Hogwarts Legacy

As a long-time Harry Potter fan, Hogwarts Legacy felt like a dream come true. The world is beautifully crafted, and exploring Hogwarts and its surroundings was an incredible experience. The attention to detail is amazing, from the castle’s design to the magical creatures.

The combat is fun and engaging, allowing you to cast a variety of spells, while the RPG elements let you customize your character in meaningful ways. The story is intriguing, though the pacing can be a bit slow at times. However, the side quests and world-building more than make up for it.

There are some minor issues, like stiff animations and underdeveloped NPCs, but overall, the game captures the essence of the wizarding world perfectly. Flying on a broomstick and attending magical classes are just as magical as they sound. For any Harry Potter fan, this game is a must-play.

Rating: 8.5/10

The game looks great, and there was obviously a lot of great work done to create a magical world. However, I wouldn’t recommend this game because it’s just not fun. Let me explain:

Open World Games — I feel like if you’re gonna make an open world game, the world needs to be fun to explore. You need to have true interaction with the world and incentive to explore. I played 5 hours and had no joy in the castle or the grounds. It felt devoid of any true interaction. Sure you can pet a cat but that’s about it. You can’t really interact with 90% of the NPCs and you can’t truly explore and get hurt doing so. There are invisible walls blocking you from jumping off stairs, which I understand but it’s just not fun.

If you’re looking for interaction similar to Red Dead, GTA or Breath of the Wild, you won’t find it here. I found myself just wanting to fast travel because the world was so devoid of joy.

Lastly, the tasks and quests just aren’t fun. They are pretty generic and cliche.

Sure it’s great to see the world of hogwarts and magic in a game, but at the end of the day the game needs to actually be fun and have a good flow. This game does not. Pass on this one.

If you are looking for a fun Harry Potter game, this is perfect. The game is beautiful, and has tons of stuff to do - from dueling goblins and wizards, to flying around exploring the incredible scenery, to capturing and taming magical creatures, there is something for everyone. The story is pretty good, not the best you'll see in gaming, but it does have its moments.

Not many complaints but the main ones for me were: After about 30 hours or so, the gameplay can start to feel repetitive - similar to Assassin's Creed games, a lot of the sidequests feel like busy work. For example, it's cool to solve the first 3-4 Merlin trials, but then you start to notice they are the same trials over and over. Also, there aren't too many choices that feel meaningful - you can choose what to say but it rarely affects the outcome of the quest.

But overall it's a very fun game and really does make you feel like you're a student at Hogwarts - amazing experience for any HP fan!

Can't recommend. For 60 bucks you get maybe 15 fun hours in Hogwarts at the beginning, which is the only part of the game worth playing. After that, Its just your typical huge yet mostly empty triple A open world.

Even the best part of the game, the first 10 or so hours where you're actually in the castle doing classes is lackluster. There are pretty major staples of the franchise missing (quidditch, the house cup, etc) and its a very shallow emulation of the magic you'd expect from a "Hogwarts experience".

The classes boil down to "show up at a place, watch a cutscene, do one or two quick time events and leave". There is no curfew at night, no real sense that you are an actual student in Hogwarts. You're a character in a video game, and it FEELS like it.

If they had cut down the world outside of the castle and made the focus of the game be on the classes and the castle, it would be a 10/10 game. As is, Its fine, probably a 6/10 but wait for a sale and stop playing after you start doing merlin trials expecting anything to get more fun from then on.

I was never a big Harry Potter fan as a kid (never read the books and didn't care for the movies) but I still found this rather enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the combat, that was likely the high point of the game for me. The story was decent, though I wish there was an element of 'choice' in the game during the story. Overall I can recommend this.

Great game play and beautiful graphics, the side quests are ok but a bit repetitive.

This game is great.

But here are some points that I really hate:
- You would expect the story line to branch but it does not. Choices don't matter.
- A lot of the gear is ugly (especially glasses) or does not fit the model (scarfes clip through hair).
- There are ads when launching the game.
- There is Denuvo DRM so you are supposed to be able to play it on the go but this might cause problems.
- This game has updates of a few hundred megabytes daily. No explanation as to what is in those updates.

You might like this game if you're 11.
I've been a fan of the HP Universe for a long time, but this game's turned out to be a huge disappointment. The plot is just boring and unbelievable and the quests are quite silly and childish. You spend a lot of time just running/flying around the vast fields. There wasn't enough interaction with the characters and castle for me either. The only thing I enjoyed was the variety of different accents presented in the game (I'm an audial) and maybe the Halloween atmosphere.

Played about 2 hours on the steam deck. It crashed about 4 times and I was done with it. It seems like a fun game with lots to explore and do... if only I could play it!

Boring open world filled with the same quests, boring NPCs with the same quests, lackluster main story with the same boring combat, a castle that can be explored within the first 5 hours with 3 main puzzles, stamina bar flight movement, no bad endings, no branching story paths. and no creative adjustments to the world of harry potter other than re-designing the robes... AN AWFUL GAME, A BORING GAME, A MODERN AAA EXPERIENCE.

bought the game forever ago. full price, other things came up, played other things for a while, finally decided to play this for 13 hours straight. today..cant log in..tried everything. down to uninstall/reinstall..still no luck..20 total hours of gameplay, then blam..nadda..24 hrs later, no info, no word..get effed user..love the game, but can not reccomemmend in current state!

Pros - combat is fun
graphics are amazing
good exploration
Cons - side quests are poorly written. Every side quest consists of NPC has lost object or pet, go to dungeon / camp to retrieve said object/pet, return it to NPC. There isn't a single side quest that doesn't follow this formula.
very little enemy variation. I think there are about 5 or so enemy types in the entire game
quantity over quality for exploration POIs

Overall 7/10 good to get on sale

Hogwarts Legacy is a Harry Potter fans dream. Full of magic, mystery and fantastic beasts. The action kicks off right away, followed by choosing your very own wand and being sorted into your Hogwarts house. I chose Ravenclaw the first time around, and then Slytherin, because those are my favorite. During the beginning of the game, you will attend classes to learn spells and eventually become a very powerful wizard. I think the best part of the game is being able to fully explore Hogwarts castle and being able to collect magical creatures which you will keep in the secret room of requirement. There are alot of fun things to do in the game, and lots of places to explore, and lots of villains to duel. Don't miss out on this fantastic game!

This is a single player game with an EULA that states "we transfer personal information to third parties as part of a mutually beneficial business relationship" and requires you to give them your information to opt-out.

The game is empty and boring. Once the initial excitement of the Harry Potter theme fades, the game becomes as dull and easy as it gets. There's so much wasted potential. Can we please stop making open-world games that are empty and make no sense? Why not focus resources on creating a truly engaging experience? For example, I don't care at all about areas outside Hogwarts, so why focus on them? It just doesn’t make sense. Also, if the player selects the hard difficulty, the game should actually be challenging. Not only is the Killing Curse an instant kill, but there's also the 'Ancient Magic' bar with two more instant kill spells, in a game where you face just two or three enemies at a time—boring.

I really enjoyed this game,
great visual, graphics and gameplay,
run very well on my pc,
very recommended!

It's just a very, very standard open world game. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but the problem is that this is a very over-saturated genre at this point, so outside of the Harry Potter setting, I don't think it really does enough to set itself apart.

My bigger issue, however, is the performance. While wandering around the castle I experienced some absolutely brutal frame pacing issues and huge frame drops. For instance, in certain parts of the castle my framerate would be humming along just fine at 100+fps, and then drop down to the 30s for seconds at a time before recovering. While my system isn't top of the line, it's certainly not slow, either;

5800X3D
2x16GB 3600 CL16
RX 6800
SN850X 2TB

The other thing that really struck me during my brief time with it was how stiff some the voice acting was. I don't expect dialogue in a game to sound exactly like an IRL conversation, but it came across as very un-organic, and really broke my immersion.

After a couple of hours, I just really couldn't see myself actually spending my time with this one, so I chose to refund. Don't get me wrong, nothing about Hogwarts Legacy screamed 'BAD GAME!' to me, but it is up against a sea of competition and what I saw of it made me feel that it doesn't sit even close the top of the pile.

I'd only recommend this if you're a die-hard Harry Potter fan, otherwise it's a skip.

In light of Warner Bros. Games releasing an entirely separate quidditch game by Unbroken Studios, it seems clear now why they chose not to include quidditch in this game, they had already given the licence out to another studio.

Overall as a fan of the Harry Potter world, this game is a major disappointment.

With the games size, it looks good, but lacks any substance. Ultimately your left with a hollow experience. It may be worth the 70% off price, but DO NOT SPEND $60 on this game. Spoilers below:

You should be starting as a first year student, and progressing through an arc to learn and improve magic, not a 5th year student with insane "chosen one" powers destined to save the world. Hogwarts and its classes should be integral to the game and its story, not just a montage and a couple very forgettable missions for even more forgettable teachers.

There are no reactive companions or any morality system, you can cast "unforgivable curses" without anyone so much as batting an eyelash. The game severely lacks rpg elements that would make for a much better experience like reactive dialogue, and not just 2 or 3 pre-scripted options that ultimately lead to the same ending regardless. Literally only one choice this entire game makes a difference on if you get the "good" or "bad" ending and that is if you open the repository or not, and even then you get the same outcome at the very end.

There should also be unique relationship options like being able to befriend classmates, or shop keeps in hogsmead, or even to play pranks on other houses and make enemies. The choices you make with other characters should have an impact on the story. I think there should have even been romance options, where you go on a date and drink butterbeer, or go to zonkos; that would be the time to utilize the montage rather than a time we could be doing something fun in class like actually combining ingredients and brewing potions, a feature that doesn't exist.

The story and characters really should have had 5x as much focus and content put into them, rather than stuffing the game with useless puzzles like merlin trials, and copy and paste treasure vaults or whatever they're called.

Gameplay is passable. Combat can be fun, but is mostly button mashy. Flying brooms should be able to move in xyz, not limited to up down flat plane movement, you should be able to do barrel rolls, or any sort of arieal acrobatics, but as it stands, they somehow made flying on a magic broom boring. This game should have quidditch, no question.

You can loose the entire half of the map past the mines/waterfall, and the game would not suffer at all, in fact it would be improved. There only need to be like 3 villages, I mean come on. Really the focus should be on Hogwarts and your legacy that you make for yourself, not the lands surrounding Hogwarts and the legacy of someone else who's already dead. That's part of what bothers me, the story is not even about you, its about Isidora and Ranrok vs The Keepers. There's no hero's journey for the main character. You start powerful, you get some more powers, you end powerful, with no growth or challenges to their moral character at all. Some choices in the moment may test your own morality, but since they have no effect on gameplay or story, it ultimately makes every choice feel hollow and without weight.

This game also has zero replayability in my books. For a game where you can choose 4 houses, you'd think the game would want you to play multiple times, to see how a character from each house might approach the story. Well right off the bat, you are hit with 17+ minutes of unskippable cutscenes and a built in tutorial that must be completed before you're even presented with a choice of house. And that choice doesn't affect what characters you interact with or how you interact with them. No matter what house you choose, each character meets and has story missions with the same npcs. They neither view you more positively or negatively based on which house you chose, and the only reason you might want to try the different houses is to have a different common room with a few unique dialogue options, but not nearly enough to justify another playthrough, especially since, to reiterate, the game only has one real choice that affects the story.

I don't know why this game is rated so positively. Either this is a lot of people's first and only video gaming experience. Or certain Harry Potter fans really have their blinders on when it comes to the obvious flaws in design choice, story, gameplay, etc.

i've had so much fun playing this. there's SO much to explore and discover. (i've played over 110 hours and i'm still finding new rooms in hogwarts every time i play, not to mention all over the world.) it's so much fun to see hogwarts in a totally different era. the story is genuinely good and compelling and it's so cool to see the connections between this storyline and the one we all know and love. there's always something different to do and it doesn't feel repetitive or boring and there's a good amount of challenge involved, especially in the big fights. i'm pretty sure i'll be happily playing this game for another few hundred hours since i'm a completionist.

Hogwarts Legacy is a pretty decent open world action game of sorts, and an absolutely marvellous Harry Potter game. I've played older HP titles, watched the movies and, while I've never been a diehard fan of the franchise, I do like it in general. Therefore, although I enjoy certain musical cues and references, I mainly judge the game on its own merit.

Graphically, it's incredible with some caveats. The game has stunning breath-taking scenery, and spell effects are sharp and satisfying. However, the models and animations can be a bit stiff, and I constantly dropped FPS for some reason. I played on medium even though my PC should be able to handle ultra according to the specs; the game itself set everything to ultra after an auto-detect.

The game also features a day-night cycle, which changes the appearance of the location. For instance the Forbidden Forest at night looks as haunting as it rightfully should.

Moreover, there is also a season cycle with the entire map changing depending on the time of the year. Not only that, but the Hogwarts itself has different decorations for different seasons. Really cool attention to detail.

In terms of sound, it's OK. I enjoyed the female VA for the MC quite a bit, and the rest of the cast are also pretty good. I don't think it reaches the heights of, say, RDR 2, but it's definitely good enough and even excellent at certain points.

The OST is charming, though it might be my nostalgia talking since it utilises certain themes from the movies or older games.

Moving on to the gameplay and the world in general, as I mentioned, it's an open-world game, which means there are hundreds of collectibles, optional secrets, quests, etc. I found them pretty fun, but the sheer number can be a bit too much if you're a completionist. One pet peeve of mine is the level scaling: as you level up, the enemies level up with you. There is a per-area cap, so you will eventually outscale them, but I'm not a fan of this mechanic in general. It did not ruin the game, but I don't think it's particularly necessary either.

The gameplay itself is pretty fun. It mainly consists of attacking the enemies with your basic attacks while weaving in additional spells. Higher level enemies have shields around them which you have to break with a specific "type" of spell and cannot break with regular AAs. The enemies, in their turn, also attack you with basic AAs, which you can block with your shield, or with spells, which you cannot block and have to dodge.

To help you out, there are usable plants and potions, which, in my experience, can completely trivialise an encounter even on the highest difficulty. I actually think it's a plus since paying just a bit of attention to potion-brewing and herbology gives you a huge advantage.

I would not say it's the deepest or most challenging gameplay loop ever, but it's flashy, aesthetically pleasing, and does provide some challenge, at least on the hardest difficulty.

When it comes to the narrative, it's passable. As usual for me, I guess, I did not enjoy the main story as much as the side quests, specifically Sebastian's questline. It was not terrible and had its moment, but it also had some pretty dumb plot points at times.

Before summarising, I'd like to mention certain neat features the game has, which are not crucial, but are very welcome and show stellar work from the devs:
1. You can choose your house (a given, really) and there is actually house-specific dialogue, such as a character bad-mouthing Slytherin and apologising if your MC is in said house. It comes often enough to feel as if your house choice is acknowledged by the game and isn't just a checkbox in a save file.
2. Characters react to you with specific dialogue after their side-quest completion, although it can get a bit repetitive after a while.
3. There is an entire system to decorate your "base" with hundreds of cosmetic items to place, such as chairs, banners, statues, etc. I went for a more utilitarian approach and simply conjured things required to brew potions, but it's still a welcome feature.
4. You can capture beasts to care about them and periodically harvest magical ingredients. In addition, you can breed said beasts and sell the offsprings to get a bit of money.
5. The ingredients from the beasts can be used to upgrade your equipment and weave in special traits, such as "more damage with spell X".
6. An amazing feature: the way your clothes look is decoupled from what you're actually wearing, meaning you don't have to choose between min-maxing the stats or fashion, you can have both.
7. There are hundreds of snippets with HP lore about certain items, locations, people to be found in game.

To conclude, I think Hogwarts Legacy is a wonderful game. It can stand on its own without the franchise appeal, even though it does lose to titles like God of War in that regard. Taking the franchise into account, it's a must-play for any HP fan. For a non-HP fan, it can also be fun, albeit to a lesser extent.