Hogwarts Legacy

The first AAA blockbuster in the Harry Potter universe, Hogwarts Legacy is a sandbox set in a vast open world: a third-person action game with RPG elements. The story takes place in the 19th century at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main character is enrolled directly into the fifth year because they possess the key to an ancient secret that threatens to tear the wizarding world apart.

As they progress, players explore the open world, level up their character, learn spells, and brew potions. They can choose one of four houses, fly on a broomstick, discover various magical secrets, and more. The game features popular spells from the «Harry Potter» series—a protective shield, invisibility, and fireballs—as well as Unforgivable Curses such as «Avada Kedavra».

The world’s design follows the canon. Flying on a broomstick lets you enjoy the scenery and atmosphere: the mountainous landscape, rugged terrain with dense forests and deep caves, cold lakes and narrow streams, and an ocean that pounds against the rocks. Realistic plant life exists alongside the fantasy creatures of the «Harry Potter» series, as seen in the Forbidden Forest.

All the buildings feature medieval Gothic architecture. Hogwarts is a magnificent castle, filled with large and small halls, modest living quarters, narrow corridors, spiral staircases, open balconies, dungeons, and secret hiding places. Hogsmeade is a merchant town with dense, low-rise buildings, winding streets, and bustling squares.

Unlike the scattered villages and isolated farms around the world, the castle and village are distinct game areas, with highly detailed spaces and carefully crafted decorations and interiors. Legendary locations have been recreated: the Great Hall, the Clock Tower, the Headmaster’s office, the Hog’s Head Inn, the Three Broomsticks, the Honeydukes sweet shop, and more.

The magical atmosphere comes from moving staircases, animated portraits, living suits of armor, flying scrolls, ghosts chasing one another, house-elf servants, frogs playing along with musical instruments, and much more. The life and events system plays out entire little scenes for the player.

As you progress, the seasons change. Yellowing leaves and snow-covered rooftops are joined by decorations and other festive touches in the interiors of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.

Contrary to the source material, the story in Hogwarts Legacy is safe in every way. There’s no room for role-playing. The hero has no backstory, and no skeletons come tumbling out of the closet. He’s already a successful and talented top student, so he doesn’t need to grow as a person over the course of the game. Romance is off the table, and relationships are never explored.

The main plot is a straightforward Chosen One story. He’s the only one who can sense and use a special kind of ancient magic, which means he can find the MacGuffin and single-handedly prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. The story is linear from beginning to end, lacking drama, intrigue, and unexpected twists, and it drags on a little. The side stories and character arcs, on the other hand, are better written and more fully developed.

A little time is also spent on classes at Hogwarts. After a few interactive lessons, the player is given complete freedom to act and explore. Further lessons are shown in CGI videos, with the hero taking no part in them. Your choice of house affects a couple of moments in the game, but doesn’t unlock any unique content.

There’s no morality system or accountability for your actions. You can be rude in dialogue and keep loot from side quests without affecting the game—friends, teachers, and even strangers you meet along the way only praise the hero. There’s a lot of dialogue, and conversations can last up to five minutes, but only fans are likely to find them interesting. There are several antagonists, but they’re little more than archetypes. They have no personal grudge against the hero; he’s simply in their way.

Combat in Hogwarts Legacy is a set of separate activities. It keeps you from getting bored, but doesn’t bring all the different mechanics together into a cohesive system with combos based on elemental physics or other explanations. You can’t first drench the enemies with rain, then throw a lightning bolt and expect to hit them all. Freezing them and shattering them with a shockwave is out, too. And zipping around the battlefield on a broom, taking potshots at enemies with magic here and there? Not happening.

The protagonist is strictly a wizard who runs around on foot. The basic attack, magical block with parry, and dodge roll to evade critical enemy attacks are always available and help keep you in the fight. Sometimes you can start an encounter using invisibility magic, though full-fledged stealth is more of a relic than a serious aid to getting through the game.

Most of your damage comes from groups of powerful spells, which are learned separately. Their mechanics are based on telekinesis, pyrokinesis, crowd control, and force. Waving the wand charges a damage multiplier and a meter for ancient magic, which is comparable to an ultimate ability. Cooldowns keep you from spamming powerful spells.

There aren’t many types of enemies—goblins, humans, inferi, trolls, and lots of beasts—but splitting them into subtypes or classes (warriors, guards, rangers, mages, and so on) provides the variety needed. Enemies have strengths and weaknesses, and once you learn them, you can find a way to take them down with just a couple of wand swings. Boss fights are tougher, with a large health pool, multiple phases, their own defenses, and an army of minions ready to come to their aid.

Like all sandbox games, the single-player campaign uses a mix of story, main, and side quests to keep you busy, but stands out for its constant conversations and cutscenes. The quests aren’t anything special: find, kill, and fetch; clear out caves, crypts, and forests; capture outposts and bases. Quidditch wasn’t in the release version, but there were broom races with checkpoints.

Progression is built around your wardrobe. Clothes, cloaks and robes, headwear, and accessories for your neck, face, and hands drop in abundance, with different levels of power and rarity, boosting various stats (health, damage, defense). The best gear has upgrade slots that let you use gems to increase your magic’s effectiveness.

Opening the Room of Requirement and then setting up a zoo in their own suitcase unlocks crafting. By collecting animals in the game world and caring for them in the zoo, the player gets feathers that make their clothes even better. You can’t do the same with wands—you have to buy them with money.

The game doesn’t give you anything for free and makes you work for it: complete quests, play minigames, solve puzzles, rummage through chests, sell items from your inventory, and make use of the economy in various ways to earn money and spend it on the items, potions, and spells you need.