izigame.me

Sum-Up

In-depth analysis further down.


🟩 Pros
🟥 Cons



- A vast, detailed and impressive recreation of Hogwarts and its neighboring regions, packed to the brim with locations to discover, collectibles and activities to clear. A Potterhead’s wet dream made manifest.
- Varied and satisfying combat system that constantly opens up new opportunities as you learn more spells, and stays fresh, engaging in the long run.
- Excellent customization possibilities, featuring a myriad of cosmetics and skins, other than your very own customizable ‘base’ to furnish by hand at leisure.
- Exciting progression that portrays your growth as a wizard (or witch) rather well, giving you new tools and utilities to access previously-locked content and areas.
- Solid roster of side characters; most of them are likable / unique enough, and incredibly, their writing isn’t complete garbage - kudos to that.


- Excessively repetitive open-world activities in the long run, that create bloat and annoyance for those who want to complete all side activities.
- Combat balance issues with potions, ‘healing spam’ and unforgivable curses: especially when upgraded they prove overpowered and make most fights quite too easy.
- Most named foes and quest bosses (but not all) are just normal enemies on steroids, that don’t vary in mechanics and don’t have unique behaviors.
- Some inconsistencies with lore and character behavior. Example: if you use unforgivable curses in public or during quests (with witnesses), nobody will give a damn.
- Underwhelming finale that doesn’t really reflect the importance of what you accomplished, and doesn’t give any detail about how your actions influenced other characters afterwards.





🟨 Bugs & Issues
🔧 Specs



- Significant frame-drops inside Hogwarts when transitioning between different sections, and also in specific places throughout the castle, regardless of settings.
- In some cases, fall damage doesn’t register on enemies.


- 3900X
- 2080Ti
- 32GB RAM
- SSD
- 1440p





Content & Replay Value:
It took me 82 hours to complete Hogwarts Legacy, taking considerable extra time to clear all optional content and find around 90% of collectibles / secrets on Hard difficulty. I don’t see a reason to replay the game once finished, except achievement hunting, as the content is linear.


Is it worth buying?
Yes, especially if you’re a fan of the saga. This amount of content and quality are more than fair for the proposed 60€ price, expected from an AAA release.


Verdict: Good
Rating Chart Here
By far the best game ever made based on this franchise, but not a masterpiece by any means. Fans of the series will almost certainly like it, but it’s still drawn back by its issues.


Follow our Curator page, Summit Reviews, to see more high-quality reviews regularly.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2936728702

In-Depth

Setting & Writing
Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the iconic Wizarding World setting created by J.K. Rowling, at a time far before Harry & friends were even born. You’ll play as a fifth year student in the titular magics academy, admitted this late because of unspecified ‘special circumstances’. The virtual rendition of Rowling’s works is nothing short of exceptional, with not only Hogwarts itself, but also its environs (like the town of Hogsmeade or the dangerous Forbidden Forest), all recreated faithfully and down to the most minute details. Of course, some things will differ from movies and books, with the game being set in the 1800s.
The main story follows the classic ‘manifest destiny’ archetype, where your custom-made character will discover hidden potential that ties them to a greater purpose. Despite some genuinely memorable characters and some interesting side- and main-quests, the overall narrative can’t help but fall a little flat and stale, especially towards the ending phases. Nonetheless, many enjoyable adventures await you. Notably, there are no romance or love/hate dichotomies in the relationships you have with side-characters, as your choices will always end up in pretty much the same results during questlines.
Exploration, Collectibles & Secrets
The world is vast and visually magnificent, peppered to no-end with points of interest that often hold collectibles, currency or other utilities. Initially on foot, and later on with the iconic enchanted brooms and even flying magical creatures, you’ll be able to explore at leisure and clear the enormous amount of side-activities. A good portion of these, however, will prove inaccessible until you gain the right spells or abilities, in a sort-of ‘metroidvania’ fashion that promotes meaningful backtracking. Fast travel and an item-highlighting spell prove invaluable in saving time while exploring. Collectibles are mostly cosmetic, enabling the customization of both your wizard and your own private room once you unlock it, to suit various styles.
Most dungeons and locations have additional puzzles or hidden paths that often lead to collectibles or extra resources; exploration feels rewarding, with a genuine sense of mystery surrounding each new point of interest you’ll find. Despite that, most dungeons and locations play out in the same way, and become repetitive in the long haul.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2933385898
Combat System & Bosses
Magical battles use spells as sole means of offense and defense. Usually against multiple enemies at once, sometimes supported by allied NPCs, you’ll have to time your protection spell right in order to deflect incoming attacks, or dodge-roll away in case of unblockable ones. Enemies are varied and range from magical creatures to dark wizards and goblin soldiers, to name a few. Some of them may be weak to specific charms, others have shields you can break by using specific spell categories (damage, utility, movement) or other special abilities, like immunity to certain effects.
Combat feels engaging, well-paced and is more than a little gory for this universe’s standards, death will be far more common than in the movies or books. The way you can combine spell effects to your advantage and use the environment further adds to the base system, while the amount of passive upgrades with item traits and spell-related talents you can gain progressively add another layer of depth. In late-game however you’ll become overpowered between potions, passive traits, talents and endgame spells - so much that supposedly fearsome dark wizards will prove little more than a nuisance due to power creep.
Quests, Minigames & Challenges
Quests usually involve retrieving something, talking to a specific NPC, solving a treasure hunt based on visual clues, getting the solution to logic-based puzzles and more, depending on the case. While some side-quests are unique and memorable, most will be fetch chores or dry open-world shenanigans that you’ll have to repeat over and over in the same fashion. Less, but more meaningful and unique quests would have been better than this bloat, for sure.
Challenges are paramount in unlocking unique bonuses like increased inventory capacity, many cosmetics, and even unique passive upgrades to equip in gear pieces. They often require you to slay X of a specific enemy, finish X of the same activity, and such “long-term” goals. Some of them are a massive grind and will only give you the 25th pair of gloves you don’t need, or other cosmetics that aren’t worth the effort.