A game that has been on everybody’s mind since we first heard about it, is finally here, and might I add, it meets expectations. Through Hogwarts Legacy, players are bombarded with nostalgic feelings, making them remember every detail they learned through the books and the movies. I managed to get in around 7 hours of gameplay on the PlayStation 5 to provide you with the first impressions of the title.
I have tried out both the Fidelity mode and the Performance mode in terms of graphics for the title and both work splendidly. Choose Fidelity if visuals are your priority as the world seems even prettier in this mode, it has a few frame-drops, but nothing to write home about. Performance mode is for the players that crave smoothness during gameplay. If they don’t mind the quality drop then the smoothness will surely keep them satisfied.
Check out the 38 minutes of gameplay of the prologue mission which consists of cinematics, story and combat below:
Beginning Your Journey in Hogwarts Legacy
Before anything begins, the players get to create and customize a character of their liking. Though they cannot do anything crazy in the game, like make themselves look like a goblin or a troll, they can still bring about a lot of unique features to their character. The players also have a wide variety of accessibility options, making it easy for anyone to get into the title.
Then the players are put into the introductory mission, where they meet their teacher and mentor, Professor Fig. As soon as you are into the game, you realize how much effort the developers have put in to provide you with the same feeling you had when you first watched the movie. They have managed to capture the tone and essence of the franchise perfectly, providing an authentic feeling to the title.
The introductory mission itself doesn’t take too long until you are put straight into the action. Here is where you are provided with a tutorial of the game’s mechanics. combat and other essential details. It also introduces the broader storyline of the game, where Ancient Magic comes into play, and you seem to be one of the wielders of the mystical yet deadly form of magic.
Starting School at Hogwarts Castle
Post the introductory mission, the players will be taken straight to Hogwarts Castle. You are rushed into a House Sorting ceremony, where you receive the House that you will be at for the rest of the game. What’s interesting is that you do not get to choose your House at first, instead you must answer the questions that are directed at you by the Sorting Hand.
According to the answers, the players are provided with a House, but that doesn’t really matter as the players are allowed to choose a different House if they do not wish to choose the one, they were provided with. Up until now, the choice of House hasn’t really affected the story, it has worked purely cosmetically as your Robes are the color of your House. Also, the location where your common room would be is different for each house, other than that, there is no other impact on the story.
Attending your classes
This is where Hogwarts Legacy feels a bit like Bully or Persona 5, it is not exactly a game where you have come to attend school but does bring out those elements. Classes are where you learn new spells, get potions and are briefed about being a wizard. However, all these classes feel like a breeze, even though you are a new student that joined Hogwarts in your 5th year, everything is easy for you.
Through your classes, you also meet the teachers, each with a unique personality and knowledge to share with you. You also get to interact with a lot of your classmates during these classes, which is also a nice touch. Attending these classes is also compulsory, as you may not be able to progress to certain parts of the story unless you have learned a required skill from one of the classes.
The World of Hogwarts Legacy
The developers have surely done an excellent job at crafting this world for the players. Starting from Hogwarts, the Castle is breathtaking, and every single corner of the place has been designed to provide you with the most authentic feeling. The castle itself is so huge that you may consider fast travel at times to reach certain locations. Every time I have travelled through the castle, I have almost always found a new room, a new secret or something worth checking out.
After the Castle come the open-world elements of the game. Till now I have only visited parts of Hogsmeade, which is where all the buzz is at. The location is filled to the brim with shops where you can buy all types of resources from brooms to spells to potions and so much more. There are also many recreational points along with side missions. There is also a bigger open-world area to the game, but I haven’t reached that point yet.
The Broader Story and Side Missions
As mentioned before the players follow a tale about learning more about Ancient Magic and becoming proper wielders of it. The story has been paced slowly, but still provides enough to go on. It keeps expanding into parts of the world, the story or teaches the player something new every step of the way, which helps a lot with immersion.
Side missions are interesting too in the game. There are two types of side missions, one being in the form of favours, which can seem menial at times but are interesting in their own way. The other type of side missions requires the players to pull off some kind of task or feat, which are prevalent in most games and experienced players might be familiar with. However, Hogwarts Legacy does this type of side missions in its own way which makes the final product interesting.
Wands, Spells and Explorations
This is where the game really shines. The combat on the DualSense feels sublime as the developer has used all the controls to the T along with the adaptive triggers to add to the charm of the game. There is an enormous range of spells that are spread according to combat, defense and exploration. Each spell has its own trait or impact, so players need to keep switching them out according to the obstacle.
This also extends to puzzle-solving and exploration in the game. Players will find themselves most of the time stumbling into situations where they try to use everything they have learned up until that point to get past an obstacle, and most of the time you do end up figuring it out and it is extremely satisfying. Other than that, I have not reached the point where I can check out the flying mechanics of the game yet.
Conclusion
The game looks and feels great and if you are a fan of the Harry Potter universe then you are in for a treat. The developers have provided great attention to detail. To give you an example or two, Snares fear light, so Lumos is required to get through such areas, or you are not able to see Thestrals in the game until you have seen someone die in front of you.
Hogwarts Legacy: Standard Edition (PS5)
Take control of your legacy in the wizarding world of Hogwarts and experience a never seen before adventure
₹ 4,299.00
Buy ↗
Furthermore, I have heard about there being choices and consequences, but they are yet to show any actual impact on the story. Players get to choose their approach in almost all situations, be it dialogue or gameplay. The game seems to be building up to something bigger. In conclusion, these first few hours of the title have just left me craving to enter this world again and explore every single corner of it.
