Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy suffer's from the same issue I have been having with major open-world games recently. I often find myself getting lost (in a good way) in the world with every bit of exploration and detail being put into the world that the story just becomes something I have to do in order to access more of the world. Every bit of fun with the game was had just flying around the broom and seeing just how big the Wizarding World is. Comparing it to other games, this is honestly one of the best open world maps with a lot to explore. It didn't feel like chore getting from one area to another and I often found myself actually walking and flying to areas instead of fast traveling just due to how there was always something distracting on the road that I would find more entertaining than the main story which is honestly one of the biggest problems here. 

I really wish I had the motivation to progress the story, but there was nothing interesting besides a few side characters that carried with their personality alone. Every chance I had a chance to do a side quest that involved exploring, I took it because it was much more fun than following the main story. It sucks to say that I did not finish the story, but thats mainly due to the reason that there was much better things to do and by the time I did most of them, I just lost interest in the game entirely. 

The combat is pretty standard and generic. No real issue here and what is to be expected of a game like this. The real difference that sets it apart from other games is the fact that all attacks are ranged. This kind of made stealth sections a little too easy where you can just step back and wipe out a camp. The combo's are cool, but are practically non-existent since either everyone is weak to where they die to the second spell or they are unable to be combo'ed. 

The world and exploration was amazing (even for a non-HP fan), the story was poor, the characters were good, the combat was fair. 

Alright, I was caught by surprise with this game.

When it was first announced, I didn't care much for it. Fantastic Beasts was a flop, and even though I'm a big fan of Harry Potter, I don't trust the games industry anymore. I thought the release date was much further away, so I only discovered it one month before release, and my interest started to grow slowly. After getting my hands on it, here are my thoughts:

The beginning of the game is not its strong point, especially if you expect something like the movies. But the more you play, the better the game becomes.

The main story was okay, but what really got me into the game were the relationship quests and how they were connected to the main storyline. Unfortunately, the influence of these quests - in the consequences factor - was literally irrelevant, but the atmosphere was there. The development of the characters could have been better, but following them on their journey was good enough. I also loved the way the developers approached the houses. In the movies, besides Gryffindor, most characters were one-dimensional and behaved according to the stereotypes of their houses. That's not the case here. As a critic, I must say that the conclusion of those side quests could be more unpredictable. Actually, I could say that about all of the main quest storylines.

Is the game difficult? It depends. It can be, but it's up to you. I played on hard and chose to use the minimum amount of potions as possible, including life. That way, three hits and I was dead. After getting used to the spells and the enemies, it becomes okay. All I needed was to understand the weaknesses of my opponents and pay attention.

Hogwarts is beautiful. Not as magical as in the movies, but pretty good. Exploring it is rewarding, and the way the developers placed chests and challenges was amazing. The open world surprised me a lot. I didn't expect such a huge place, with so many possibilities for exploration. Another thing that made me love this game was how much content is in it. A good example is the Room of Requirement. I lost count of how many times I thought it was over, but no, they just throw more and more content at you - and that happened even in the last stages of the game. Amazing. You know when you're playing a game that was made with love.

But there's something I still haven't talked about, and it can be a game-breaker for a lot of people: the optimization.

It's broken. I had to spend hours looking for mods to fix the game. After trying many of them, I found one: Ascendio 3.0. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be writing this review, so a huge thanks to the modders. With the mod, I played the game with 45 fps locked at 1080p, with most settings on high. And it was beautiful - but obviously not as much as the requirements to play it suggest, since 16GB of RAM is not enough without a mod. Overall, I'm happy with the game. There's so much to talk about, but I'm getting tired of writing. I do recommend it, but be aware of its optimization problems. Maybe in a year, it will be playable without mods - but if you have a console, you can disregard this.

First playthrough date: 03/2023