Hogwarts Legacy - Potter without Potter?
By Josh Foreman
Screenshot from Hogwarts Legacy
It’s no secret that the Harry Potter games of the past have been bad, but the newest addition to the franchise didn’t disappoint. Avalanche Software’s “Hogwarts Legacy” is a legacy game in its truest form, taking place in a pre-Potter Hogwarts in the 1800s. With an in-depth character creator that “Fallout” would be proud of, lore-accurate dialogue and plenty of characters and side content to occupy yourself with, this game is well-rounded and has lots of content to be explored.
Screenshot taken from Hogwarts Legacy, one of the many cats throughout the game
The Good
This game does a lot right. The opening cutscene and tutorial may be a bit long, but once you’re thrown into the (mostly) open world, there’s plenty to explore and even more to collect. Aside from the main quest line and combat, this game plays more like a massive multiplayer online game (MMO) than a story game because of the mass amount of collectibles, unlocks, cosmetics, gear upgrades and character building. Most don’t look for this in a Harry Potter game because they expect a playable version of the pre-existing story, but this is a unique use-case that fits the gameplay perfectly. Overall, the set of spells given to the players keeps the game interesting, constantly giving us new puzzles to solve that unlock a new set of other items to unlock. Other games include such large amounts of unlockables to the point of absurdity, but “Hogwarts Legacy” has the perfect environment to make these sorts of objectives feel interesting the whole way through – even petable cats scattered throughout the world.
The Bad
While this game does do a lot right in the gameplay department, there are some glaringly obvious issues. The opening cutscenes (yes, plural) last for what feels like an eternity and only some of them are skippable. Personally, that isn’t an issue, but for those who don’t care about the story and just want to slay some trolls, it’ll be a bit more of a wait than just the 75-gigabyte download. Ignoring the length of the cutscenes, the story isn’t all that compelling, either. I haven’t quite finished it yet, but I was hesitant to play as far as I have just because of how cliche and dull the main quest line has been so far. It is integrated into the game well, but the subject itself isn’t as good as it could have been. The game’s story is good for the die-hard fans, but not quite as true to the original series as some might have liked.
The Ugly
With all of the good and the bad comes at least a little ugly in every game. It may have just been released, but there are plenty of visual bugs littered across the world. The main few are lighting issues, with some shadows being too dark, some stairwells being so reflective that the light from the windows nearby blind you and lots of plants stretching out and clipping through the terrain. Most of the problems that I’ve noticed lay in Hogsmeade, with bush and flower textures glitching and passing through buildings rapidly. The camera also has some minor issues, specifically with how the mandatory third-person perspective is easily blocked by any decorations that get in the way. I’ve missed entire cutscenes for main quests because a bush was blocking the camera, or a signpost was just a little too low to the ground. Hopefully, this game takes the “Battlefield” route and eventually gets fixed over the next few months and becomes the perfect addition to the franchise that it was meant to be.
Screenshot taken from Hogwarts Legacy, Hogsmeade plants glitching
Even with its many flaws, this game is definitely far better than I expected. When I first heard about a new Harry Potter installment, I imagined the same old cookie-cutter storyline with a new set of textures and some better lighting. Instead of copying and pasting the movies again, “Hogwarts Legacy”truly brought something unique to the table; this game will make a magical addition of memories to your pensieve.