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. Barny
    Feb 13, 2023
    7
    The positives are: the game is adequately entertaining, the voice acting is okay, the close up characters are good, graphics are usually okay. Music is great, have not felt it to be annoying at all. Reproduces the JKR's universe for us to move around freely.

    The meh: random graphic problems on PC (stuttering, lagging, loading times on a Gen 4 NVME drive). Quite a bit of repetition. I    The positives are: the game is adequately entertaining, the voice acting is okay, the close up characters are good, graphics are usually okay. Music is great, have not felt it to be annoying at all. Reproduces the JKR's universe for us to move around freely.

    The meh: random graphic problems on PC (stuttering, lagging, loading times on a Gen 4 NVME drive). Quite a bit of repetition. I don't know if the game is meant to be played exclusively on controller or mouse/keyboard. The character can only carry limited items: no storage afaik. It's open world, but open world in a small world (about 5 square miles, compare to habitual 11+ square miles for far cry. Zelda 23 sqm, Oblivion 24 sqm). The character designing phase is lacking. Some collision bugs here and there but not too bad. I don't know if there is a karma system, because clearly there are positive and negative actions/decisions/communications, is it something finished or not?

    The bad: in a pre-industrial revolution time there would not have been as much diversity or alphabet nonsense (regardless of your character being male or female: you are a they/them and you can choose to be in the male/female dorm or be called a witch/wizard the last two choices have no incidence afaik). Clearly the devs couldn't navigate the alphabet nonsense and it feels unfinished business there as the issues are peppered through the game. NPCs are just droning around with very limited interactions.

    It's an okay game with many hours of playtime but it also feels unfinished and overly political in nature.    … Expand
  2. 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
  3. kuehnau
    Feb 11, 2023
    7
    Technically and visually amazing, even on medium settings on my aging rig, the visuals are outstanding. Some of the scenes looked like it was right out of a movie with real actors.

    There is a high amount of polish to the game. What they have done here, they have done (mostly) well. Some of the quests are far too similar to N64 collect-a-thon era style gameplay than I care for. I    Technically and visually amazing, even on medium settings on my aging rig, the visuals are outstanding. Some of the scenes looked like it was right out of a movie with real actors.

    There is a high amount of polish to the game. What they have done here, they have done (mostly) well.

    Some of the quests are far too similar to N64 collect-a-thon era style gameplay than I care for. I doubt I am going to go and find all of those fricking gobstones for example.

    Many of the quests are mundane and boring.

    While advertised as an "open-world" action RPG, it doesn't "feel" open world. I can't just wander off on my own or sequence break anything like you'd expect from a game from Fallout.

    There doesn't appear to be any sort of alignment system at play, I was really hoping to be able to play the game as a jerk-ass Slytherin.

    There doesn't appear to be any sort of like bonding or friendship system in the game for NPCs, this means that relationships don't feel like they really exist.

    Putting in a emotion system like Fable, where you could learn different means of interaction would have been a very welcome game mechanic. I want to be able to flip-off my fellow students.

    Dialog choices largely feel superficial and have no meaningful effect on the game at large.    … Expand
  4. curzon_dax
    Mar 18, 2023
    7
    It's practically a semi-replica of Zelda:Breath of the Wild with a harry potter theme and a main hero that can talk. It will probably impress you for the first few hours of gameplay; the artwork is impeccable inside Hogwarts (10/10 to mappers for that); the 'grinding' of the game is more or less addictive while the combat is pretty good as well as part of the story. However: if you do playIt's practically a semi-replica of Zelda:Breath of the Wild with a harry potter theme and a main hero that can talk. It will probably impress you for the first few hours of gameplay; the artwork is impeccable inside Hogwarts (10/10 to mappers for that); the 'grinding' of the game is more or less addictive while the combat is pretty good as well as part of the story. However: if you do play for more than a couple of days: you will probably find it repetitive and with serious flaws; the length of this review is not enough to express everything about but let's just say the game is relatively mediocre for most of its gameplay aspects though it never becomes too annoying; its best attributes is the art design of Hogwarts itself and the combat mechanics.… Expand
  5. strongnc21
    Mar 7, 2023
    7
    The production value of this game is a solid 8.5. However, in terms of gameplay, Hogwarts Legacy does unfortunately fall a bit short. There is a lot here that is "ALMOST there!" but just doesn't quite make it. Combat, for example, devolves into spamming your available spell buttons and then switching to another spellbook page to spam the next set, rinse repeat. There are no tacticallyThe production value of this game is a solid 8.5. However, in terms of gameplay, Hogwarts Legacy does unfortunately fall a bit short. There is a lot here that is "ALMOST there!" but just doesn't quite make it. Combat, for example, devolves into spamming your available spell buttons and then switching to another spellbook page to spam the next set, rinse repeat. There are no tactically really needed - spam spells, defend if you see orange, and dodge if you see red. There are some interesting "combos" that cause a spell to occasionally hit a little harder, but there are really no BIG combos that could leave you awestruck.

    The open world puzzles are FAR too many. There is really no reason they needed to spam this many Merlin trials or small caves with one chest in it or fly through these balloons, etc. It is incredibly mind-numbing. They likely should have cut this stuff down to only 30% of what they actually put in.

    The crafting was also a bit pointless, as using consumables is typically a waste of time, outside of the very occasional health potion, which you will pick up plenty of along the way anyway. So all the potions and herbology etc, just wasted. As well, the capturing of beasts was also an interesting idea that got mired down in pointlessness as well as not being able to reach full potential until after the game was already basically over anyway. Like, why get an orange "legendary" item at level 10, if you can't ever upgrade it until the end of the game anyway? Going back to pet these animals for their feathers or something became an annoying chore. The Room of Requirements in generally felt clunky and restrictive and pointless.

    The story overall felt a solid C. Very stereotypical, lots of "why didn't they just do x in the first place" kinds of things. And of course, your house wins the House Cup at the end, which you can see coming from before you even start the game. This whole "50 points to here", and "taking away point here" thing is completely arbitrary and meaningless because there's no actual metric being tracked or risk of your house not winning.

    The menu system was a bit clunky as well, being fairly sluggish and slow. So many challenges and collections and crummy inventory items that are constantly putting a notification item on your menus that basically are just perpetually there because who is going to waste time diving into those slow menus just to find the right thing to mouse-over in order to make the icon go away?

    Finally, graphics. Overall, decent graphics, but nothing over-the-top amazing. The game seems poorly optimized, with bad framerate dips that are badly exacerbated if you try to use RayTracing. Even with a 3080Ti at 1440p, I just had to turn it off because the game would stutter so badly.

    If you love Harry Potter, then you will LIKE this game, I'm sure. But when you're done, I don't think you'll be coming back ever again. The lasting impression of this game is "phew... I'm glad that's finally over."    … Expand
  6. 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
  7. Daikenkini
    Feb 8, 2023
    7
    It's a reskinned Assassins Creed Odyssey, which I actually enjoyed a lot, featuring Ubisoft's checklist type of open world design. Which kind of was to be expected from a cashgrab freemium model mobile game developer? There is 3 enemy types in humans spiders and goblins ... and half the 26 spells have no character besides being of some elemental type you need and the rest is copy pasteIt's a reskinned Assassins Creed Odyssey, which I actually enjoyed a lot, featuring Ubisoft's checklist type of open world design. Which kind of was to be expected from a cashgrab freemium model mobile game developer? There is 3 enemy types in humans spiders and goblins ... and half the 26 spells have no character besides being of some elemental type you need and the rest is copy paste filled world you have to checklist until you puke ... please give some more fleshed out worlds out there some more proper games and HL might have not been for nothing. Seems to be generating money just fine, I hope other publishers and devs don't learn to spew out even more AC Odyssey reskins like they are sports games. What I also want to note negatively is how this doesn't feel like a PC game but more of a mobile game as it's apparant that it's a port and it has to work just the way it does on PC on the Switch as well... the loading times for doors leading outside are infuriating and unacceptable, I mean come on we already moved past this in the gaming industry and now we're coming back with the ports and mobile game quality games and switch versions? When will this world ever stick to progress and learn to speak up everytime we take a step back? You slapped Harry Potter on it and people who haven't owned current gen consoles or a reasonable graphics card are suddenly dropping 2+k $ and call this the best game in the world and think they are seeing 'progress' but all they are seeing is Harry Potter and their last game played 10 years ago and the conclusions they are coming to are about to be expected. And don't even get me started on the price tag (or the transphobic organisations you are supporting via royalties to JKR) ... I wish people weren't only buying merchandise from milked out franchises that capitalism is hyping just to maximise or streamline profits while simultaneously killing every 'boring' settings that would make much more sense in an RPG but just so happen not to be franchises like ... a thief? a Samurai? A knight? Just stop buying Harry Potter, they want you to buy just ONE thing to make you as predictable as a plank of wood or a brick of stone, this game has not shown any kind of progress or consumer friendliness in any way! Peace out… Expand
  8. Gaming_Bear
    Jul 7, 2023
    7
    Game started out magical, but very quickly feel into the void of repetitive empty open worlds. They really should have taken not of the top tier open worlds like red dead redemption, Skyrim, witcher 3. This game could have been a classic instead it was just ok.

    Pro Combat is ok Graphics are decent Cons World feels repetitive and empty Need to work on making the world feel organic and    Game started out magical, but very quickly feel into the void of repetitive empty open worlds. They really should have taken not of the top tier open worlds like red dead redemption, Skyrim, witcher 3. This game could have been a classic instead it was just ok.

    Pro
    Combat is ok
    Graphics are decent

    Cons
    World feels repetitive and empty
    Need to work on making the world feel organic and interactions exist and occur organically and don't pull you from the world . Red dead 2 does this well.
    Music needs to be more effective. Flying mechanics need to be fully redone especially if there is going to be Quidditch. Should be able to do complex arial manuvers while still being able to look so around. Final con...no Quidditch... How dare they.    … Expand
  9. 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
  10. VG_Alex
    Feb 21, 2023
    7
    Hogwarts Legacy

    Graphic/Art: 7.5/7

    Music/Sounds: 9/8

    Narrative/Performance: 7/6

    Gameplay: 7

    Overall design:7

    Score: 6.8 (-0.5)
  11. rezo_21
    Mar 12, 2023
    7
    ====================IIIIIIIIII GAME SCORE : 73 IIIIIIIIII====================
  12. svonton
    Feb 18, 2023
    7
    One of the famous franchises got a modern look, and now let's discuss what is good and what is bad about this new game in Harry Potter world. The first thing you will notice is the very good level of graphics in the game - in my opinion, the faces of the characters could be much better and more attractive, but overall not bad. In all other respects, it is close to ideal: landscapes,One of the famous franchises got a modern look, and now let's discuss what is good and what is bad about this new game in Harry Potter world. The first thing you will notice is the very good level of graphics in the game - in my opinion, the faces of the characters could be much better and more attractive, but overall not bad. In all other respects, it is close to ideal: landscapes, clothes, magical effects and animations - all this is created at a high level. But this level of detail makes the game not run as well on some PC configurations (especially on machines with less than 16GB RAM). And it's interesting why this game didn't get as many 0's as Elden Ring with the same technical issues on some machines (and yes, Hogwarts also has some 21:9 aspect ratio issues). Let's move further, the combat system is excellent for me - all these different spells with different effects can be combined in different ways that make combat system so flexible and perfectly suitable for your play style. Various amount of activities scattered around the world also don't let you boring. But here we come to plot and minus that i met in my playthrough. To me, the main quest, as well as the 3 side quests, look and feel childish without any drama, everything is too slick as if bad endings are something that is not achievable. lso about main quest if planning to rush it on easy difficulty (probably on all others) you probably can't do this because LVL-gates game says to you some thing like "no way bro you need to get N lvl to continue storyline", and on low difficulty the only way to obtain more lvl is do all side quests that you can see. But if you don't wanna see credits in the end of the game and your target is get message that you complete the main quest you dont need to farm everything but still need farm a lot. So as conclusion it grate game with good graphic excellent, combat system and not bad puzzles, but at the same time the game suffers from poor optimization and lvl gates.… Expand
  13. xgatto
    Jun 24, 2023
    7
    Great start, tons of potential, but you can tell it's a bit of an "amateurish" work. From distorted, badly mixed voices, to lag and glitches. Excited for a sequel if they ever make one. As far as this one goes, it's pretty average.
  14. Daruse93
    Mar 30, 2023
    7
    Good atmosphere, amazing Hogwarts and villages, fight system is pretty nice. But the plot is boring, characters are also boring
  15. Renaigse
    Jun 22, 2023
    7
    Пример игры, которая получила огромную популярность и завышенные оценки просто потому, что сама франшиза, по которой сделана игра, крайне популярна + давно не было по ней высокобюджетных проектов. Буквально люди, которые практически не играют в игры, зашли поностальгировать по Гаре Потнаму, отсюда и такие баллы. На деле же игра сделана по всем канонам ААА дрочилен: незапоминающийся главныйПример игры, которая получила огромную популярность и завышенные оценки просто потому, что сама франшиза, по которой сделана игра, крайне популярна + давно не было по ней высокобюджетных проектов. Буквально люди, которые практически не играют в игры, зашли поностальгировать по Гаре Потнаму, отсюда и такие баллы. На деле же игра сделана по всем канонам ААА дрочилен: незапоминающийся главный сюжет, второсортные допы, куча выпадающего разноцветного лутячего, отвратительные диалоги и оптимизация, но отличная графика, анимации и проработка самого мира.… Expand
  16. 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
  17. Sylsurfer
    Feb 13, 2023
    7
    I love this Game, the Storyline,the Quests all of it and i would give it a 10 but the Framerate Problems on PC are a serius Problem. Can´t even Stream this with a 3070Ti it has no Driver yet and no Update which helps the PC Community. I play DLSS Performance mostly on High with some settings on middle and the Framerate capped to 60, no Vsync and no Raytracing of Course. This should workI love this Game, the Storyline,the Quests all of it and i would give it a 10 but the Framerate Problems on PC are a serius Problem. Can´t even Stream this with a 3070Ti it has no Driver yet and no Update which helps the PC Community. I play DLSS Performance mostly on High with some settings on middle and the Framerate capped to 60, no Vsync and no Raytracing of Course. This should work better with 32 GB, it fills up the VRAM from the GPU.… Expand
  18. Visitbr
    Aug 1, 2023
    7
    o jogo em sí é divertido, o mapa e a ambientação são os pontos fortes, hogwarts é muito bem feita nesse jogo, o combate é muito divertido, o mundo tem muito conteúdo e missões, mas a história principal é muito desinteressante, as missões secundarias do sebastian foram muito melhores que a historia principal, o jogo é lindo e tem cenários fenomenais, mas é extremamente mal otimizado, eleo jogo em sí é divertido, o mapa e a ambientação são os pontos fortes, hogwarts é muito bem feita nesse jogo, o combate é muito divertido, o mundo tem muito conteúdo e missões, mas a história principal é muito desinteressante, as missões secundarias do sebastian foram muito melhores que a historia principal, o jogo é lindo e tem cenários fenomenais, mas é extremamente mal otimizado, ele come memoria ram e vram de maneira absurda ele pesa a placa de vídeo sem ao menos ter gráficos ou um mapa que justificasse todo esse "peso" do game, algo que me decepcionou foi a floresta proibida, nos filmes e livros cita a existência de varias criaturas mas no game só tem aranhas(que por sinal nao faz sentindo existir diversas aranhas sendo que aragog vai aparecer quase 100 anos depois dos eventos desse jogo) e duendes.… Expand
  19. Fallconex
    Apr 26, 2023
    7
    So basically it's a perfect example of a game with amazing atmosphere, art, and design but with no narrative whatsoever. The game feels kinda empty with that weird plot, lack of emotions, and underdeveloped characters... Like an attraction for wizarding world fans and nothing more (but no surprise here from a studio that never developed a good game so far).
    Overall, that's an OK    So basically it's a perfect example of a game with amazing atmosphere, art, and design but with no narrative whatsoever. The game feels kinda empty with that weird plot, lack of emotions, and underdeveloped characters... Like an attraction for wizarding world fans and nothing more (but no surprise here from a studio that never developed a good game so far).
    Overall, that's an OK experience, mostly for fans. Not recommended for others.    … Expand
  20. petriAND
    Mar 10, 2023
    7
    gameplay - 8.5/10
    story - 6/10
    sound design - 6.5/10 visuals - 9/10 acting - 7/10 fun - 8/10 optimization - 4/10 ----------------------------------- 7/10 (effortlessly an 8/10 if it was well optimized) So the good parts are the gameplay and the visuals, the game is gorgeous and the gameplay is fun and it feels good. Maybe the combat felt a bit repetitive close to the end but    gameplay - 8.5/10
    story - 6/10
    sound design - 6.5/10
    visuals - 9/10
    acting - 7/10
    fun - 8/10
    optimization - 4/10
    -----------------------------------
    7/10 (effortlessly an 8/10 if it was well optimized)

    So the good parts are the gameplay and the visuals, the game is gorgeous and the gameplay is fun and it feels good. Maybe the combat felt a bit repetitive close to the end but overall it felt good. Now the worst parts of this game are the story, sound design, and optimization. The story might just be the most boring thing I've seen in recent times I know is for kids but is just awfully boring. You can sense where the story will go way before actually getting there. Is so very superficial and the characters are so flat written. By the end of the game I did not care not even a bit for any of the characters. And there is the optimization, from 90-100 fps it drops randomly to 20-30 in the same area doing literally nothing (on an rtx 3070ti btw). Unfortunately, this became the norm in gaming and is sad. The sound design is disappointing, on a home theater the voices so echoish even outside of Hogwarts, some sounds are very quiet and others are extremely loud.
    So, overall the game was a pretty good game if you close an eye on the optimization part. For the right fan of the Harry Potter universe, this might be one of the best games they've played. But again this should not be the norm in gaming and is sad to see developers becoming lazier and lazier in optimizing their games.    … Expand
  21. samstrummer90
    Mar 4, 2023
    7
    Las impresiones que causa este juego son que parece que en un principio se iba a llamar "videojuego genérico de escuela de magia para móvil con grinding infinito y micro pagos", pero alguien decidió aportar dinero al proyecto y licencias oficiales de Harry Potter para su desarrollo.

    Al final nos encontramos con un título entretenido pero mediocre, con una historia pobre y que no termina    Las impresiones que causa este juego son que parece que en un principio se iba a llamar "videojuego genérico de escuela de magia para móvil con grinding infinito y micro pagos", pero alguien decidió aportar dinero al proyecto y licencias oficiales de Harry Potter para su desarrollo.

    Al final nos encontramos con un título entretenido pero mediocre, con una historia pobre y que no termina de despuntar ni de destacar en ningún aspecto en concreto: plana, estúpida, genérica, absurda y poco interesante. A nivel técnico y de rendimiento es nefasto, sobre todo en PC.

    Si eres fan de Harry Potter tendrás algunas horas de asombro y disfrute con el mundo mágico y sobre todo con el mapa de Hogwarts, pero según avancen las horas veras como esta ilusión se desvanece para dejarnos en otro juego genérico de Ubisoft, con rasgos de juego freemium para móvil y con cientos de iconos en el mapa que no sirven más que para rellenar.    … Expand
  22. 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
  23. Piergio
    Apr 26, 2023
    7
    After finishing the game, i had to update my review. From a 10, i have brought it down to a 7, cause it's really repetitive.
  24. Dee-Jay_Deli
    Mar 24, 2023
    7
    Nice game with:
    +fantastic atmosphere
    +fantastic music +authentic realization of the Harry Potter World +decent combat that is bogged down by: -boring story -poor pacing (you spend way too much time on "filler" content) -too much open-world busy work -unfitting loot & progression mechanics -Low world interactivity It takes about 20 hours before your really realize that the    Nice game with:
    +fantastic atmosphere
    +fantastic music
    +authentic realization of the Harry Potter World
    +decent combat

    that is bogged down by:
    -boring story
    -poor pacing (you spend way too much time on "filler" content)
    -too much open-world busy work
    -unfitting loot & progression mechanics
    -Low world interactivity

    It takes about 20 hours before your really realize that the game is much more filler content than is appears at first. The depth of game-play is appropriate for roughly 30 hours, but it stretched to >40 by numerous collectables, generic and repetitious "challenges" (Merlin puzzles), pet collection etc.    … Expand
  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. Wondux
    May 23, 2023
    7
    Currently, I am 21 years old. I spent my childhood watching Harry Potter movies over and over. (Yeah, I have never read the books... Sorry lol) I was at some points obsessed. I would find a twig and roleplay as a wizard in my room. I even knew almost all the names of the spells, and what they did. So you may imagine what a blessing this game would have been to me when I was at that age.Currently, I am 21 years old. I spent my childhood watching Harry Potter movies over and over. (Yeah, I have never read the books... Sorry lol) I was at some points obsessed. I would find a twig and roleplay as a wizard in my room. I even knew almost all the names of the spells, and what they did. So you may imagine what a blessing this game would have been to me when I was at that age. Even now, it was a beyond incredible experience. However, the developers have also made very bad decisions.

    Pros:
    -The combat feels amazing. Having so many different types of spells and being able to cast them is a blessing for someone like me. Making strong combinations from the different spells felt amazing. Combat animations were amazing. I could feel that I was actually damaging my opponent.
    -The castle is beyond incredible. Every second I spent there, I could feel the passion emitting from the developers. No words. It was perfect. The ambiance, the music, everything.
    -Room of requirement was a great addition. Very fun to make potions, and collect beasts.

    Cons:
    -The story was terrible. Except for one, the characters are not memorable. Any one of the random side events from Red Dead Redemption 2 has a better story than that of Hogwarts Legacy. The starting idea is good. The villains are not well-written. The characters are not well written. The dialogue is very bad-written. They are not realistic. The protagonist is just blank. Not as a silent protagonist though. For example, the Persona series have silent protagonists, but I find them to be likable, even only from their dialogue options. This protag's dialogue options also sucked.
    -The open-world experience was not likable. It's extremely repetitive.
    -The student experience is terrible. I hated how I had to collect ingredients to unlock spells. It made no sense story-wise and was not enjoyable gameplay-wise. I almost never felt like a student at Hogwarts.
    -I despised the political correctness. I fully support LGBT. Some of my best friends are a part of the community. I have friends from various ethnicities and colors. I am also brown. However, the story takes place in 1890 England. They should not be at a point where they know not to assume someone's gender. They should not have controversies about pronouns. Trans people should not be normal in that period. There shouldn't be so many different races at such a major number. Even though this is not ok with me, it's a harsh reality. This majorly kills off immersion. If you want to do this, make a game that takes place in 2023, and I would absolutely be OK with that.

    Even though I had so many negative comments, the atmosphere of the castle and the combat, never bored me. They were incredibly done. However, I am very biased. If I was not a Harry Potter fan, or if this was not a Harry Potter game, I would have rated it much lower. But, this was the dream of my childhood. It was very enjoyable and I religiously played it, getting 100% at 66 hours. Very nice job.    … Expand
  27. 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
  28. random-dude
    Jul 26, 2023
    7
    Almost excellent game. Gameplay-mechanics and the world design - superb. Music, atmosphere, immersion and exploring in this game is pure bliss. Lots and lots of little lore-accurate details, fun easter eggs and all-around unique charm that only the wizarding world has (and which the later movies lacked). The setting (year 1890) is interesting, and the acting is solid.

    Puzzles... some    Almost excellent game. Gameplay-mechanics and the world design - superb. Music, atmosphere, immersion and exploring in this game is pure bliss. Lots and lots of little lore-accurate details, fun easter eggs and all-around unique charm that only the wizarding world has (and which the later movies lacked). The setting (year 1890) is interesting, and the acting is solid.

    Puzzles... some work, and some are too easy. Most puzzles are repeated too many times. Would've wanter more variety in these, the mechanics and spell combinations would allow for more varied puzzles in difficulty and execution, and I hope this is something they add later on in a DLC.

    Bosses are underwhelming. First few were a copy/paste same fight, and the only good boss with fun and engaging mechanics was the very last one. Though the last boss was good, it didn't feel like the final boss of a game - more like a lead-up to it.

    Main villains weren't much of a fight, and were mostly relegated as mid-bosses with endless adds. The environments in these fights were uninspired, and lacked any opportunity to utilize the surroundings for different tactics, other than the repetitive crowd control you spend most of the game using.

    The story is is another weakness in this game. Its build-up is good, but the resolution comes suddenly bringing the main story to an abrupt end. After completing the main story, there's little to no reason to stick around doing side quests and explore more of the map. Which is a shame, since the world is Beautiful with a Capitol B, and immersive.

    I'll raise my score if they deliver a good DLC, but for now it's a very solid 7.
    Or if they give me quidditch, it's an automatic 10.    … Expand
  29. seojoon98
    Feb 8, 2023
    7
    This game is fantastic. However, the optimization problem is extremely serious. The steam version is incomplete.
  30. 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
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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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