Hogwarts Legacy review

Smart fan service, satisfying combat, and an impressive Hogwarts make this the definitive Harry Potter fantasy…

Hogwarts Legacy brilliantly captures the magic of the world of Harry Potter with its beautiful open world, engaging characters and exciting combat. [Hogwarts Legacy killing curse](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/guide/hogwarts-legacy-avada-kedavra-how-to-get-the-killing-curse/) [Hogwarts Legacy Hippogriff](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/guide/hogwarts-legacy-hippogriff-mount/) As much an icon of the franchise as Harry Potter, Hogwarts itself is an incredible location for the game, and it’s impossible not to lose yourself in its scale, both physically and metaphorically. It’s reverent to a franchise without having to play the hits. For example, in one mission, I tracked a woman’s lost brother down, only to find that he’d met a sticky end at the hands of the living dead, Inferi. While both mega franchises had to wait a few decades, they each deliver a huge, excellent video game adaptation that is almost exactly what fans had been asking for since the early 2000s. This is also somewhat frustrating when exploring, and we’d wished there had been an option for a more distant, overhead camera, or the ability to cycle through several different distances depending on the situation, such as in modern [Avalanche Software](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/companies/avalanche-software/)‘s game due to her publicly-stated, harmful views regarding the rights of transgender people. Spellcasting is used for combat and puzzle solving, with most new spells being taught to the player at specific points throughout the main story, and some being offered as optional extras in the game’s back half, (including fan favourite Flippendo). Enemies have a significant amount of health, even on normal difficulty, so combat can sometimes become a frantic firework display of spells flying across the battlefield, but in general, it’s largely readable, and the spellcasting itself is very satisfying. It’s soon apparent that your magical powers aren’t simply restricted to turning your classmates into ferrets and changing the colour of your pet rat, but a deep connection with ancient magic buried deep within Hogwarts.

"Hogwarts Legacy delivers a world of choice on-top of the best spin-off story in the Harry Potter universe," Ben writes in his Hogwarts Legacy review.

The township of Hogsmeade serves as a catch-all for anything you wouldn’t expect to find on-site, with stores for everything, plenty of optional quests and a pub that’s far too welcoming of school kids. It’s a game that finally lets you live your dreams of 20 years ago, with a chance to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and have your own magical adventure. It’s careful not to overstay its welcome using a striped back version of the Assassin’s Creed/Batman/Spider-Man evade, counter and attack flow of combat — but it’s not of the same league. While it does conform to the marker-hopping trope open world games are trying to lesson their reliance upon, it’s fitting as a student of Hogwarts. It’s easiest to use those most recently acquired – they tend to be the most useful in the proceeding quests – but you could pick a few favourites and stick with them. Outside of needing certain spells for puzzles or at key moments, it’s up to you which of the healthy roster of spells you’ll keep at the ready. It also avoids going full Nathan Drake, with a mixture of shielded students to battle, along with the goons on your trail, and mythical creatures, big and small. But it is still heavy on violent spells, and more brutality than we’re used to seeing in the world of Potter. Outside of that, you’re free to design the witch or wizard you want to be – so long as it includes a strangely modern haircut for the late-1800s setting and a quintessentially British accent. The main quests are varied in scope, with a range of activities spanning actually attending classes, to mischief around the castle and, of course, battling goons and baddies obsessed with ending a meddlesome teenager. There was the introduction of time travel — only appropriate for a 13-year-old girl desperate to nerd out — and suddenly remembering most adults can instantly teleport anywhere, after years of transportation malarkey. Hogwarts Legacy sets its sights on the game we all wanted to play on PS2 when Harry Potter-mania was at its peak in the early 2000s; and it does it without the boy who lived.

Being able to wield a wand in the hallowed halls is enchanting, but what's beneath the spell is competent but unspectacular.

Hogwarts Legacy starts to feel like countless open-world games of the past decade once you’ve been playing it for more than 15 hours. In place of that, we have hundreds of things to collect and dark wizards and magical wildlife to battle, and like most open-world games it starts to feel repetitive and meaningless after a while. The story, which revolves around a goblin uprising, is thin and uninteresting, and interrogates nothing about the Dark Arts or the sources of conflict between wizard-kind and other magical denizens. Hogwarts Legacy has so much to work with: it is the product of millions of childhood dreams. When Hogwarts Legacy leans into its role as a wizarding wish-fulfilment simulator, it is – forgive me – enchanting. It is a shame that the game can’t escape this context, because tremendous effort has clearly gone into diversifying Potter’s magical world for a 2023 audience.

Hogwarts Legacy is here, but does the game live up to the hype? Here's what the early reviews have to say.

“Hogwarts Legacy has turned the hopes and dreams of Harry Potter fans into reality. Finally, there is a proper simulator of the school of witchcraft and wizardry, allowing you to create your own student, attend classes, and explore the vast landscape outside. It succeeds at being the dream Harry Potter game that many fans were hoping for, and if nothing else, it creates a rock-solid foundation for future Wizarding World games to be built upon. “In nearly every way, Hogwarts Legacy is the Harry Potter RPG I’ve always wanted to play. It will allow you to explore the grounds of Hogwarts at your leisure, attend classes, be sorted, and generally do most of the things that you dreamed of doing when you read the books. While you’ll have to wait a few days to play the game for yourself (depending on [which version you buy](https://www.denofgeek.com/games/hogwarts-legacy-early-access-start-time-how-to-join-download/), that is), the first reviews of the long-awaited open-world RPG are pouring in.