I found it unnerving out there, at night, alone in the forested dark.īut outside Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, the game doesn’t have nearly so much personality.
The wild countryside is full of trolls, poachers, goblins, creatures and mysterious, potentially dangerous ruins and artefacts. Most unexpectedly, out in the wilds, Hogwarts Legacy reminded me strongly of 2012’s cult Japanese role-playing game Dragon’s Dogma, in the sense of freedom and danger in its open world.
Down the road, the magical village of Hogsmeade is another hub for nostalgia-tickling fan service and wizarding quests, and you’re also given license to explore the entirety of the Scottish Highlands (evidently Hogwarts did not keep a very close rein on its students in previous centuries). I had a very enjoyable time inside Hogwarts, attending lessons and exploring at night with the help of a Disillusionment charm and the Alohomora lockpicking spell, but this game is easily 40 hours long, and a lot of it takes place outside the castle. When Hogwarts Legacy leans into its role as a wizarding wish-fulfilment simulator, it is – forgive me – enchanting. It’s a cunning move – is there a more perfect distillation of the freedom of possibility that we found in Harry Potter as kids? – and it certainly got an emotional rise out of me, despite all the reservations I’ve developed about Potter and its creator as an adult. The first time you mount a broom, a treat that the game holds back for a good while, you are taken on an aerial tour, swooping between turrets and over courtyards, skimming the Great Lake. Somehow I managed to avoid the Great Hall, with its enchanted ceiling and chattering crowds of students, until about 15 hours in, and when I found it I was awestruck. The castle itself is majestic, impossible to navigate, a stone warren of mysteries, disappearing staircases and moving paintings, full of secrets and details from the books and the films. Photograph: Warner BrosĪs a kind of interactive Harry Potter museum, Hogwarts Legacy is spectacular. The castle itself is the game’s main character.
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