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Hogwarts Legacy Review: Your own legacy before the boy who lived

Hogwarts is reimagined in the massive RPG we dreamed of playing decades ago.

Hogwarts Legacy sets its sights on the game we all wanted to play on PS2 when Harry Potter-mania was at its peak in the early 2000s; and it does it without the boy who lived. Set around 100 years before the series that spawned this world of magical treats and treachery, Hogwarts Legacy delivers a sprawling open world version of the UK’s prestigious school of witchcraft and wizardry. With a focused narrative providing a purposeful storyline, how much you choose to interact with the world surrounding it, to become a truly powerful witch or wizard, is up to you.

That sense of choice begins with a comprehensive character creator. To hit the story beats, you have to play as a fifth-year student starting at Hogwarts for the first time; an unusual case, to be sure.

Outside of that, you’re free to design the witch or wizard you want to be – so long as it includes a strangely modern haircut for the late-1800s setting and a quintessentially British accent. This isn’t Beauxbatons, after all. Plus, there is a considerable amount of fully voiced cutscenes, so while you can choose your character’s look, their performance is a selection between two.

It’s a performance that initially borrows heavily from its source material, but still feels confident to cater to Harry Potter diehards without any of his usual crew. There are a few nods to famous wizarding family linage, but it doesn’t stray too far into desperate fan service.

You’re more likely to notice familiar trends in some common story hooks. Your unique witch or wizard begins their adventure at Gringotts Wizarding Bank in a vault housing secrets not meant for them, before a member of staff finishes the school drop-off. Not long after, there are more familiar moments, like plucking mandrakes from a pot and navigating a cranky potions teacher. Certainly some blasts from the past, but moments I daresay are frequent for new students at Hogwarts.

Outside of these nods to itself, Hogwarts Legacy does a commendable job of quickly establishing a new cast of characters who ably carry an enthralling storyline. The main quests are varied in scope, with a range of activities spanning actually attending classes, to mischief around the castle and, of course, battling goons and baddies obsessed with ending a meddlesome teenager. It’s an action-RPG that’s happy to accommodate players who are here for the primary storyline and little more.

That’s welcome, as the side quests fall on the other end of the spectrum. I’ve only played a handful, and I’m not keen to go back. Whereas the main quests deliver variety and purpose, the side quests rely heavily on fairly pointless fetch quests from a deluge of whinny characters moping in a corner of the castle.

The good news is you don’t really need to do any of them, as they only reward XP to level up, which is mainly tied to perk points. Main quests can be locked behind level and spell casting requirements, but it’s rare to encounter a key moment well ahead of your level. New spells are unlocked through lessons and extra assignments designed to catch-up a fifth-year who missed four years of magical hijinks, which is rather clever.

The older protagonist flies a little in the face of Hogwarts lore, but we quickly learn it’s happened a few times in the past. Playing as a 15-year-old fairly adept in magical prowess is far more compelling than a squeaky-voiced Bertie Botts muncher. It was the right choice.

I’m finding Hogwarts Legacy to be somewhat more respectful of its historied source material than some of the later books. JK wasn’t too fussed about creating gaping plot holes. There was the introduction of time travel — only appropriate for a 13-year-old girl desperate to nerd out — and suddenly remembering most adults can instantly teleport anywhere, after years of transportation malarkey. Whereas in Hogwarts Legacy, there are a few elements adjusted for better gameplay, but always with an appropriate explanation.

Wandering through the library’s restricted section, for example, employs an invisibility spell that an ally is quick to point out doesn’t make you fully invisible — user beware. It isn’t as good as a cloak, but they’re too expensive, he mutters. Running around unseen underneath a tatty blanket within the opening hours would have been too easy. Becoming hard to see, but not invisible, is a much better fit. Hogwarts Legacy has clearly been crafted by fans of the series who made sure the gameplay enhancements don’t clash with established traditions.

Hogwarts Legacy has a better balance of combat, world building, exploration, characterisation, and tranquil tasks than most action-RPGs – it’s not all about murdering baddies. But it is still heavy on violent spells, and more brutality than we’re used to seeing in the world of Potter. I grew to accept it, and Legacy manages to intertwine spell battles into everyday life in-and-around Hogwarts. It also avoids going full Nathan Drake, with a mixture of shielded students to battle, along with the goons on your trail, and mythical creatures, big and small.

The combat can become a little repetitive, and it does revert to the vintage Assassin’s Creed formula of each enemy patiently waiting their turn, but that’s more fitting of a spell battle; it does take time to cast an attack.

With a default blast mapped to the right trigger, each of the four face buttons can have a spell of your choice assigned; most of which help in the heat of battle, where you play exclusively as a ranged fighter, who is surprisingly effective in close quarters. Each is assigned a colour code, and those colours match enemy bubble shields – you can see where this is going. So long as you keep one of each mapped at all times, you’ll do fine.

It follows the theme of playing the main story in your own way. Outside of needing certain spells for puzzles or at key moments, it’s up to you which of the healthy roster of spells you’ll keep at the ready. It’s easiest to use those most recently acquired – they tend to be the most useful in the proceeding quests – but you could pick a few favourites and stick with them. Expelliarmus!

Likewise, once you’ve impressed your professors in herbology and potions, you could chose to become a potion master and have a raft of them at your disposal. But growing ingredients takes time, so it’s also possible to mostly ignore that and focus on playing purely as a caster. If you’re willing to burn some bridges, the dialogue trees often present more forthright answers, like telling your professor making potions is a waste of time. It mightn’t influence the story directly much, but your choice of answers does considerably affect how your character is presented.

This blend of gameplay is well balanced, as spells are more interesting when you’re using them in the world to solve puzzles and progress. It becomes too much of a shootout against enemies, but it does keep you engaged, and spellcasting always felt like the part the movies never got quite right. Hogwarts Legacy does it better than any of them, or any previous games. It’s careful not to overstay its welcome using a striped back version of the Assassin’s Creed/Batman/Spider-Man evade, counter and attack flow of combat — but it’s not of the same league.

The world of Hogwarts and its surroundings is spacious, diverse and at its best magical. The labyrinth of Hogwarts feels alive and brimming with activity, and thankfully plentiful floo powder allows fast travel to areas you’ve already been – so no excuse for being late to defence against the dark arts class.

A path on the map, and if you like a magical compass in the world, lead you to the next objective. While it does conform to the marker-hopping trope open world games are trying to lesson their reliance upon, it’s fitting as a student of Hogwarts. It makes sense that you’ll be off to class or to a specific area of the castle, and I’m no chance of remembering my way around.

Outside the gates of Hogwarts, the fog slowly dissipates to reveal more of the conveniently close areas and impending danger lurking just outside a school. The township of Hogsmeade serves as a catch-all for anything you wouldn’t expect to find on-site, with stores for everything, plenty of optional quests and a pub that’s far too welcoming of school kids.

It’s joined by a scattering of small settlements around the place, and more prominent areas such as the Forbidden Forest. Outside of main quests, these areas are more reminiscent of Ubisoft bloat than streamlined open worlds, but that’s far from a unique problem.

The map is covered in markers, with plenty of vendors, petty squabbles awaiting intervention, and other apparent points of interest. But they’re mostly filler and didn’t pique my interest. Outside of the core narrative, I’m much more interested in exploring the fascinating parts of the castle. But if you’re keen on extending your stay and unlocking far too many robes, there’s plenty of optional content outside of the castle’s walls.

Without the day one patch, there are some performance issues playing on Xbox Series X. It’s great to see so many options — five in total if you have a HDMI 2.1 display plus an option to remove the frame rate cap — but I only found performance mode at 60 frames (or above if unlocked) to be suitable. Even then, there are still some stuttering issues, and weird visual glitches. Hopefully these can be improved post-launch.

Hogwarts Legacy delivers a world of choice on-top of the best spin-off story in the Harry Potter universe. The core narrative is the reason to play, and that will be the same for everyone. But it’s how you approach it that lets you truly become your own witch or wizard of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin. The optional content is skippable filler, but the main questline will hit all the right notes for Harry Potter fans. While combat may become repetitive, it’s more than serviceable, and fits in against the backdrop of an action-RPG that’s about so much more than killing goons — even if there is a lot of that. It’s a game that finally lets you live your dreams of 20 years ago, with a chance to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and have your own magical adventure.

A note from the editor

While Hogwarts Legacy was reviewed on Xbox Series X (as provided by its publisher) using Stevivor’s standard scoring guide, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

The title is set in the world of Harry Potter as created by author J.K. Rowling. Controversy has surrounded Rowling in the last few years, and it’s Stevivor’s belief that she has tarnished her own legacy, irreparably, through her words, actions and advocacy.

Rowling’s transphobic words and actions have prompted Wizarding World fan communities including MuggleNet and the Leaky Cauldron to speak out against the writer.

“As this fandom enters its third decade, J.K. Rowling has chosen this time to loudly pronounce harmful and disproved beliefs about what it means to be a transgender person,” reads a portion of a larger statement written with feedback and assistance from GLAAD and The Trevor Project. GLAAD’s accountability project has also compiled a list of troubling, transphobic actions from the author here.

“Transgender women are women,” wrote Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe in response to some of Rowling’s writings. “Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”

Moreover, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart drew attention to Harry Potter‘s goblins in early 2022, accusing Rowling of creating them as anti-Semitic characters.

“[People think,] ‘Oh, that’s a character from Harry Potter,'” he said, referencing caricatures of Jewish people from the 1903 book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, one that purported to reveal a Jewish plan to dominate the world.

“[And] you’re like, ‘No, that’s a caricature of a Jew from an anti-Semitic piece of literature.’ JK Rowling was like, ‘Can we get these guys to run our bank?'” Stewart continued.

“It was one of those things where I saw it on the screen and I was expecting the crowd to be like, ‘Holy [expletive], she did not, in a wizarding world, just throw Jews in there to run the underground bank.'”

Stewart has since walked back his claim.

Regardless of how you feel about Hogwarts Legacy, Stevivor wishes to reject the claims of Rowling and affirm that transgender women are women. Transgender men are men. Non-binary people are non-binary, and intersex people do not fit within the binary. It’s also incredibly important to recognise and denounce anti-Semitic stereotypes in all their forms.

Below is a listing of amazing charities and resources should you wish to support communities or learn more. Read, support, donate; do what you can.

Charities

Resources

I compiled a larger list of Australian-based LGBTQI+ groups and resources back in 2017 when Australians were asked to register their opinion on whether or not I could marry my husband. The fight for equal rights and respect continues.

– Steve Wright

# out of 10

Hogwarts Legacy

10 February 2023
PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X
 

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About the author

Ben Salter

Ben has been writing about games in a professional capacity since 2008. He even did it full-time for a while, but his mum never really understood what that meant. He's been part of the Stevivor team since 2016. You will find his work across all sections of the site (if you look hard enough). Gamertag / PSN ID: Gryllis.

About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.