Hogwarts Legacy - Review

Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin or Hufflepuff?

Console: PlayStation 5

I'm very much a casual Harry Potter enjoyer. My mom rented an audio copy of the Philopher's Stone when I was a kid, I caught a movie or two during birthday parties and my Scouts group once organized a Harry Potter-themed weekend but that was about it for young me. It wasn't until my teens that, thanks to the 1st Fantastic Beasts, I developed a casual interest in the series which put its first big, AAA game on my radar. 

It looked like a well-made and fun title that could be that gateway into the series proper that I was lowkey looking for. When the game went on sale not long before my birthday, well, that was a gift I got. 

Skip forward a few months and I've finally made it to the credits. Not that I started it up right away and spent literal months on it but I cannot say I rushed it either. Depending on who you ask, the game itself or my PS5, I spent either 40+ or nearly 60 in and around Hogwarts before calling it a day. If that's not a sign that I liked what I played, then I don't know what is!

So, without further ado, let's talk about Hogwarts Legacy. 

In the 1800's, a late bloomer is accepted as a fifth-year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Setting out to the school with Professor Fig, who sho graciously has been mentoring them over the summer, the journey doesn't go as planned when a Dragon attacks them. Saved by a mysterious portkey the professor's late wife gifted to him, the two find themselves jumping across England before finally making it to Hogwarts, running into the Goblin Ranrok and his revolutionaries along the way. 

Learning that they can see and control an ancient form of magic and that said magic is connected to Professor Fig's late wife's work, the two set out to get to the bottom of this mystery. All the while, they are pursued by Rankrok and local Dark Wizard Victor Rookwood in their respective quests for power and of course, attend Hogwarts to learn their late-found magic and get sucked into all the happenings that go on at the famous school. 

Hogwarts Legacy's story is a nice but underwhelming one that lacks in creativity and surprises. The mystery pretty much played out exactly as I was expecting and the two big-bads are your typical one-dimensional would-be tyrant and gangster respectively. Even so, I found plenty of things to enjoy here. From some well-done emotional moments, to exciting action pieces or a quest that got me giggling all over my couch because it was pretty hilarious if you ask me. 

Plus, the larger side-quests are of a different calibre. The special Hogsmeade quest is a genuinely well-crafted piece of suspense, perfect for Halloween. Each house quest is pretty interesting, especially if you work yourself up to the big picture and I found the student focused B-plots more engaging than whatever Ranrok was up to. They all bring something different to the table in terms of storytelling, like broken homes and if the end justifies the means, and it's they that get you that sense of camaraderie the main story is missing. 

The latter stings more because Portkey Games put together a colourful cast of characters here, especially when it comes to the look and quirks of each student. There are characters here that do bad things for good reasons, making me feel conflicted about what decisions to make, who are morally conflicted or just plain entertaining to watch. Memorable stuff, even if I didn´t always remember their names. 

It's a shame than that the game doesn't do much with these characters in general, or even Hogwarts itself. For a game called 'Hogwarts Legacy' you spent a rather conspicious time outside of the castle grounds. After the introductionary period is over, you stop attending classes and the action moves away from the castle. Your classmates stop playing a role in the main quests and the staff, safe for your mentor, just disappear altogether. 

Just realized. If not for the text this could´ve been a good meme template!

And that is where the big issue lies. That this story is more focused on this big, building threat to the magical world than what Hogwarts can bring. For a lot of people, the big appeal of this game was that they could attend Hogwarts for themselves, only for you to not really attend Hogwarts much at all. I feel that if there was a bigger focus on the school and the people within, the story would've been stronger. As it stands, it's more than serviceable, but one of the title's weak links. 

What is a strong link is the atmosphere and world-building. Like I said, one of the goals of this game was to engross fans in the wizarding world and this game does just that. How? By melding together the world of the books with that of the films to give us the best of both worlds. 

Take Hogwarts Castle for example. It was designed to match the description and layout of the books be but I'm pretty sure that even people who have only watched the movies will instantly recognize it and many of its features. The castle is a big-un with its grand halls, its ever-changing staircases and so on. It´s stuffed with tons of delicious secrets to discover and easter eggs that will put a Harry Potter fan a smile on their face I´d imagine. 

And then there is the music. I adore the music. They took the iconic score of the film series started by John Williams and added to it. From re-recording tracks to creating new ones in that same style to create this instantly recognizable and relaxing score. I've listened to it a ton on YouTube doing chores and, yes, writing to get myself nice and relaxed. 

From a strong point, back to a weak one: the open-world game design. Hogwarts Legacy falls into many of the pitfalls the open-world genre has developed over time. A consequence I feel of how long this title was in development. They worked in the formula that worked in the mid to late 2010s but has since then evolved. 

As expected, aside from your main quests and plethora of side-quests the game is filled with activities, from flying challenges on your broom to magical puzzles to taking down poachers. Large, grassy and rocky expanses are filled with these activities. Activities that wear out their welcome because of how repetitive they are and how many times they're repeated. You can only pop so many balloons before it becomes boring. 

Then there is the map. It's nice that you get to not only explore memorable book locations such as Hogsmeade and the Forbidden Forrest but that the game fills in all the blank space the book left around it to make a living, breathing world that is just too big for its own good. It´s an empty world. 

The coastal area is the perfect example. While geographically well designed and just as beautiful looking as the rest of the title, it really doesn´t have to be here. It's a late-game area stuffed with those repetitive side activities and not much else. 

They could've easily cut this area and place those few quests at a different location, and the game would not have been any worse for wear. I'd argue it might've even been better if that also meant they would've relocated the resources they put into making this area into other parts of the game. 

Would you look at that. So many words spent and I haven't even talked about how this game even plays exactly! Underneath all of these open-world shenanigans, we have an action-adventure title here with a few more RPG mechanics under its hood than I expected. 

You spent most of the game exploring, both on foot and in the air and locked in duels with a plethora of dark wizards, goblins and beasts. Given to you by Professor Weasley is your field guide alongside the most useful spell in the game: Revelio. This spell is your ' Tomb Raider survival instinct'. It highlights all kinds of interesting bits in the world, from hidden chests to breakable walls. 

A broom is nice but I prefer Hippogriffs for my flying. 

Revelio can be a crutch; most of the exploration amounts to getting to where the map points you and than use revelio to see what you have to interact with. Without it though, I feel that you could spend hours just trying to figure out what needs to be done. 

Once you know what to do, you'll do stuff like break those walls to find a new path, hit giant dials in time to open a large door and place giant crates in the correct place to climb over something. Standard, pretty by the numbers, stuff but nothing offensive. Nothing that gripped me but nothing that bored me either. 

Chief among the things that Revelio, well, reveals are your field guide's missing pages. It's the game's nr. 1 collectable and for good reason, I feel. Most pages have a brief bit of lore and it's a lot of fun learning about all that stuff, especially as a casual. Plus, they also give some genuine helpful tips and hits like how to get into each common room. 

Combat-wise, I wish there was more to it. In essence, it's a game of breaking your enemies' shields by using as spell of the same colour and then juggling them in the air so they can't counterattack. Yes, each coloured spell belongs to a general category, from your all-out attacks in red to your more nifty yellow spells, but by and large, I find that these side-effects don't matter. If its the right colour, that's all you need and the cooldown is the only reason I found myself switching spell sets so much. 

The most exciting it got is the 'exploding barrel' spell that, once unlocked through the skill tree, became my favourite spell to use. Turn enemies in an explosive barrel that you can throw at another enemy? Yes please! 

And then there's that ancient magic. What that boils down to is that you have a special meter that, if full, gives you a very strong attack. One-hit-kills on normal mooks, super effective hits in (mini-)bosses. I recommend you save those up for the latter since they can be quite the bullet sponges. 

This foundation is far from bad, but I found that the combat grew stale over time. The fights in hour 1 are not that much different from the ones in hour 30, some creative bosses notwithstanding. It's repetitive and lacks in variety. One spell pulls enemies towards you, the other pushes them back. What a difference that makes (not).

I can't say what I would do to deepen this system, to keep it fresh all the way to the end, I just know that Portkey games should take a long, hard look at the fighting for their next go around. 

They should also make more spells contact sensitive. There are some spells that you wave your wand around for when prompted, such as using Alomomora to open locks, but most of them have to be equipped to your spell slots to use them. Having to constantly switch out spells to properly explore is so darn tedious and annoying. 

All right, I might have one suggestion. More of the about please!

Now, on to all those RPG mechanics thrown in, starting with the robust character customization. I've seen some very elaborate creations online. From remaking Voldemort to people more or less putting themselves into the game. That's not something I can do, I didn't go further than creating my own character, Amund Abercast, and a girl because I felt like fooling around but it's something I can respect and appreciate. 

I have to say though: there's way too much gear here. Hogwarts Legacy does that thing in which you collect more gear than anything else. Gear that gives you stat boosts and can upgrade further with beast hair and such. Gear that has 10 different stat varieties of the same item and I quickly grew numb to it all because it's just so meaningless. 

You get thrown to near death with how many gear drops there are and how little it actually matters. When I died a couple of times in a row against, say, some very cheap Goblins in a certain mine, the game reminded me that 'equipping better gear will make me stronger'. Yet, I never felt equipping better gear actually made a difference. I failed to get back to that game over screen just as quickly. 

The stat boost from hour 1 to hour 40 are their, yes, but from hour 16 to 17? That difference is a drop in the bucket. Pretty early on I nailed down a look for Amund Abercast and after that, I mindlessly equipped better gear and transmoged it to my preferred look, then sold everything else. 

Because of this I also didn't bother with hunting rescuing magic beasts. Yes, I did so dutifully for quests but I didn't do anything beyond that because I saw no benefit to it. The only thing, say, a Phoenix feather can be used for is upgrading gear: not a worthwhile endeavour in my eyes. 

What I did find a worthy investment is brewing potions. I was already interested in this element from my chemistry background and it did not disappoint, even if it's rather barebones. By gathering and growing ingredients, from spider fans to mandrake roots, you can brew a variety of potions to all kinds of effects. From your healing potions, to once that speed up your spell cooldowns. I got a lot of use out of those and always made sure to brew a couple of potions when in the Room of Requirement. 

Right, the Room of Requirement! A quick word on that. It's a space in the castle that is your home base of sorts. Here, you can brew your potions, pot your plants etc and you can customize it to your heart's content with furniture, paintings etc. I did not spend much time doing so but I can imagine the very creative turn this space in their own little house of sorts. Another way for folks to let their imagination run wild. 

Conclusion

I could go on and on about Hogwarts Legacy but I think I've made my thoughts on the title pretty clear. It delivers an impressive and immersive experience in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter that stumbles quite a lot along the way. The atmosphere, the ambience, look and sound of the world hit it out of the park to create something pleasant and instantly recognisable. To bring the world so many have wanted to visit come to alive and have their own adventure in. 

That said, the gameplay and story underneath it all is nothing special. The main story is underwhelming, with the game's strongest narrative moments found in its more character-focused sidequests. The open world is well designed and looks beautiful but is also very empty and filled with repetitive activities with a sound combat system that lacks depth. 

Make no mistake though, flawed as it is, Hogwarts Legacy is a good game that is sure to put a smile on the face of any fan and can entertain new people too. I would just recommend developer Portkey Games to cut back on the map, add some depth to the combat and if we go back to Hogwarts, put a lot more focus on it.