Hogwarts Legacy review: Roll up for the magical-mystery tour

Many column inches have been devoted to the various controversies associated with the franchise’s newest (and hotly anticipated) game, Hogwarts Legacy. Certain publications have chosen not to review the game, while influencers and Twitch streamers have opted to donate to trans- rights charities rather than create content based around it.

These are all valid points, and the debate on Twitter shows no sign of dying down any time soon. However, that said, the game itself is breathtaking.

Hogwarts Legacy takes place in a 19th-century version of Hogwarts, and our hero is a fifth-year student who has just started at the school. Although less schooled in traditional magic, our player can wield Ancient Magic instead, which few people know about and even fewer understand.

Alongside mastering this power (which mostly takes the form of a blue swirling vortex) they also have to deal with the brewing Goblin Rebellion, whose leader Ranrok is plotting with some proto-Death Eater nasties led by Victor Rookwood. And that’s all alongside completing their studies at Hogwarts – phew.

While long-time fans may be disappointed that this game doesn’t involve even the slightest mention of Dumbledore, let alone Harry Potter, taking us back in time is a smart idea: it provides some distance from the events of the books and films, while also giving devoted Potterheads enough Easter eggs to keep them feeling that this is a world they know.

The entire world that Portkey Games has built is gorgeous, but Hogwarts deserves an especial mention. It’s bursting with nooks and crannies, secret passageways, and places to explore. One wrong turning will send you over a rickety rope bridge that offers stunning views of the Scottish Highlands; another will send you to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, where you can spy on Peeves heckling the other students.

The attention to detail really stands out: spotting a House Elf scrubbing the corridors as you sprint past on the way to the next quest or being able to enter pretty much any of the many shops in Hogsmeade makes it feel like a living, breathing world.

As well as the gorgeous graphics, the gameplay also passes muster. Your character starts with the ability to master Basic Casts – that is, the equivalent of Stupefy – and will gradually acquire a magic wheel of about 20-odd spells that can be swapped in and out of an easily accessible menu of four (though, in the heat of combat, this proved rather fiddly).

Speaking of combat, that feels pleasingly varied, too: as your character picks up new spells, so too do you learn new ways in which to blast the living daylights out of your enemies with a series of spell combos that include using Accio and Levioso (this game’s version of Wingardium Leviosa) to break through their protective shields.

Aside from the thrill of casting magic, one of Hogwarts Legacy’s biggest selling points is the freedom it has promised its players to choose their own destinies and, to that end, it mostly succeeds. At the start of the game, players can build their own wizarding avatar – perhaps in an effort to steer away from bad press, these avatars are infinitely customisable and diverse both in terms of race and gender – and send them out into the world to explore in their stead (helpfully placed Floo Flames serve as fast-travel locations and make doing so a lot easier than previous Harry Potter games).

It’s all endlessly customisable – you can choose to join the Hogwarts House matching the type of wand you pick (12.5 inches, phoenix core, holly, in case you were wondering) – which means that players can finally explore what it means to be a Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin rather than just a Gryffindor. Plus, the Decide Your Own Destiny aspect of the game allows you to choose your alignment: yes, you can find some Gobstones for a poor Gryffindor third year, but you can also choose to withhold said Gobstones and keep them for yourself. Similarly, you can dob in your friends, lie to your teachers, and even (gasp) wield Dark Magic like Avada Kedavra if you choose to fully embrace the path of evil.

However, there is a downside to this endless freedom. Because you can choose your character’s name and gender, players are never addressed by name during the game, which disrupts the illusion somewhat.

The dialogue also proves a sticking point: save for certain times in the game where you get to choose what to say (for instance, when you’re interacting with fellow students), your character’s dialogue is carefully bland: little more than “hellos” and “thank yous”.

Fortunately, the plot is interesting enough that this niggle rarely has the time to morph into full-blown annoyance. Hogwarts Legacy hits the ground running from the first frame: there are dragon attacks, goblin attacks, mouldering ruins set on lonely cliffsides, and secret passageways to explore.

It’s all rollicking fun (provided you don’t think too hard about the finer details of said plot, which are littered with holes) and, accompanied by the rather doddery Professor Fig (who should really be fired for the reckless endangerment of his students), you’ll seek to uncover the mystery of Ancient Magic by infiltrating a number of secret locations around Hogwarts and the Wizarding World in general.

The game is littered with quests to complete and things to explore. At the start of the game, you’re given a Field Guide, which serves as an inventory, map, and log of information about the castle and its inhabitants.

Completing small tasks around the castle (more of these tasks become available as new spells are learned) adds to the information stored in the Field Guide and provides XP for the player to level up; that said, don’t come expecting The Witcher. This is not a complex RPG, with complex mechanics for upgrading your gear: it’s a fairly basic set-up where you can equip fancy top hats or scarves that give you +2 to Defence or Attack.

In addition to that, the game is bursting at the seams with hobbies to pick up. Have a liking for potions? Spend hours growing and scavenging ingredients from around the game’s huge world map (comprising a hefty slice of the Scottish Highlands around Hogwarts) to brew new ones. If animals are more your thing, why not tame a Thestral or Hippogriff – or something even more exotic, like a Mooncalf? And for the combat-inclined, there are also multiple bandit camps to find and wipe out and, though it’s really not hard to do, it’s also fun.

My point is, this is a beast of a game: epic in scope and ambition, and rich with storytelling detail. It sets out to do a whole lot of things, and it mostly succeeds in doing them. For any Potter fan, this is a must; for any gamer willing to overlook its basic lack of difficulty and sink a hundred or so hours into exploring every inch of this world, you’ll be amply rewarded. Sit back and soak in the magic of it all.

Hogwarts Legacy is available now on PC, PlayStation5, and Xbox Series X/S for £64.99; and on PlayStation4 and Xbox One from April 4, and Nintendo Switch from July 25.