materials, broomstick upgrades and much more.

There are puzzles within some missions which were easy enough to solve. Mission structure can range from simply talking to NPCs, to catching Beasts or defeating enemies. Missions can be varied in design and fun factor. The Room of Requirement is your personal hub where you can craft potions and upgrade your gear.

The neat addition of The Room of Requirement is the Vivarium where you take your rescued Beasts to live. You can comb and feed Beasts which nets the student materials for upgrading your gear like robes, head gear etc.

Visuals/Graphics: I must add that I only played through and beaten the campaign in performance mode. So everything you read from here is based on the sixty frames per second option played on a Playstation 5. I understand Hogwarts Legacy has a plethora of different visual options on current gen consoles. Sorry.

Hogwarts Legacy is a beautiful game. From the open vistas while flying on the back of a Hippogriff to exploring underground caves it’s a looker no doubt. Casting spells often create a visual spectacle as magic tends to do. Facial mo-cap textures on all of the NPCs were superb.

The beasts were furry, the evil goblins were ugly. Thornback spiders looked extra spidery. The art=style used in Hogwarts Legacy is similar to the movies. From the Great Hall to Hogsmeade, Hogwarts Legacy presented a beautiful, cozy, charming place to explore for the player.

Sound/Music: After watching all of the Harry Potter films like a month ago one thing I really enjoyed was the music and sound design in those movies. I am happy to report Hogwart Lecacy’s sound and music is just as great as the movies in my opinion. My only complaint was my voice choice (character creator) sounded too raspy.

But hey, he still sounds so British and charming to my American ears. I didn’t even check if I could change his voice mid-way. The music was great in so many sequences whether it’s taking flight on Highwing or destroying Ranrok at the end the music delivered. I also loved the music just walking around Hogwarts Castle. So good.

Final Verdict: Hogwarts Legacy is a great AAA open world video game and a sleeper for the fact not many knew how good Portkey Games were as developers. Now I know. If you want to watch gameplay check out Hogwarts Legacy Video Playlist Buy this game when you can afford it. Thanks for reading – Jason not a AI