Hogwarts Legacy

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1764 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,266 out of 1764
  2. Mixed: 248 out of 1764
  3. Negative: 250 out of 1764

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  1. love2watchp
    Feb 12, 2023
    6
    Good sides:
    1) Good music and sound effects
    2) World is stuffed with living things 3) Colors of the game are amazing 4) Combat is well paced and fun Cons: 1) FPS drops, stutters, bad optimization. 2) Despite Hogwarts is full of NPCs, they are dummies that just have couple of actions. You better move along or it cringes you, how soulless world seems around. 3) Collision of items    Good sides:
    1) Good music and sound effects
    2) World is stuffed with living things
    3) Colors of the game are amazing
    4) Combat is well paced and fun

    Cons:

    1) FPS drops, stutters, bad optimization.
    2) Despite Hogwarts is full of NPCs, they are dummies that just have couple of actions. You better move along or it cringes you, how soulless world seems around.
    3) Collision of items
    4) Forced cultural representation
    5) Radical fans, that are haters of everything that criticizes the franchise, won't allow to improve the game by downvoting and hating constructive feedback.
    6) Story is "average" and there is no "oh wow" moments. Just... okay    … Expand
  2. Andrews3
    Feb 10, 2023
    5
    To be Fair - i dont see why all of these 10/10s are posted here . this game has a lot of problems - first of all it has no interesting characters and plot is very weak , i havent met a single interesting character in this whole game . they all act and speak like robots . enemies are all the same - spiders , goblins , humanoids or stone giants and rarely you meet some animals or trolls .To be Fair - i dont see why all of these 10/10s are posted here . this game has a lot of problems - first of all it has no interesting characters and plot is very weak , i havent met a single interesting character in this whole game . they all act and speak like robots . enemies are all the same - spiders , goblins , humanoids or stone giants and rarely you meet some animals or trolls . dungeons all look the same too . you can use unforgivable spells near your proffessor and he wont care . also i have only enjoyed 1 quest in this whole game .

    this game reminds me of something that ubisoft would create - a shallow experience that looks cool . this game is completely average and shallow in my opinion .    … Expand
  3. MarsKramer
    Jun 24, 2023
    5
    5/10. Avoid if you hate Ubisoft style games. Message cannot include less than seventy-five letters, so I have to write it.
  4. Razrback16
    Jun 1, 2023
    5
    Cons:

    * Denuvo, performance-impacting DRM is present, hurting framerates and game smoothness and making sure you don't ever really own your copy of the game * Game uses Epic Online Services - the presence of this means I will never purchase the game * Woke / alphabet agenda with trans / crossdressing / homo content present in a number of places in the game whereby they just have to    Cons:

    * Denuvo, performance-impacting DRM is present, hurting framerates and game smoothness and making sure you don't ever really own your copy of the game
    * Game uses Epic Online Services - the presence of this means I will never purchase the game
    * Woke / alphabet agenda with trans / crossdressing / homo content present in a number of places in the game whereby they just have to make a point of making sure you know they're gay, trans, etc. Heck, one of the side quests is seemingly designed to drum up sympathy for the crossdressing character...sigh. We need to stop enabling & encouraging so much mental illness in our culture; this is one of the key reasons so many people are on anti-depressants these days. The presence of this type of content likewise means I will never purchase a personal copy of the game
    * Awful game performance even on a high end rig with an RTX 3090 (poor optimization, effectively)
    * Even the deepest masculine voice for the character sounds like an effeminate boy
    * Once you get past the game's fantastic graphics, it's honestly kinda boring... the combat is mediocre and gets repetitive VERY quickly
    * No romance options in the game - and don't get me wrong, not saying there should be sexually explicit scenes or anything like The Witcher since this isn't an adult game, but you are playing the game as a teenager, and romantic relationships are a pretty big part of that part of a person's life - it can create dramatic situations and dynamics as well between other characters who may be competing for the same girl, etc. They could introduce this in a follow-up sequel when the main character sees some of his friends again that he developed good friendships with such as Poppy Sweeting, etc.
    * I'm admittedly baffled by the really high praise reviews; again not saying this is an awful game, but it's really nothing spectacular when you get past the graphics / animation quality and attention to the world itself. The actual game mechanics are not very impressive. It's just another open-world RPG style game like Witcher 3, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, etc. just in the Harry Potter universe.
    * The day / night cycle in the game is like a lot of open world games nowadays where the day cycle is way too short
    * Game feels a little dead in terms of the cast / environment and what I mean by that is while it's very pretty aesthetically, and there is a large cast of characters, they aren't really developed very well and so it feels somewhat empty. For example you might do a side quest for one character in the school, a fellow student...and you work with them on the quest and complete it. But then you never really interact with that student again despite going to school at Hogwarts every day with them. So it feels very sterile as far as the cast - you need to have fairly frequent contact with characters in order to generate a feeling for the player like they are there, and that the world really is alive. It's missing that feeling from Harry Potter movies where Harry, Ron, Hermione, etc. were frequently together working on things, and in this game you rarely see the main character with a similar group of people outside of some specific side quests.
    * Game has an exclusive quest locked down to Playstation - so chalk that up to anti-consumer behavior from the developer / publisher
    * Way too many cosmetics as the rewards for completing quests, challenges, etc. You'll complete certain challenges throughout the game, and worthless cosmetics seem to be overwhelmingly common - should have more narrative / dialogue as rewards, or something actually useful

    Pros:

    * Kudos for only giving (2) options during character creation for the Wizard / Witch and not trying to define the make-believe notion that there are more than two genders
    * Graphics are pretty darn good, they dedicated a lot of attention to detail when designing the world which is great to see. This is probably the highlight of the game
    * Lots of little events as you're walking around with things happening in the world - the animation work is fantastic by the development team. They really put monumental effort into constructing the world, and they deserve the absolute highest praise for that.
    * Relatively solid, yet nothing ground-breaking, main questline story. The end of the game sets up well for a sequel where, like the Harry Potter movies / books, the main character can return to Hogwarts for the 6th year and have more things to look forward to.

    Game Length: 59 Hours - I did probably ~95% of the game. I didn't pick up all of the treausre chests, but did basically everything else - every side quest that was available, all of the Merlin Trials (quite tedious as there are like 95 of them), all of the star constellation tasks, completed the field guide, etc.

    Final Rating: 5/10.    … Expand
  5. TinyMeatGang
    Jun 6, 2023
    6
    I really wanted to like this game, and I tried very hard to do so, but it just falls flat in most aspects outside of the representation of Hogwarts itself, which is easily the best one to have ever existed. I would highly recommend reading the mixed and negative reviews before buying this game, especially at full price. Not the ones by people who forgot that you're not supposed to iron theI really wanted to like this game, and I tried very hard to do so, but it just falls flat in most aspects outside of the representation of Hogwarts itself, which is easily the best one to have ever existed. I would highly recommend reading the mixed and negative reviews before buying this game, especially at full price. Not the ones by people who forgot that you're not supposed to iron the folds out of your brain and complain about wokeness and "AgeNDa", but the ones by people who actually break down the good and bad aspects of the game.

    If you stripped out the Harry Potter name and theming of the game, you're left with a mediocre product at best. Once you've played the first 4 or so hours of the game, you've already experienced everything the game has to offer; the remaining 16 or so are just the first part but copy/pasted with a bit of variation.

    If you just want to experience Hogwarts and have fun casting spells, this is a great game for that. If you want an immersive and interesting story, world, or characters, this falls way short. It's worth playing, but I would definitely wait until it goes on sale before picking it up.    … Expand
  6. DreamCore90
    Mar 12, 2023
    7
    The game felt magical for the first few hours, but then the magic quickly faded. The reasons for this:

    1. Technical issues a plenty. Glitchy lighting, shadows and LoD with performance issues and stuttering (even after patches) on an RTX 4090. 2. The world is littered by Ubisoft-style side tasks. There are almost 100 Merlin trials, boat loads of balloon challenges etc. Who the heck    The game felt magical for the first few hours, but then the magic quickly faded. The reasons for this:

    1. Technical issues a plenty. Glitchy lighting, shadows and LoD with performance issues and stuttering (even after patches) on an RTX 4090.

    2. The world is littered by Ubisoft-style side tasks. There are almost 100 Merlin trials, boat loads of balloon challenges etc. Who the heck wants to do the same thing 100 times? All of this crap is also linked to expanding your inventory, ancient magic slots and higher level lockpicking which makes it practically mandatory.

    3. Enemy variaty is SEVERLY lacking. You will be fighting the same dark wizards and goblins for the majority of the game, alongside spiders, wolves and the occasional troll.

    4. The main story is very slow and not that interesting in general.

    Had I rated the game after the first 10 hours, I would have given it a 9, but as the hours kept ticking, all the flaws just became more apparent and in the end I even struggeled to keep playing and actually finish it.    … Expand
  7. yourstupidmon
    Mar 6, 2023
    5
    Honestly.. this game is nothing special. Just another boring open world game filled with repetitive side activities and fetch quest just with Harry Potter IP. And obviously terrible performance.
  8. heavybadas
    Apr 28, 2023
    6
    The world feels magical at first, but the more you play, the more meaningless the world gets. for it's vastness it feels rather empty quite fast. There are really lame parts of the story, some of the characters are lame and feels out of place.

    The only story that was worth engaging in was a side quest, the game still has woke elements, there are too many empty repetitive "go kill x    The world feels magical at first, but the more you play, the more meaningless the world gets. for it's vastness it feels rather empty quite fast. There are really lame parts of the story, some of the characters are lame and feels out of place.

    The only story that was worth engaging in was a side quest, the game still has woke elements, there are too many empty repetitive "go kill x amount of Y" or "go fetch x" style side quests, inventory system is annoying, puzzles are repetitive and the merlin trials are necessary.

    There's no point to grind the repetitive tasks other than cosmetic rewards to grind repetitive tasks in game. I already do that in real life.

    I have read all the books, and I love the Harry Potter Franchise, but I was honestly disappointed with this game and was actually really looking forward to this.    … Expand
  9. catmom1964
    Feb 28, 2023
    6
    I think this is a very, very average game--I'm not sure how it got such a high score. I suppose it might be really fun for those that love the world and the series, but I definitely went into it thinking of it more as a game and it's doing the same thing other games do, just not nearly as well.

    The combat is okay, there's a good flow to it and you've got lots of options, but many of the    I think this is a very, very average game--I'm not sure how it got such a high score. I suppose it might be really fun for those that love the world and the series, but I definitely went into it thinking of it more as a game and it's doing the same thing other games do, just not nearly as well.

    The combat is okay, there's a good flow to it and you've got lots of options, but many of the options do essentially the same thing. The spell combo system has some fun parts, but it can get VERY repetitive. There's not a huge variety of enemy types, and they all respond in pretty much the same way. Dial the difficulty up, because it gives you a LOT of time to dodge/counter otherwise and it really makes it less fun.

    The exploration is alright, but it's stuffed like a bad Ubisoft title with the collecting. Progression is pretty simple--XP gives you points in terms of HP bonuses and talents, but a few of the talents are INCREDIBLY overpowered and make everything else a bit too easy. Other than that, collecting things, finishing challenges, etc. mostly lead to cosmetic unlocks and nothing that changes gameplay.

    I found the music kind of dull--it didn't have the same brightness as the film soundtracks. Graphically it was okay, but I found most of the characters fairly dull looking. It had some FPS drops and a few glitches in the inexplicable underwater sections--not even sure why those were necessary. The flying was REALLY not fun for me, and the crafting was basic.

    This feels like a game that you'd buy a younger person to get them more interested in gaming, but the experience of it wasn't something I enjoyed too much.    … Expand
  10. Ingretlam
    Feb 8, 2023
    7
    Real review with no politics. The game is a lot of fun with a great combat system that can get repetitive at times. It has some optimization issues, I have a 3070 TI and have had to turn it down to medium settings to get it 60fps stable on my hdr 2k monitor. That being said, even the medium settings look great. The game feels alive and populated, not an empty waste like most open worldReal review with no politics. The game is a lot of fun with a great combat system that can get repetitive at times. It has some optimization issues, I have a 3070 TI and have had to turn it down to medium settings to get it 60fps stable on my hdr 2k monitor. That being said, even the medium settings look great. The game feels alive and populated, not an empty waste like most open world rpg's recently. There is a huge nostalgia factor here and fans of Harry Potter will get more out of this game then non fans. Would definitely recommend this game.

    Que political portion of review. The game definitely pushes its inclusive agenda to the forefront of the game for better or worse depending on your perspective. for all those claiming not to buy it because it funds JK Rowling, What about the dozens of developers who you are neglecting that actually agree with your agenda? to deny one person you are hurting so many more that pushed the inclusivity you ask for into this game. You all need to think before you speak. (I personally think the woke agenda has gone too far for the record)    … Expand
  11. Holydrago
    Feb 28, 2023
    5
    Graphics 9/10
    Quests 4.5/10
    Story 4.5/10
    Sounds 6/10 The game is a playable game for harry potter fans, but if you are unfamiliar with the universe, the only thing that will interest you is its open world and content, unfortunately, it is an incomplete production.
  12. JDear
    Mar 12, 2023
    6
    I'm quite confused on the positive reception of this game.
    Obviously the HP fan have the best depiction of Hogwarts, but that's it. That's the only positive things about the game.
    RPG system is a joke. Gameplay is very repetitive. Very few enemies with very few attacks repeated. 3 Puzzle repeated ad nauseam. Story completely shallow and on top of that, all characters are lifeless and    I'm quite confused on the positive reception of this game.
    Obviously the HP fan have the best depiction of Hogwarts, but that's it. That's the only positive things about the game.
    RPG system is a joke. Gameplay is very repetitive. Very few enemies with very few attacks repeated. 3 Puzzle repeated ad nauseam. Story completely shallow and on top of that, all characters are lifeless and without any personalities. Optimization is quite bad and is quite buggy. And the world, outside of the aforementioned Hogwarts Castle, is very bland.
    Is one of those game were nostalgia won over proper value.    … Expand
  13. derek_
    Mar 12, 2023
    6
    Unfortunately, this game feels more like chore than fun. It's just run here, reload screen, run there, reload screen, back to Hogwarts, reload.. over and over and over again.. It's filled with repetitive MMORPG type quest like collect animals, gaze into stars from various locations, collect herbs, for hours run around Hogwarts and every hamlet collecting book pages, keys and flies for noUnfortunately, this game feels more like chore than fun. It's just run here, reload screen, run there, reload screen, back to Hogwarts, reload.. over and over and over again.. It's filled with repetitive MMORPG type quest like collect animals, gaze into stars from various locations, collect herbs, for hours run around Hogwarts and every hamlet collecting book pages, keys and flies for no real reason, cuddle your animals, collect rewards for cuddling, unnecessarily upgrade your gear from materials you get for cuddling... well, sorry, not my type of fun. I'm sure it has very special charm for everyone who loves Harry Potter world. For others.. well... combat is action paced, if you don't mind that you will be fighting with spider, humans, statues and trolls .. and that's about it ;( But combat is only 1/10 of the game time. Rest.. chooooore… Expand
  14. 2random
    Feb 28, 2023
    7
    I have mixed feelings about this one. There are some things the game does extremely great, while at the same time it completely fails at other things.
    Let's start with good stuff:
    1. Sounds and music. It's awesome. It's gourgeous. It changes according to the situation- be it a quiet room, a lively field full of students, a classroom or a combat encounter, a magic door opening or a spell    I have mixed feelings about this one. There are some things the game does extremely great, while at the same time it completely fails at other things.
    Let's start with good stuff:
    1. Sounds and music. It's awesome. It's gourgeous. It changes according to the situation- be it a quiet room, a lively field full of students, a classroom or a combat encounter, a magic door opening or a spell hitting a training dummy- it just feels right and immersive.
    2. Visuals and level design. The game looks stunning! All these flying and moving magical things around create an unforgettable atmosphere of magic. Locations are filled with all sorts of puzzles and secrets. I can't remember when was the last time exploring was actually this fun. The game just keeps on giving!
    3. Spellcasting and combat. They actually managed to make you feel like you're casting a spell, not just pressing a button. There are all sorts of comboes you can perform, environments you can use to your advantage: it's not your usual button mash, there's a lot more to it, and it feels surprisingly intuitive. There are countless ways to combine spells and achieve what you want.
    4. Lessons and learning. Well, Hogwarts is a school after all, so you have to attend lessons to learn new spells and skills. It's always a fun experience.

    And now to the bad stuff:
    1. Performance. I'm not even talking RTX. There are some scenes where I'm getting 10-15fps in 4k, and no amount of DLSS helps. I guess my 3080 is not up to the task anymore.
    2. Progression. When you start, the game warns you that the only way to get EXP and level up is to complete challenges by exploring! This approach made me really excited- gone are the days of grinding thousands of enemies! But few hours into the game I've decided to hang out outside of Hogwarts and I've discovered... your generic RPG. Complete with bandits, campsites, ruins, caves, monsters, "points of interest" and "activities". And guess what? They lied! You still get EXP for exterminating everything that moves! As soon as you attack the next bandit, you're getting an "challenge" to "kill X bandits". And while the main game has some magic to it, the (mandatory) exploration part feels like a middle of the road Ubisoft game, where you run around unlocking the map from one outpost to another.
    3. Plot. Well, it's not really bad. I just expected way more than your generic "hey, you're a superhero... a super-magical-hero! and you got to fight super-ma... no, just your old plain generic evil". Your character has a skill nobody else has, and you have to find out how to use it, and more generic stuff.
    4. Missions. It feels like there are 2 types of these. A go-there-fetch-this secondary quests inside Hogwarts. It felt fun first few times, but it got boring rather fast. And there are main quests- where you go to the place X, watch a few cutscenes, do some combat and see the plot move. What I really didn't like, is the lesson to mission ratio. You're in school, but ultimately, you'd have like 1 lesson and 10 missions of a different kind. I wish they'd let you learn magic more.
    5. Guides and pointers. The game nurses you way too much. It explains puzzles. It tells you how to solve things. It just guides and nurses you way too much. I wish they'd let me explore and find a solution to a puzzle on my own more often.
    6. Woke. It's there. This time, it's not just looks, but voice acting as well. Instead of talking about magic, you'll be faced with... Ughandian? Ugandan? Well, some African countries political and social problems. Feels extremely weird, forced and out of touch. And some voice actors speek such a broken English I can't even understand it.
    7. A feeling of Emptiness. Once you've beaten the initial few quests, completed some puzzles here and there, Hogwarts becomes surprisingly empty. Yes, there are hundreds of NPCs running around, but you can't interract with them. There are cool classrooms, but you can't really do anything there either. It feels like the game is telling you: Hogwarts is just the first location, and you've already completed it. No more magical school experience. This is where the generic RPG begins. It's time to move on to the next location, kill mobs there and level up. Which is not what I've expected. Hogwarts is in the name. I didn't want to kill spiders, wolves, bandits. I didn't want to destroy outposts... But here we are.    … Expand
  15. KOMC
    Feb 26, 2023
    5
    the best quest is Playstation exclusive, we pc dog have to wait at least one year.....feel like a clown buying this on full price
  16. Choomber
    Mar 1, 2023
    7
    It's a difficult one.

    Technically and graphically the game is 9/10 except for the loot system which is simply annoying, exploring feels great, combat feels fulfilling. Storywise it's not so good. It's engaging for the first 10 hours then it's gets more and more tedious. Characters are pretty forgettable, their side missions aren't really engaging except for Sebastian's quests. There's an    It's a difficult one.

    Technically and graphically the game is 9/10 except for the loot system which is simply annoying, exploring feels great, combat feels fulfilling.

    Storywise it's not so good. It's engaging for the first 10 hours then it's gets more and more tedious. Characters are pretty forgettable, their side missions aren't really engaging except for Sebastian's quests. There's an illusion of choice, but your choices doesn't matter. There's no depth in characters, but the game redeems itself by the depth of the general world, environment and lore. 6/10 for main story, 4/10 for charactes, 10/10 for open world. In the end i rate it 7, it was good experience, but if you are a harry potter fan it might be much more better for you than it was for me.    … Expand
  17. Xemnuz
    Feb 11, 2023
    7
    Pretty good game about 5 hours in. The start is horrible though, I cannot understand how one could make it that bad. And I do think the performance is pretty bad on most average systems as the world and things in it are many and big, but cant complain on a 3070x13600k.
    The combat was atually better than I thought but nothing special so far.
    The graphics can be nice but it does not really    Pretty good game about 5 hours in. The start is horrible though, I cannot understand how one could make it that bad. And I do think the performance is pretty bad on most average systems as the world and things in it are many and big, but cant complain on a 3070x13600k.
    The combat was atually better than I thought but nothing special so far.
    The graphics can be nice but it does not really feel like the game came out in 2023, especially the menu etc is quite slowish, though it seems more suited for a console than PC.

    The most critically bad thing so far is the amount of diversity. In 1800s England (200 years back from Harry Potter as far as I understand) and your teachers are Arabic/indian, East-Asian, vendors are women with male voices, the first character I met outside Hogwarts was a 60 year old woman talking about her wife Priya, many African Vendors and students from Uganda (this could actually work but if they were born in UK they wouldn't be talking like they are from the most distant tribes in said countries/continents. it really is a shame as this experience is supposed to be british, not Asian, African or a same-gender-love accepting soceity, sadly as was the reality(and yes this is fiction but based in the real world). Which makes me sad to see the game go so hard in that direction just because JK Rowlings happens to think that those who can give birth are women, which should be acceptable to agree with.

    Also weird that there is no "bad person" on school yet with a gang walking around and most people you ever talk to there are people who experience bullying, which do happen to be fair, but every single student being bullied? Also when you get sorted the one talking is not the headmaster but a random professor, and the headmaster shows me a random student to the dorm? Odd.
    Something is off with the FOV (still after changing it) and movement, it doesn't feel natural.

    The headmaster seems to have suprisingly little authority as well which is important for this world to work. Also think its fair to say that the character creation is pretty subpar, you have about 10 faces to choose from which cannot be changed, the haircuts are awful in graphics and style, the voices are the worst because there is just 2 and then you have 4 versions of that voice tweaked, the tweaked once are so poorly made it cannot be used.

    Its a pretty solid 7 so far but I can see it fall to a 6.5 or bounce up to a 7.5 depending on how it unfolds. Hopefully the diversity is enough by now, if only it was a truly british only 1800s experience, that would have been incredible to experience.    … Expand
  18. Dubtricksgaming
    Feb 10, 2023
    7
    Although there are a few performances issues and clear pop in graphics why this isn't a 10 rating this game is beyond stunning best game last 5 years enjoying my adventure very much rich story vast open world 15 hours in still not seen everything yet dialogue is great controls nicely an amazing beautiful stunning vast world would recommend
  19. Keis17
    Feb 13, 2023
    6
    Hogwarts legacy disappointed me a lot. The story is extremely banal and full of clichés, the classic story of the chosen one who is the strongest of all. (Basically the plot of the movie, but dumber). The combat is fun at first but after 10-15h of play it starts to get repetitive. The setting is beautiful but it is ruined by the bad optimization for PC.
    The game gives a pretend freedom of    Hogwarts legacy disappointed me a lot. The story is extremely banal and full of clichés, the classic story of the chosen one who is the strongest of all. (Basically the plot of the movie, but dumber). The combat is fun at first but after 10-15h of play it starts to get repetitive. The setting is beautiful but it is ruined by the bad optimization for PC.
    The game gives a pretend freedom of decision through the dialogues, but in reality 99% of our answers do not affect the story. The chosen House does not affect the story, nor the personality of your character and his classmates. The game is filled with boring side quests that are made mandatory to continue with the main story. Simply put, this game should cost half what it costs now.    … Expand
  20. dsderf
    Feb 17, 2023
    6
    The game is based only on nostalgia for Harry Potter, but if you look at it from a different angle, the game is boring, side quests are not interesting, the main quests are so boring that you want to sleep, in addition, fps drops, I'm a big fan of Harry Potter, but this game is just boring.
  21. Herring
    Feb 16, 2023
    7
    This is a decent game but man, it has so many flaws.
    The story is basic - that can be a strength if there are some points that elevate it, but there's literally only one quest line with any depth to it, it makes the rest pale.
    The 'puzzles' are an atrocity. They're just timewasters more akin to just a collection item than anything else. You need zero brain activity to complete them,    This is a decent game but man, it has so many flaws.
    The story is basic - that can be a strength if there are some points that elevate it, but there's literally only one quest line with any depth to it, it makes the rest pale.
    The 'puzzles' are an atrocity. They're just timewasters more akin to just a collection item than anything else. You need zero brain activity to complete them, they're not ANY kind of challenge. Might as well not be there. The only reason they're in is so there can be a spot on the map filled in. That's it.
    I really struggle to call this an RPG - your choices don't really mean jack. The dialogue is.... let's just sum it up as writing not being very good in general.

    What this game is good at however is the castle and world design - they're just beautiful and a joy to walk thru and explore, even if the result of the exploration is somewhat underwhelming.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying the game, but it's a bit sad to see what it could have been.

    Also, the UI is just annoying and on nvidia (I'm on 3080) it runs not well enough.    … Expand
  22. oleksey
    Feb 11, 2023
    7
    Cutscenes and animations are so silly it looks like they have been taken directly from the game of ‘00. You will be going through black screen transition even to pet a cat, ffs.

    I have finished playing a Red Dead Redemption 2 recently, and the dialogues in Hogwarts Legacy seem so unnatural, so “factitious” compared to RDR2. Voice actors were either rookies or didn’t know how the cut    Cutscenes and animations are so silly it looks like they have been taken directly from the game of ‘00. You will be going through black screen transition even to pet a cat, ffs.

    I have finished playing a Red Dead Redemption 2 recently, and the dialogues in Hogwarts Legacy seem so unnatural, so “factitious” compared to RDR2. Voice actors were either rookies or didn’t know how the cut scene will look like while telling the recorded lines. Voices sound just like they do not belong to the characters, the voice does not reflect the emotions on the character faces. The dialogues are the weakest part of the game, when it should have been the strongest.

    The world does not feel like it is in the same universe as the Harry Potter movies. I don’t know why, but it just doesn’t.

    The quests are made by a Ubisoft book - in order to get “A” go get/do/speak to “B”, “C” and “D”. There is a better way to build quests and tell the story. Just look at CDPR or Rockstar... I am 8 hours into the game and it is still boring, still going strong with tutorials…

    It’s 2023 outside, but the game world and textures looks like 2010, honestly.

    I bought it for 40 euros and I don’t think it is worth more.    … Expand
  23. TitaniumDragon
    Mar 12, 2023
    6
    Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world RPG set in the Wizarding Universe of Harry Potter, a century before the events of the book series. This is a game that is designed for fans of that universe – Hogwarts Castle, the centerpiece of the series, is marvelously detailed, and the game is full of the whimsy that the brand is known for. Visually, the game is a marvel, full of intricate details –Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world RPG set in the Wizarding Universe of Harry Potter, a century before the events of the book series. This is a game that is designed for fans of that universe – Hogwarts Castle, the centerpiece of the series, is marvelously detailed, and the game is full of the whimsy that the brand is known for. Visually, the game is a marvel, full of intricate details – Hogwarts Castle is the single best looking area in any video game, ever, and the world at large is quite nice.

    The game has you play as a fifth year student – a 16 year old – of the visual appearance and name of your choice. You get to get sorted into your house (though in reality, you can choose it), get a wand, and get to explore Hogwarts. You learn spells, and instead of fighting like a FPS or a standard action game, the game has a wholly original combat system based around matching shields and managing spell cooldowns and choosing your targets. It actually works well, and unlike most games which either abstract it a lot or feel like third person shooters, it actually feels like it is its own thing.

    But, while this game is a visual masterpiece, it falls a bit short on the actual experience. The game has a really good opening sequence, full of marvelous visuals and a lot of interesting set pieces, but after you get through the tutorial and start in on the game proper, you realize that there were some sacrifices made along the way to get this out the door, and this unfortunately makes the game world feel much less alive than it should.

    The other students are basically scenery – you barely interact with them, and the only times you really do is quests, of which there are an enormous number. Few of your fellow students or professors get much characterization – really, only four or so characters in the game really get explored all that much, and even then, one of them is terribly bland, and all but one of them have very bland designs.

    There are no companions here – there are some quests where you are accompanied by one of four fellow students, or by a professor – but they don’t last all that long, and they don’t do enough to characterize most of them. Ironically, the Slytherin companion is the most interesting one – and in fact, there are two interesting Slytherin characters, which works very well as they have a pre-existing friendship and you are sort of “intruding” on it, which creates an intersting dynamic. Moreover, one of them is very much into Dark Magic and is very emotional, while the other rejects it as dangerous. The one who is into it befriends you and influences you to try and find a cure for his sister, Anne, who has been cursed, at whatever cost – but even as he seduces you to the Dark Side, it kind of becomes clear that he is going too far and nothing he is doing is ultimately going to work out.

    Unfortunately, while this is a good tragedy, it is interspersed with a general plot that is nowhere near as good. One of the other students is okay – she has a bunch of beast-related sidequests – while the third is a fairly lame do-gooder whose characterization isn’t exactly exciting, and who is presented as some exotic figure – except the school is *extremely* international (much more than in the series) resulting in her not seeming so exotic at all. It just doesn’t work.

    There’s theoretically one more companion, but his existence is so fleeting that he shows up basically one and a half times. It is obvious he was meant to play a bigger role, but it seems like whatever subquest he was getting got cut – either because it wasn’t very interesting or because of a lack of time.

    Indeed, it is very obvious that the game was meant to have a companion system, where you brought people around with you; there’s remnants of dialogue from that, and unfortunately, without it, the world feels very sterile. You can’t interact with anyone but shopkeepers outside of quests, and so while the world is pretty, all there really is to do is to run around collecting stuff – which there is a plethora of, but it is mostly the same stuff, over and over again, outside of Hogwarts.

    The greater open world is honestly pretty weak – it looks good visually, but gameplay-wise, there’s just not enough enemy variety to sustain the game. The game could do some interesting puzzles, but there’s only a handful of them, mostly in Hogwarts, with most of the rest just being “use spell on object”. The actual combat is okay at first, but by the end you are just an overpowered wrecking ball and nothing can stand in your way, even without the use of Dark Magic, and the lack of enemy variety makes it increasingly repetitive the longer you go on.

    Overall, the game is a valiant effort, but the shortcomings hold it back from greatness, leaving it as a bit above par. If you play this, stick to the quests - they're quite solid - but the open world is not worth it.    … Expand
  24. Sicusino
    Feb 15, 2023
    6
    It isn't that good. I never read the books but I liked the movies a lot. I ain't a Harry Potter hater and I don't care about the J.K Rowling Trans thing. The game has the same Ubisoft action/skill wheel that most Rpgs have and it makes the gameplay feel samey. The graphics are nice with a few hiccups but the game feels boring. The amount of cutscenes is nuts and the gameplay is not very fun.
  25. Robin646
    Feb 9, 2023
    7
    So, let me start off by saying, these are my (somewhat) first impressions. I have not finished the game, but I do feel like my opinions are not going to change much as time progresses. As it stands now, I have played for roughly 20 hours, focusing on the main quests and most side objectives respectively so far.

    With that out of the way, let me first touch on the performance. It's bad.    So, let me start off by saying, these are my (somewhat) first impressions. I have not finished the game, but I do feel like my opinions are not going to change much as time progresses. As it stands now, I have played for roughly 20 hours, focusing on the main quests and most side objectives respectively so far.

    With that out of the way, let me first touch on the performance. It's bad. Like, really bad. I have to put my settings on high graphics with ultra performance DLSS, and I still get framedrops below 50 at times... with an RTX 3080... That should not be happening. Now I do realize that this may change with a day 1 patch, since the game is still in early release. That's why I won't include it in my actual rating. Just figured it's worth mentioning atleast.

    Now, the performance is something that can be fixed, but there are some things that just can't be fixed and they may be dealbreakers to people so I'll touch on those as well. The terrible voice acting is the first thing to come to mind. Seriously, none of the voice actors so far, are good, except for Ranrok. Even the main character (male atleast) sucks. I am somewhat intrigued to find out more about the main story, but I really dislike the fact that the main character; the one we play as - is shrouded in mystery. How are we supposed to connect to our personalized, carefully crafted RPG character, when we have no idea who or what he is? These are things that should be explained early on. After 20-ish hours, I still have no clue who the character - that I named after myself - is...

    Now with all that, I make it sound like it's a bad game. It's not, and I'm not saying it is. The world-building is awesome and Hogwarts, as well as everything else, is beautifully crafted. It really feels like Harry Potter. They absolutely nailed the atmosphere and music. The gameplay itself is also pretty damn satisfying. Imagine a Batman Arkham game; but with Harry Potter spells. Pretty good stuff.

    The things I mentioned would just elevate this from being an average RPG, to being a GOTY contender. Unfortunately, most of these issues are core to the game, so they can't be changed. I don't expect them to just recast the countless bad voice actors with competent ones, nor do I expect them to fundamentally change the story to introduce you to the character early on. These are deliberate story and casting decisions and it is what it is, but those things are definitely what holds the game back and therefor, I can't rate it any higher than a 7/10.

    If you are a weathered gamer who is tired of the same old "go here," "fetch this," "kill that" RPG, this game is NOT for you. It does nothing to change the formula we've all known forever, so if you are looking for the next Elden Ring, this game will disappoint you.

    If you're a big Potter-Head however, you may find this game to be what you've wanted for all these years. Exploring Hogwarts and famous locations from the movies/books, is insanely fun, and it has a nice combat system to keep you interested as well, alongside some truly great music that sounds like it could be composed by John Williaks himself!    … Expand
  26. jbram56
    Feb 16, 2023
    5
    While Hogwarts Legacy certainly lives up to the world it is set in, it fails to create a game strong in its mechanics and open world structure. In fact, the downfall of this game is that its elements are serviceable to a larger audience, therefore exceeding at nothing in particular.

    Hogwarts Legacy brandishes itself as an "rpg". Technically, this is right considering the different    While Hogwarts Legacy certainly lives up to the world it is set in, it fails to create a game strong in its mechanics and open world structure. In fact, the downfall of this game is that its elements are serviceable to a larger audience, therefore exceeding at nothing in particular.

    Hogwarts Legacy brandishes itself as an "rpg". Technically, this is right considering the different dialogue choices and different endings. However, these "rpg" aspects are frankly disrespectful to the genre in their dullness. In most dialogue scenarios you have two options: Angel of God or complete **** Neither of which really affect anything in the game in particular. Furthermore, the dialogue in this game is actually painful to listen to, as if they found random kids on the street and held a knife at their throats while they voiced their characters. It feels so unnatural when compared to titles where good voice acting is one of the key components in their story (RDR2).

    Speaking of the story, I couldn't find myself to care about any of it due to mainly the open world design and of course the dialogue. I wanted to; however, many games fall victim to a lack of urgency, especially Ubisoft titles like Far Cry. Essentially, the world is obviously in place for you to explore, however, sometimes it serves as more of distraction to the detriment of the main story. Let's say that you have to deliver some urgent goods from point A to point B. Typically, you'd believe that you have to go to Point B right away, however, no one really cares what you do and how long it actually takes you to get to point B. It's times like these where I feel like these types of game just don't take their story serious enough. Like seriously, I could not tell you anything about any story of Far Cry, AC, Horizon Zero Dawn, etc bc they do not care about strong and coherent story telling where as RDR2 and the Witcher 3 (although not perfectly) nail this idea of creating urgency on the head.

    The open world itself is not good either. In fact, nothing is actually worth your time exploring the world. you will encounter all you need to see by exploring the first Region of the game and simply nothing more due to the copy and paste puzzles and areas of the map. Furthermore, the map in the game lists off all the boxes you need to check in order to complete a region, turning this fun game into a chore. This idea of copy and paste puzzles and areas of the map are downright lazy. Exploration is broken in this not only due to the repetitiveness of the map but because the loot system is awful as well.

    Well, if all these parts of the game are bad surely the side quests must be good? No. They are easily the worst part of the game. Every single one of them is either go here kill this or go here, kill this, then return me this. Other, better, rpg games like Fallout NV use their side quests to either add to the main story or add to the worldbuilding. Hogwarts Legacy instead decided to implement these dry and easily replaceable side quests that could easily be implemented into any other game with very minor tweaking. You are better off ignoring the side quests altogether.

    I understand I have pretty negative in my review so to clarify, what I value most in a video game is mostly strong story telling. I can overlook average gameplay/combat (Witcher 3) if the story is able to keep me engaged and wanting to play. However, this obviously wasn't the case for HL. I did, however, enjoy the combat in the game although it was stupidly easy. Being able to perform these cool combos never failed to make me feel like a badass.

    As an avid HP fan, I will not deny the joy I felt getting sorted into my house for the first time and exploring Hogwarts. This initial rush of nostalgia and dopamine is easily the best area of the game. Hogwarts is beautifully crafted so much so that I'd consider one of my favorite set pieces in any game I have ever played. It is filled with secrets to uncover and areas to see from the movies and books. the game is also visually gorgeous, sometimes I sat in awe when looking at the castle from a distance.

    However, when I turn around and face the rest of the map, I can't help but see a game filled with mediocrity and cut corners.    … Expand
  27. AcerolaOrion
    Mar 1, 2023
    5
    Insanely mediocre and incredibly poorly reviewed game.
    Make no mistake this is just another MMO quest design open world checklist game. The writing especially is ATROCIOUS! A 14 year old intern could have written better dialogue than this. How do you mess up the writing in a game based on an insanely successfull book series this badly? If anyone got paid for this garbage you got scammed!    Insanely mediocre and incredibly poorly reviewed game.
    Make no mistake this is just another MMO quest design open world checklist game. The writing especially is ATROCIOUS! A 14 year old intern could have written better dialogue than this. How do you mess up the writing in a game based on an insanely successfull book series this badly? If anyone got paid for this garbage you got scammed!

    Play every other open world game before buying this. its okay at being a boring MMO open world checklist game but literally dont expect any competence beyond that.    … Expand
  28. breadman123
    Feb 19, 2023
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am about 19 hours in and maybe level 22 and while I have enjoyed some of the game, overall it is a major best part of the game is the initial roaming of Hogwarts and in the combat system. Otherwise everything seems either half baked or flat and hollow. I really think the open world aspect actually hurts this game for the most part. I’ll probably play through the main story some more and possibly to the end but mostly I’ll play because my kids enjoy it. Save your money for a deep discount one day or pass it by.… Expand
  29. Pteromyin0
    Feb 23, 2023
    7
    Pretty average game that completely lives off its franchise.
    It has nice graphics and good sound design, even if the score is a bit arbitrary. The combat system can be fun but is held back by subpar controls. The story is mediocre, side quests are forgettable, the world is mostly lifeless and bland.
    The game lacks polish in many areas: from your character sleeping on the ground to    Pretty average game that completely lives off its franchise.
    It has nice graphics and good sound design, even if the score is a bit arbitrary. The combat system can be fun but is held back by subpar controls. The story is mediocre, side quests are forgettable, the world is mostly lifeless and bland.
    The game lacks polish in many areas: from your character sleeping on the ground to unintuitive and laggy menu navigation, bad flight controls, much backtracking. You have to change your appearance everytime you equip gear. German voice acting is atrocious.
    It runs well on my system, so no points taken off for performance. I'll add 1 point to the score because the game manages to provoke racists and transphobes.    … Expand
  30. Zquaranteneuf
    Feb 24, 2023
    5
    This game is certainly a product that exists. Great graphics and immersion in the world of Harry Potter... but that's pretty much it.

    The gameplay is soo formulaic - totally by the numbers, exactly like all the other similar AAA games out there. Plus, the usual hand-holding, non-stop cutscenes, overly long cringe dialogue, invisible walls, pointless fetch quests that ask you to run from    This game is certainly a product that exists. Great graphics and immersion in the world of Harry Potter... but that's pretty much it.

    The gameplay is soo formulaic - totally by the numbers, exactly like all the other similar AAA games out there. Plus, the usual hand-holding, non-stop cutscenes, overly long cringe dialogue, invisible walls, pointless fetch quests that ask you to run from point A to point B and then back to point A again, main character constantly narrating what you're supposed to do, etc.

    The NPCs literally tell you "check the to do list and get back to me to advance the quest".. like.. they don't even bother. The game tells the player to check the quest log, do the chores, and come back. It really feels like a rigid videogame, and a tedious one at that.

    The combat is okay, and so are the puzzles.

    As for the exploration, it's kinda fun if you can put aside the atrocious map you're obligated to deal with to understand where to go and/or warp. What were they thinking?! Baffingly bad.

    Finally, the controls aren't very intuitive, questionable even, and for people hooked on aCcEsSiBiLiTy there's no option to remap the buttons. WHY.

    All and all not the worst experience, but certainly nothing special. Constantly varies from cool little moments to extremely boring, clunky, or annoying parts.

    Aren't game developers tired of playing it safe and always doing the same goddamn game that caters to the lowest common denominator?    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

47
#47 Best PC Game of 2023
6
#6 Most Discussed PC Game of 2023

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 22
  3. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. Game World Navigator Magazine
    May 4, 2023
    85
    Beautiful, cozy and incredibly detailed, Hogwarts Legacy suffers from overabundance of side activities that offer no story, substance or good gameplay. [page 42]
  2. GameSpace
    Apr 4, 2023
    80
    The success of Hogwarts Legacy clearly shows that good sales and warm feedback from players are ensured not so much by the gameplay thought out to the smallest detail but by carefully reproducing the right atmosphere. But this is already a subtle moment, akin to real magic, and here the nameless developers of Avalanche Software succeeded.
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  3. Ragequit.gr
    Feb 24, 2023
    81
    Hogwarts Legacy is an altogether excellent port of Wizarding World to PC screens. It proudly belongs to the Young Adult fiction genre, which may make immersion difficult for older gamers.
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