Hogwarts Legacy

The first AAA blockbuster in the Harry Potter universe — Hogwarts Legacy — is a sandbox in a large open world, a third-person action game with RPG elements. The events take place in the 19th century, at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main character is immediately enrolled in the fifth year, as he holds the key to an ancient secret that threatens to tear the magical world apart.

As the game progresses, the player explores the open world, levels up their character, learns spells, and brews potions. There is a choice of one of four houses, broomstick flights, various magical secrets, and so on. Popular spells from the “Potterverse” are present — a protective dome, invisibility, a fireball, as well as unforgivable curses like “Avada Kedavra.”

The embodiment of the world follows the canon. Flying on a broomstick, you can enjoy the landscapes and aesthetics of the world: mountainous terrain, rugged relief with many dense forests and deep caves, cold lakes, and narrow rivers, an ocean gnawing at the rocks. Realistic flora coexists with the fantasy fauna of the “Potterverse,” exemplified by the Forbidden Forest.

All buildings are in medieval Gothic architecture. Hogwarts is a majestic castle full of large and small halls, small living rooms, narrow corridors, spiral staircases, and open balconies, dungeons, and secret caches. Hogsmeade is a merchant town with dense low-rise buildings, winding streets, and bustling squares.

Unlike scattered villages and individual farms, the castle and the village are standalone game arenas, with the highest level of detail in spaces and meticulous decoration. Legendary points of interest have been recreated: the Great Hall, the Clock Tower, the Headmaster's office, the “Hog's Head” tavern, the “Three Broomsticks” shop, the “Sweet Kingdom” confectionery, and others.

The magical ambiance is enhanced by self-moving staircases, animated portraits, living armor, flying scrolls, ghosts chasing each other, house-elves assisting with instruments, and much more. The life and event generation system plays out entire mini-scenes before the player.

As the game progresses, the seasons change. The company of yellowed and fallen leaves, snow-covered roofs, is complemented by decorations and other pre-New Year details in the interiors of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.

Contrary to the canon, the narrative of Hogwarts Legacy is safe in every way. There is no role-playing. The hero lacks a backstory; no skeletons will come out of the closet. Already a successful and talented top student, he does not need personal growth as the game progresses. Romantic relationships are not allowed; the issue of interpersonal relationships is not raised anywhere.

The main plot is a simple story about the Chosen One. He is the only one who feels and can use special ancient magic, making him capable of finding the MacGuffin and single-handedly preventing it from falling into the wrong hands. The story is linear from start to finish, devoid of drama, intrigue, and unexpected twists, and somewhat drawn out. However, the secondary plot lines and character arcs are better written and more coherent.

Little time is devoted to studying at Hogwarts. After a few interactive lessons, the player is given full freedom of action and exploration; further training is shown in CGI cutscenes without the hero's participation in the process. The choice of house will affect the game a couple of times, but it won't create any unique content.

There is no morality system or accountability for your actions. You can be cheeky in dialogues and claim loot from side quests without affecting the gameplay — friends, teachers, and strangers will only praise the main character. There is a lot of interaction, dialogues last up to 5 minutes, but they will only interest fans. There are several antagonists, but their development does not go beyond archetypes. They have nothing personal against the hero; he just gets in their way.

The combat in Hogwarts Legacy is a set of distributed activities. It won't let you get bored, but it also doesn't combine all the diverse mechanics into a single system with elemental physics or other explanations. You can't first drench enemies with rain and then strike them with lightning, expecting to hit them all. Freezing and shattering them with a shockwave is also not possible. Flying around in battle on a broom, nibbling at enemies with magic here and there — not happening.

The protagonist is strictly a wizard running on his own two feet. Basic attacks, a magical block with parrying, and a roll to dodge critical enemy attacks are available at any moment and necessary to stay in combat. Sometimes you can initiate a fight using invisibility magic, although full-fledged stealth gameplay is more of a relic than a serious aid in progression.

The main damage is dealt by groups of powerful spells learned separately. Their mechanics are based on telekinesis and pyrokinesis, crowd control, and force impact. By waving his wand, the hero charges a damage multiplier and an ancient magic gauge, which can be compared to an ultimate. Spamming powerful spells is prevented by cooldowns.

The roster of enemies is small — goblins, humans, inferi, trolls, and many beasts — but the necessary variety is ensured by dividing them into subtypes or classes (warriors, guards, rangers, mages, etc.). Enemies have strengths and weaknesses, which, once studied, allow you to take them down with a few wand flicks. Boss fights are more challenging — they have a large health pool, multiple phases, their own defenses, and an army of minions ready to assist.

Like all sandboxes, the single-player game uses a set of story, main, and additional quests to generate activities, but it stands out with constant interaction and cutscenes. The quests are nothing special: find-kill-fetch, clear caves-crypts-forests, capture outposts and bases. Quidditch was not in the release version, but there were broom races with checkpoints.

Progression is built around the wardrobe. Clothes, cloaks, and robes, headwear, neck accessories, face and hand items are abundantly dropped on the player and are distributed by strength and rarity, boosting various attributes (health, damage, defense). The best gear contains upgrade slots, which, with the help of gems, increase the effectiveness of magic.

After unlocking the Room of Requirement and then his own zoo in a suitcase, the hero unlocks the crafting mechanic. By collecting animals in the game world and caring for them in the zoo, he gets feathers that make his clothing even better. This won't work with wands — they have to be bought with money.

The game doesn't give anything for free and forces you to keep moving: выполнять квесты, проходить мини-игры, решать головоломки, потрошить сундуки, сбывать содержимое инвентаря и по-всякому пользоваться экономикой, чтобы заработать деньги и потратить их на покупку нужных предметов, зелий, заклинаний.