An excellent open world RPG set in the Harry Potter universe
Hogwarts Legacy is a premium action-adventure RPG set in the magical world of Harry Potter. If you grew up reading the adventures of The Boy Who Lived or enjoyed any of its movie adaptations, this is the game you’ve been waiting for.
After three long years of development by Portkey Games and Avalanche Software, Hogwarts Legacy is finally in your hands and ready to become the crowning jewel of the Potterverse. Hop on the Hogwarts Express to embark on a thrilling adventure full of magic, fun, and plot twists while visiting the franchise’s most iconic places.
What’s Hogwarts’s Legacy about?
Hogwarts Legacy takes you to the end of the 19th century, a time of change and magic, where you’ll take the role of a young aspiring wizard admitted to Hogwarts. However, your arrival at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry doesn’t follow a typical student’s. Like Harry, there’s something unique about you so that you will enter the academy straight into the fifth year.
After the welcome ceremony and being sent to your house by the Sorting Hat, you’ll start your adventures at Hogwarts. You can go to class, make new friends, duel some random Malfoy, or chill during the weekends at Hogsmeade, sipping a jar of refreshing butterbeer. Your time at Hogwarts is entirely yours, so feel free to have all the fun you want at your new magical home.
The story of the game will give you a thrill. While exploring Hogwarts and its surrounding areas, you’ll slowly unravel a plot that, following the same formula as the Harry Potter books, mixes fantasy and magic with big doses of mystery. The game can assure you that once you start, you won’t be able to stop playing until you see the credits roll.
Become the star of your own Harry Potter book
One of Hogwarts Legacy’s most significant selling points is that you’ll finally be the main character of our own Potterverse story. To create your avatar, the game includes a powerful character creator tool to let you choose whether you want to be a wizard or a witch. You must select your hairstyle, color, body shape, face, and more. You’ll also be able to choose between a male or a female body, which won’t be restricted to the sex of the character. This way, if you want, you can create your trans witch or wizard. Giving you this option is significant since it’s a strong message the developers are sending after months of controversy due to transphobic comments that J.K Rowling shared through her Twitter account.
Choosing your avatar is not the only thing you’ll have to do to start your adventure. You’ll also need to select one of the Four Houses of Hogwarts—Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. As usual, the Sorting Hat will be the one that will choose for you, but what happens if it sends you to Slytherin while deep inside, you know you’re a Hufflepuff? Don’t worry—you can ignore the Hat’s command and choose your desired house.
An open world full of adventures
One of the main attractions of Hogwarts Legacy is that it’s the first open-world game based on the Harry Potter universe. These are always great since they let you freely explore a vast map full of adventures, activities, and hidden mysteries. Games such as The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 are still considered the best examples of perfectly developed open worlds nowadays. However, achieving that is not easy, and most of the time, these open worlds are empty and soulless husks that serve as an excuse to show some missions.
Avalanche and Portkey Games gave shape to the Potter universe in a massive map where you won’t just be able to explore Hogwarts but all its surrounding areas too. You can walk, swim and fly on your fancy broom while you enjoy a huge list of places well-known by Potter fans. Among them, there’s Hogwarts Forest and the charming town of Hogsmeade, found by Azkaban’s haunting prison. Every place from the Potter books and films will be shown in the game in detail, showing the developers’ love for the source material.
Throughout the map, we’ll find a wide selection of missions, the main ones that advance the story and secondary ones. Secondary missions are worth mentioning, not just because the game has many of them but also because they all have their own stories that let you bond with your classmates. Yes, you can make friends in Hogwarts, and they will help you during your missions, no matter your house. Each of these young wizards will have their story arcs you can complete. The more you do, the tighter the bond will be.
Learn spells, improve your powers
As a good Hogwarts student, you’ll have to attend classes—astronomy, beasts, potions, herbology, charms, and defense against the dark arts. Your timetable won’t give you a break. You’ll also have to remember that you arrived at Hogwarts straight into the fifth year, so you’ll need to work hard to learn everything from the previous years and catch up with the rest of the students. Thanks to these classes, you’ll be able to learn spells and magic and get new abilities.
Get ready to wave your wand and say classics such as Accio, Incendio, Lumos or Windgardium Leviosa. If you’re more on the wicked side, you’re in luck because some of the most horrible curses in the Harry Potter universe are also available. All these spells will be vital to surviving during Hogwarts Legacy since they will help you in combat and solve puzzles throughout the game.
A fast and challenging combat system
The Potterverse is full of magic and fantasy but also danger. Through your adventures, you’ll have to face all sorts of villains and magical creatures that will stop at nothing to make you disappear. To defend yourselves, you’ll have your trusty wand, nerves of steel, and an excellent combat system that the Batman Arkham saga from Rocksteady has inspired.
During combat, you can use basic and advanced attacks and dodge enemies via the alert system that will appear over your head. Thanks to its fast and agile combo system, all Hogwarts Legacy fights feel like a vibrant and challenging choreography that is an absolute delight to execute. It’s fun, fast, and simply beautiful to watch.
Personalize your adventure
In the Room of Requirement, you’ll be able to fulfill all your personalization dreams since it’s your space that you can decorate from top to bottom. You can change its floor, walls, decor, and furniture, but that’s not all. In the Room of Requirement, you can brew potions, grow plants, and have as many magical pets as you can dream of.
Can I get Hogwarts Legacy on PC?
Hogwarts Legacy is accessible on multiple platforms, including PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series XIS consoles.
How to play Hogwarts Legacy for free?
Playing Hogwarts Legacy for free is impossible if you attempt to use the developer’s method or even resort to the Now.gg website, which is a common choice for those seeking to play games without paying. Online, you may come across cracked versions of this game that claim to offer free access. However, it is important to exercise caution as these unauthorized versions of the Harry Potter video game spinoff cannot be relied upon and may pose potential risks.
Hogwarts Legacy DLC
To date, Hogwarts Legacy has not received any downloadable content or DLC. However, should the game eventually receive its long-awaited DLC, it is expected to introduce several new spells to the gameplay. While these additions may enhance the experience, it is worth noting that the current spell repertoire already satisfies most players’ needs.
Hogwarts Legacy mods
Mods offer you the opportunity to personalize and customize your gameplay experience in Hogwarts Legacy. Some notable mods available for the game include Arithmancy, Ascendio, DragonOgryff, Shrek Broom, NPC Schedule Enhance, Silencio, Voldemort, Autohomora, Facial Hair, and numerous others. These mods allow you to add your unique touch to the game and explore various features and enhancements.
Captivating magic in action
Hogwarts Legacy is an eagerly anticipated premium action-adventure RPG that immerses players in the magical world of Harry Potter. With its rich storyline, open-world exploration, character customization, spell learning, and challenging combat system, this game offers a captivating and immersive experience for fans of the Harry Potter franchise. While no official DLCs are released as of now, players can enhance their gameplay with various mods that allow for personalization and additional features. With all of these being said, you’ll get an idea why Hogwarts Legacy reviews are very positive.
