Hogwarts Legacy: A Serviceable Game With Strange Decisions

There has been a drought of good Wizarding World content since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 2011. For video game players, it has been even longer with players citing Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup in 2003 or the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004 as the last good video game. Other recent IP revival attempts like the Fantastic Beasts series have also not resonated with viewers. Hogwarts Legacy does break this mold a bit, not by delivering a great story, but by letting longtime fans of the franchise play out their fantasy of being able to explore the world of Harry Potter and do magic like they do in the books and movies.

For reference, this review is based on the PC edition of the game played with an Xbox gamepad.

The game follows the player’s create-a-character, who is a fifth year, as they enter Hogwarts for the first time, get sorted into a house, and is immediately (as one would expect) thrust into the middle of the latest geopolitical scrum, this time between goblins and wizards. The player has to make friends, learn spells, and explore the castle and grounds to learn how to fight and help deal with the goblin rebellion.

The game plays well enough with a few mechanics being a little cumbersome. There are a ton of spells, which is the level of immersion that one would expect from a game like this, however, the speed between changing spells can be annoying at times. Considering that the right trigger is the casting button and holding it plus either A, B, X, or Y casts different spells, there are alternate button mapping schemes that would make the transition between spells easier. The game does not differentiate between environmental uses (setting something on fire to complete a puzzle) from combat uses (setting someone on fire as part of a fight) and the cooldown is equal between the two which can be annoying to deal with as well, especially during exploration.

This game also epitomizes part of the problem with modern gaming in that every game pulls every mechanic from other games that work and tries to implement it in newer games, even if it just kind of bloats the gameplay. In this case, there’s a parry system, meaning that in combat there is a method to block an incoming attack and create an opening for the player to get an attack in. For what the gameplay is, this is not an entirely necessary mechanic, however, it is in the game and has to be used in combat situations. Similarly, there is what would amount to a crafting system where the player has to grow plants and make potions which, from an immersion standpoint, makes sense, however, these systems are time-consuming and aren’t entirely necessary as part of a streamlined gameplay experience.

The exploration aspects of the game are simultaneously a highlight and a downfall of the game. While it does showcase the biggest selling point of the game, roleplaying within the wizarding world, it also is part of the frustration that one could experience while playing the game. Exploration is built into the game as a system to level up and be able to equip more advanced armor, however, if the player is just trying to explore the castle, odds are they’re going to get lost because the map in the game is not designed for easy use when exploring and is more designed as a directory of waypoints for fast travel. Outside the castle, however, players will be able to use the map with ease considering how sprawling the grounds and nearby villages are.

There are a few other odd decisions that stem from the day/night cycle and the lack of morality. There are days within the game and there are missions that require the player to show up at a certain time of day, however, this information is never clearly articulated so it is possible to show up at the wrong time which results in the character laying down on the floor wherever they are and sleeping until the time the mission should start. The weird thing about this is that there is no clear reason most of the time as to why the mission can’t just start at whatever time the player shows up to do it. Similarly, while there may be a substantial cooldown on the use of the Unforgivable Curses, there is no repercussion for using them. Other NPCs do not even react to the player using them, let alone there be some acknowledgment by the game that you’re doing something that is considered to be ostensibly evil. Considering that games in the past have had physical appearances or the appearance of abilities change with the player’s morality (Fable III, Infamous, Watch Dogs), it is just bizarre that this game does not have that built-in.

That’s not to say the game is terrible or unplayable, it just feels like it is dated with systems in place that make it feel older than it is. At times it feels like the PS2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets game but with better graphics and a more convoluted map. Things gamers would come to expect from a game in 2023 are there in the most superficial way, but none of that is to say that the game is not fun. That said, there is not enough in this game to warrant a $70 price tag, though it will probably be marked down on Black Friday which will bring it to a more reasonable price. On a final note, when the game does come out on Nintendo Switch in July, it will run via cloud gaming so if one is waiting for that release to pick it up, keep in mind they will need a strong and constant internet connection to play the game since it is entirely in the cloud.

Final Rating: 7/10

Hogwarts Legacy is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC with releases on PS4 and Xbox One coming on April 4th and a release on the Nintendo Switch coming July 25th.