That Potter game thing turns out to be a hell of a lot better than I expected it to be - that's down to a really good story, superb, flowing combat and above all, a meticulously crafted world which absolutely nails the look, atmosphere and feel of the franchise.
There's so many awesome little details thrown into this, from the countless codex entries scattered around Hogwarts Castle, Hogsmead village and the umpteen small hamlets dotted around the landscape. A lot of them will be familiar to fans of the series, many names (surnames at least) will have links to the main HP books, beasts you encounter have also been seen in the Fantastic Beasts films.
Gameplay is a mixture of attending lessons, undertaking 'assignments' from various teachers which in turn lead to learning many of the spells the game offers. These spells are useful in combat, in taming beasts, searching for hidden items, stealth sections, platforming puzzles. There's an impressive amount to learn, from transfiguring enemies into barrels during combat, freezing them after sneaking up on them using petrificus totalus, exploding walls with bombarda, moving people and objects with depulso, accio, descendo, levioso, wingardium leviosa etc etc. In fact, most of the spells familiar to fans of the series are here - including the unforgivable curses should you wish to learn them later in the game. You can select any 4 spells at one time, and you can switch between 4 of these skill sets. Swapping between spells is a bit cumbersome, I found myself equipping different spells depending on what bonus challenges were required for various battles (e.g. defeat 4 enemies with depulso, disarm 2 dark wizards with expelliarmus etc etc). Combat is far more complex than expected, and it's such tremendous fun - so much so that there are many sections I could have avoided by flying over them on my broom, but I sought them out to practise new combos between spells and because it's so damn fun.
There's a lot of Hogwarts Legacy that's been influenced by other open world titles but it never pretends to be original in that sense. There's an insane amount of things to collect, there are fairly simple environment based puzzle minigames called Merlin Trials, there are challenge arenas that throw waves of enemies at you, there's also the Room of Requirement which acts as a base room where you can grow plants, brew potions, house beasts, conjure furniture/furnishings etc etc. There might be some monotony here for anyone who doesn't enjoy such sections.
Aside from the excellent main story (I've seen lots of criticism of this and I simply have to disagree with these views - I thought it was really good) there are tons of side quests. These aren't that consistent. Some of them are brilliant but there are too many 'fetch quests' for my liking. Side quests involving some of your fellow students tend to be the best of them and act as sort of secondary campaigns - they're all well worth playing through.
One thing that is a bit annoying is the loot system, as you'll find the same pointless cosmetic items in chests across the whole of the map, and when inventory slots are stingy anyway, there's a constant need to organise your inventory, by discarding unwanted clothing items or finding a stall somewhere to sell stuff. It's a bit of a pain - rewards for finding a well hidden chest often aren't worth the effort you put in to find them.
I also don't think the charm and appeal of the game would be as strong without the HP license. It really is a superb use of the license, but like Jedi: Fallen Order is a good game made better with the Star Wars license, I think the same could be said of Hogwarts Legacy, albeit I think it's actually a better overall game than the EA one.
I really enjoyed playing this - I went through the whole thing with my Potter-obsessed 12 year old daughter, taking it in turns to do puzzles, combat sections etc and it never outstayed its welcome. It's a good, fun, open world adventure with tremendous combat and a really good, strong main storyline.
There's so many awesome little details thrown into this, from the countless codex entries scattered around Hogwarts Castle, Hogsmead village and the umpteen small hamlets dotted around the landscape. A lot of them will be familiar to fans of the series, many names (surnames at least) will have links to the main HP books, beasts you encounter have also been seen in the Fantastic Beasts films.
Gameplay is a mixture of attending lessons, undertaking 'assignments' from various teachers which in turn lead to learning many of the spells the game offers. These spells are useful in combat, in taming beasts, searching for hidden items, stealth sections, platforming puzzles. There's an impressive amount to learn, from transfiguring enemies into barrels during combat, freezing them after sneaking up on them using petrificus totalus, exploding walls with bombarda, moving people and objects with depulso, accio, descendo, levioso, wingardium leviosa etc etc. In fact, most of the spells familiar to fans of the series are here - including the unforgivable curses should you wish to learn them later in the game. You can select any 4 spells at one time, and you can switch between 4 of these skill sets. Swapping between spells is a bit cumbersome, I found myself equipping different spells depending on what bonus challenges were required for various battles (e.g. defeat 4 enemies with depulso, disarm 2 dark wizards with expelliarmus etc etc). Combat is far more complex than expected, and it's such tremendous fun - so much so that there are many sections I could have avoided by flying over them on my broom, but I sought them out to practise new combos between spells and because it's so damn fun.
There's a lot of Hogwarts Legacy that's been influenced by other open world titles but it never pretends to be original in that sense. There's an insane amount of things to collect, there are fairly simple environment based puzzle minigames called Merlin Trials, there are challenge arenas that throw waves of enemies at you, there's also the Room of Requirement which acts as a base room where you can grow plants, brew potions, house beasts, conjure furniture/furnishings etc etc. There might be some monotony here for anyone who doesn't enjoy such sections.
Aside from the excellent main story (I've seen lots of criticism of this and I simply have to disagree with these views - I thought it was really good) there are tons of side quests. These aren't that consistent. Some of them are brilliant but there are too many 'fetch quests' for my liking. Side quests involving some of your fellow students tend to be the best of them and act as sort of secondary campaigns - they're all well worth playing through.
One thing that is a bit annoying is the loot system, as you'll find the same pointless cosmetic items in chests across the whole of the map, and when inventory slots are stingy anyway, there's a constant need to organise your inventory, by discarding unwanted clothing items or finding a stall somewhere to sell stuff. It's a bit of a pain - rewards for finding a well hidden chest often aren't worth the effort you put in to find them.
I also don't think the charm and appeal of the game would be as strong without the HP license. It really is a superb use of the license, but like Jedi: Fallen Order is a good game made better with the Star Wars license, I think the same could be said of Hogwarts Legacy, albeit I think it's actually a better overall game than the EA one.
I really enjoyed playing this - I went through the whole thing with my Potter-obsessed 12 year old daughter, taking it in turns to do puzzles, combat sections etc and it never outstayed its welcome. It's a good, fun, open world adventure with tremendous combat and a really good, strong main storyline.