Hogwarts Legacy - Falling Short of Being Great

The highest profile game and one of the biggest IPs on the planet, but Hogwarts Legacy falls flat.

Hogwarts Legacy is an open world 3rd person RPG set in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game takes place in the 1800s, allowing players to create their own character and attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a student. Players explore an open-world Hogwarts and its surrounding areas, learn magic spells, engage in duels, and uncover secrets and mysteries.

Perhaps the part where this game struggles the most is in the main storyline quest. While I applaud the developers for going out of their way to tell a truly original story, it felt, well a bit boring and rushed. The side character quests were far more interesting and drove me to continue playing the game far more than the “Ancient Magic” promises from the main quest line.

Lucas Luna's Review

Listen, I grew up as a Harry Potter fan. My parents would take us out of school every November when the newest movie was released and we watched them all as a family. Listen, I was excited for this game ready to love it with all of my heart. I was there when the teaser dropped and the hype meters were up. And listen to me when I say this, Hogwarts Legacy is a AAA open world RPG that is nowhere near the top of the genre.

First off the story manages to fall flat in a lot of places. I was a fan of the overall premise with ancient magic, the Hogwarts layout and detail, the expanded canon, etc. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about the main core characters. The HP series has always been about having a great core cast of characters and friends who overcome challenges and fight evil. But with the lackluster side quests many of the side character felt one-dimensional and fell flat for me. It seems like they tried to mimic the idea of of friends going on secret adventures, exploring areas of the castle no one has seen (always a fun idea) yet many of the characters don’t get developed enough for us to truly feel the immersion of the world. Classic example is the Amit quest, where he without any sort of apprehension goes to fight goblins with you, one of the biggest moments of narrative dissonance in the game.

One of my favorite aspects about the entire game was the combat. Combat is difficult to do in an open world game like this. But here, the devs knocked it out of the park! I loved the shielding, attacking, dodging and the clever uses of items you craft yourself. I would like an entire game that purely had the combat of Hogwarts Legacy with more spells, options, or players. That’s how much I loved it!

But overall the systems in the game were just so lame to me. The Room of Requirement was fun at first but there was zero real progression for anything you could craft. All you really needed to do was buy a scroll or seeds and then you’re off to the races with a steady supply of potions, Mandrakes or whatever you’re looking to craft. There were no regular crafting trees that you would expect like a rare item that could upgrade a station. Or possibly a quest that would make your mandrakes stronger. This is a huge missed opportunity to me. Nearly every game open world or not has a strong sense of systems and how they interact with core gameplay. And this main system was barebones.

Even with all of my issues with the game, I agree with my co-hosts. There is a core game here that’s waiting to come out. The combat is fantastic, the main setup for the story is interesting and the Wizarding World itself has an entire generation gripped. This game is enjoyable but far from the best out there today.

7/10

Matt Hrachovy's Review

Hogwarts Legacy from Avalanche Software is the game that Harry Potter fans have been hoping for, for years. An action RPG set in its own unique time period, not related to the aforementioned Harry Potter, where the player gets to set their own unique print on the Wizarding World. The question is though, is it any good?

Immediately the biggest challenge with any game set with this universe would be combat. At a surface level, the task seems impossible. After all, it’s magic! Theoretically anything should be possible. Now, while it’s not the case that you can simply cast any spell you want, Hogwarts Legacy does well to create a solid combat experience where spells are not simply spammed and there does have to be some thought as to how you approach fights. That is until you get the notorious unforgivable curses, at which point the combat loop gets, a bit more straightforward to say the least.

In addition to the combat this is, of course, an open world game! The map is surprisingly massive. My initial thoughts jumping into this game was that I'd be constantly commuting between Hogwarts and Hogsmede, nothing more. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the map was truly large and that the developers did great work to expand the world in a way that fits in with what already exists. Pairing that open world with the ability to fly around on a broomstick or a mount and you have solid exploration system for any Harry Potter fan. That said, don’t expect the same level of NPC and environment detail here that you may find in a game like Red Dead Redemption 2.

Perhaps the part where this game struggles the most is in the main storyline quest. While I applaud the developers for going out of their way to tell a truly original story, it felt, well a bit boring and rushed. The side character quests were far more interesting and drove me to continue playing the game far more than the “Ancient Magic” promises from the main questline.

Hogwarts Legacy is not an incredible game. It’s also not a bad game. If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, you’ll without a doubt love this experience and get a lot from it. For those that don’t feel as strongly about the Wizarding World, you’ll still find a decent open world game that you can sink your teeth into, but a far cry from anything remarkable.

7/10

Timurhan Vengco's Review

Like so many people that grew up with the Harry Potter books and films, I was really hyped to play Hogwarts Legacy (HL), since this game looked like the first opportunity to live out my fantasy of becoming a wizard. Unfortunately, HL quickly falls short of this promise, as everything I loved about the game was outweighed by some considerable disappointments.

Hogwarts Legacy’s biggest accomplishment was recreating the iconic locations and visuals from the Wizarding World, especially the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade, and most importantly, Hogwarts Castle. The developers clearly spent a ton of time faithfully recreating these areas and packing them with detail and easter eggs. One of my favorite things to do in the game is to aimlessly walk around Hogwarts Castle and discover its many secrets. However, it feels like the developers placed little time and attention outside of Hogwarts Castle and Hogsmeade, as the highlands surrounding these areas were incredibly dull and repetitive with a few identical looking villages and the same handful of recurring open-world activities.

I am also pleasantly surprised by how well HL translated casting magic. The game features a simple, yet deep combat system, where players can learn several spells that either deal additional damage or manipulate their opponents and the environment to their advantage. Most spells feel distinct from one another, and many spells are able to be combo'd with each other to devastating effect. Unfortunately, the combat suffers from a severe lack of enemy diversity, as there are only a handful of 4 - 5 distinct enemy types, which makes fighting enemies feel less and less exciting as time goes on.

The biggest sin of HL is that the game lacks so much of the magic (pun intended) that made the Harry Potter series so memorable. The central plot barely digs into the motivation or politics of the antagonist’s disdain for the wizarding community or his quest for ultimate power. While we are introduced to some potentially intriguing classmates and their storylines, they are often reduced to side quests that feel disjointed or non-consequential to the main quest. Many of the other side-quests are essentially the same list of remedial tasks that do not push our understanding of the story or the environment either.

Further, HL lacks many features we now expect out of an open-world, action-RPG. It makes no sense that there is not a morality or relationship system, especially considering how well the Harry Potter series explores the theme of good vs. evil and the importance of having a chosen family. My actions and decisions truly do not carry any weight in the world, as there are virtually zero consequences to any choices I make during dialogue or combat.

Ultimately, HL is a mediocre game with a 10/10 gimmick. The game does a commendable job of recreating the best parts of the Wizarding World, and I am genuinely hopeful that a sequel or future DLC will only build on the strengths of this game. However, HL fails to meet the standard that so many other recent open-world, action RPGs have set for the genre.

6/10