Games worth discovering

Hogwarts Legacy was quick to disappoint

4K View2023-02-12

Hogwarts Legacy (Reviewed)

Developer: Avalanche Software

Publisher: Warner Bros. Games

Released: 10 Feb, 2023

Price: $60 USD

Hogwarts Legacy is a single-player RPG game that allows you to role-play as a fifth year student at Hogwarts in the early 1890s before the days of Harry Potter and all of the names we've come to know and love. It's portrayed as an open world adventure, however this doesn't appear to be the case early on.

In essence you'll go to class, explore with heavy limitations, and interact to some extent with a pretty linear and closed off open environment seemingly intended for children. It's prudent not to approach this as a huge adventure, but immersion.

The Story

Isn't particularly captivating

I like the lore of this game and how much effort they put into it, but there is virtually no actual open world experience anywhere in the first 10 hours of the game, because you're still playing a section of some prolonged tutorial.

I believe it is vital to note that this game is based entirely on the lore of the wizarding world and the plot depicted in this game more than actual gameplay.

You can tell how much time and work they spent into the world lore, fiction, and mystery around these things. But that's all I could see from my vantage point.

Many elements, such as the Thestral in the first cutscene, may be understood to someone who is knowledgeable with the overall history of the universe. A person who isn't will have a lot of stuff that they won't comprehend until later.

Having said that, I didn't find any of the tale or dialogue particularly compelling.

Basic rundown

Goblins are looking for you so they can learn the techniques of ancient magic, and they will go to any length to get it through you and your deeds.

Ranrok leads this goblin insurrection, recruiting allies and allying with the Dark Wizards, who have their own evil intentions for the wizarding world.

The game takes too long to open up

The game will constantly restrict you on everything you attempt to do. It's not until about 15 hours into the game can you even get the liberty to explore fully.

Exploration

The Issue

Going into detail about how lifeless and empty this landscape feels when you first start exploring. Unless they are Beasts or Dark Mages, creatures do not interact with one another. It's as if they're on a path they follow but are not not coded to interact with one another, in this case the Centaurs and Spiders.

Put simply, it is for aesthetic appeal and not for you or them to interact with.

The fact that you are supposed to treat the game like a roleplay game was the underlying issue for me as I played through 10 hours of repetitive hand holding.

It doesn't feel like a open world experience. You're in school to learn, to gather knowledge and spells, not to adventure and have fun for at least 15 hours in.

It feels like it is designed for a young audience with an impressionable mind in an attempt to awe them with fantasy and magic, but putting it into the hands of someone older and more curious pushing the boundaries of what can an can not be done, it becomes a very boring an dull experience.

Puzzles

Puzzles are as simple as pressing (1) and (4). If you're feeling a little wild you can also press (R) on occasion to show what needs to be done in the current area.

Basically, using Leviosa to lift an object and place it a few feet away, or putting something on fire, as well as pressing a few buttons with a basic spell.

It's a heavily scripted experience

Outside of the scripted tasks there is virtually little engagement with the environment. You can't communicate with anyone who isn't a vendor or participating in a quest, you can't sit in a chair, bench nor is there a curfew.

I've yet to be dragged into the world because none of the characters are ever truly available for me to interact with nor are the creatures interesting.

No rivalries, No friends, and that's before any of the immersion breaking progressive gate keeping thrown in. In a nutshell, I never feel like a Hogwarts student; instead, I feel like an outsider attending a school to do chores for.

"Ohhhhh... if only someone would speak to me and aid me in my quest!"

No thank you.

It's meant to appeal to huge Harry Potter fans

Don't fall for the hype. Although it is a gorgeous game that will no doubt satisfy HP fans, it will appear to the average or eccentric gamer as shallow & mediocre.

You are not meant to be outside for hours on end; you are expected to be limited to your dorms and to attend scripted activities and feel the atmosphere.

Yet, given that you should be more engrossed in the dorm lifestyle, why isn't there a curfew? In the actual lore, all students save the prefects must be back at 10 p.m. You must be in your common room at that time or face detention.

There is so much potential for it to genuinely immerse you.

It's not truly open

The actual world appears to be instanced, which means that if you try to move something from one area to another, it will vanish as soon as it is 20m away from its present location. That is something I do not want to be limited to.

The game feels open, but it is not truly open; another issue I noticed was that a large portion of the world would load in behind doors every now and again.

This reinforces what I already said: the world is instanced in specific parts, thus there are still little loading windows here and there on the handles of doors.

Crafting and Herbology

You can go to classes and learn about herbs and brewing potions, but the way they are shown and showcased when you first obtain them is ridiculous.

When you first start using it, you will play a little "do this" mini-game in which you will hit a key or move your mouse to brew a potion or care for your plants.

This is never returned to, and everything after that is all about crafting a potion or planting a plant and then waiting for an extended period of time giving you more tedious errand to keep track of before the it is ready to be harvested.

Flying

The learning curve for flying was very slow. During one of your Hogwarts lessons, you're asked to fly your broom through a few hoops.

This appears to be a simple task. Fly through those hoops at a snail's speed, and don't even think about flying out into the sky. You're on the railroad here.

It's not fun to fly once you have your hands on the broom. It's done primarily as a visual experience as if asking: "You're flying above Hogwarts? Amazing!"

It's not, it really isn't. The atmosphere doesn't really work that well for me.

Progression

Is heavily tied to the quests story

The story tasks are the most consistent way to level up in Hogwarts Legacy.

You are supposed to level and progress successfully by discovering world lore and studying monuments and locations not by fighting an exploring the world.

Complete some obstacles and add them to your collection. Basically consider the game as a lore scavenging quest rather than a full-fledged adventure.

This is where the game shines the brightest in my opinion.

You can tell that the majority of the assets and work were spent inside the castle rather than outside in the world focusing on the lore & challenges.

It corresponds to the wizarding world that I grew up with and am familiar with, so it's wonderful to see that they did essential things that aid immersion.

Gaining Experience

If you're anything like me, you enjoy maxing your character's levels as quickly as possible and steamrolling through the entire game through raw power.

This appears to be impossible in this game, as you get diminishing returns when battling higher level creatures and opponents while gaining more experience from tasks and quests. Aside from the ability to acquire new spells and skills via the following method, level does not appear to matter.

I generally run about looking for opponents to farm off of, but this game simply does not allow that. Fulfilling quests grants 80 experience while fighting certain creatures and opponents will net you anywhere from 10-50 experience.

If you're wondering like I was, the answer is no. Fighting level 20s does nothing. You only gain 10 experience points and the possibly of being one shot.

Even if you can farm up your ancient magic spell to one shot most of these opponents at a low level (4-5), it's simply not worth the time commitment required to effectively grow your levels and talents. School is just faster.

Issues regarding other players

I had no real issues on Ultra

Denuvo appears to be harming a small number of people who are attempting to play the game. I had very few issues with the game, aside from "Ray Tracing" in a few locations, which caused performance to drop quite drastically.

Disabling this effect caused no more issues that I personally can report on.

Unfortunately, companies nowadays still use anti-cheat software like Denuvo to protect their games from pirates for a few days before being cracked and played causing problems for users who purchased and tried to play the game.

Denuvo simply creates more problems than it solves, which is why so many people are concerned about the performance issues they are experiencing.

Do I recommend this game?

I am aware there are things missing

I understand that the longer you play the game, the more things you unlock, such as beast taming, but I simply couldn't enjoy myself as much as I wanted to, especially given how much the game treated me like a child.

I'm not a huge fan of Harry Potter or many other items in this genre, so my viewpoint is rather unbiased. I don't like or dislike this game.

There are just things that I wish the developers had prioritized, such as incorporating a plethora of immersive components and activities.

Sitting, Rivalries (not duels), Quidditch, and freedom, to name a few things.

Why don't I recommend it?

There is nothing to gain from this game other than lore and lousy story telling.

At best, the combat here is button mashing archaic spells to one shot any level creature, even if you are level 4 fighting off against a level 20 on hard difficulty.

You can't explore your hearts content because you're continually gate-kept at Hogwarts, and the progression mechanism makes it impossible to get past this.

Do you want to explore this new location?

Go to school for 2 hours, get a new spell.

Do you want to enter this cave and loot the chest?

Go to school for 2 hours, get a new spell.

Do you want to sit down to enjoy the view?

That is not available in this game

Do you want to play Quidditch?

Redacted from the game.

Do you want to do anything remotely unique?

Sorry, you're going to have to play the way intended.

The moral of the story is that it's highly linear and focuses on forcing you from point A to point B to do schoolwork and unlock tightly locked and bogged down gates, preventing you from genuinely enjoying the game through exploration.

I believe this game would be less popular if it did not revolve on the world of Harry Potter. Similar to how the "critically praised" game Stray would have been equally as boring if you didn't get to play as a cat, plain and simple.

This concludes my review of this game, while my opinions may be met with criticism, that's what makes gamers unique, you don't have to like the same things that others do, nor do you have to agree with them.

If you would like to catch me during one of my streams or find me on social media, you can find me at these following locations listed below:

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- Pawkt

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Comments

Devast8tor14

I think you should open a bit up some more. it is a spectacular game

2023-02-18

Author liked

Pawkt Author

I shall consider it. I've been thinking about it, especially because a lot of games lately have been severely limiting my ability to explore. Perhaps I was being too severe, or perhaps I was simply exhausted by all the things I couldn't do. I enjoy the freedom of exploration; even if I am confined, I want to be able to explore and experience new things. I usually search for the little things among the large things, such as people, conversation, and interactions with the world, and I prefer a modest to quick introduction and development over a long and arduous tutorial followed by constraints. I'll give it a try again when I build up the confidence to stomach the early game progression, but I don't really think it will change my overall perception of the game as a whole. But that's my theory.

2023-02-18

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Moon Rabbit

Terrible review.

2023-02-16

Pawkt Author

I'm afraid I have to disagree. A review can be either unfavourable, positive, or neutral. My perspective is neither positive nor negative. The game simply does not have an universe outside of Hogwarts castle.

2023-02-17

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KngSeb

sounds like you a hater lmao the whole point of the game is that you a student of course u gotta go to school and learn the spells💀 what a fkn idiot

2023-02-16

Pawkt Author

We all have out perspectives and being negative and toxic is not something I really care too much about when it comes to reviews. I'm not a hater. I am simply dissatisfied with the void world and my interactions within said world. There is no extensive house system with rivalries among students, and there is no true outside world where you can truly embark on an adventure. Other from quests and tasks, you can't take items out of their positions or interact with the world in any manner.

2023-02-17

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Discover more discussions on TapTap

This open-world RPG captures and transcends the magic of Harry Potter - Hogwarts Legacy Review

Hogwarts Legacy lives up to its legacy. This beautiful game brings the world of the Harry Potter franchise to life and fills it with mysteries to uncover and quests to complete. Hogwarts Legacy’s storyline takes place a hundred years before the events of the Harry Potter books and films. This shift in time frame means that a lot of the established characters and events don’t necessarily matter much here. That means someone who’s never read a single page or checked out any of the movies can still situate themselves just fine within this game.

Jay Hunter21K2023-02-17