Let’s face it – you were pretty disappointed when, at the age of eleven, you didn’t receive a letter to go to Hogwarts to start your education as a witch or wizard. But then again, you don’t live in Great Britain, so unless there’s a witchcraft and wizardry school in Australia we don’t know about, you probably wouldn’t have gotten one anyway.
Never to fear though, because if you’re diving into Hogwarts Legacy, you’re about to forge your own adventure within the Wizarding World. Forget Harry, Ron and Hermione, this adventure is all yours – one that’s set to enchant and excite, as you venture into a new and original tale set in the 1800s at Hogwarts and its various surrounds.
We recently got hands-on with a couple hours of the game, giving us the opportunity to create our own Hogwarts student, explore the school grounds, get in some wizard duelling and go on some adventures. Here’s what we thought about each of those exciting elements in Avalanche’s upcoming epic.
You can also watch our video discussion of the hands-on preview below:
CHARACTER CREATION
Usually one of the most intensive parts of the game, the character creator allows your imagination to run free and create your witch or your wizard in the most creative way possible. You want freckles, glasses or scars? You’ve got them. A man with a man bun? Consider it done.
Initially I was going to make myself into the game, and got as far as even calling the character “Matt”, but I didn’t feel that I was wizardy enough and so I ended up creating “Xavier Diggleby”, with long flowing purple locks and Harry Potter-esque glasses. There’s a lot of creative options to explore here, so take your time with it and really have fun making a witch or a wizard that you want to see out your adventure with.
EXPLORING HOGWARTS
Set long before the adventures of Harry and friends, you get the chance to freely explore Hogwarts Castle and its surrounds, either by foot or by broom as you undertake your magical scholarship. It is obvious that a lot of attention to detail has gone into this game; with so much to find within the castle walls that you can spend endless hours exploring. Wandering through the halls and seeing it teeming with the lives of students and teachers really makes you feel like you are there, and there are collectibles and side quests to fulfil as you go along.
One of the places we got to visit in the preview was the greenhouses for Herbology, which was fun to wander through and see in its glory. The only downside was that I couldn’t set the plants on fire using the Incendio spell – and it is quite clear in wandering around that not everything can be interacted with. With such an open environment and so much to see and explore, it is a little bit of a dampener that there aren’t small quirks like that.
Flying around outside on the broomstick is a lot of fun too – initially you might take a moment to learn to control your flight, but once you get the hang of things it becomes a lot more fun. You can see the Quidditch field and fly around it, but at this point in time Quidditch is not playable, and no plans to include it have been announced, which is a bit of a frustration. We also got an opportunity to play Summoner’s Court in the grounds of Hogwarts, a tactical game where you ‘Accio’ balls on a large playing table to score points. It wasn’t until the very end of the game that I understood how to play, but still managed a draw.
If you get lost on your way to a location while exploring Hogwarts, there’s a handy guide that looks very much like a Golden Snitch that leads the way. As I ventured to the duelling club to practice my skills, I came across a student being tormented by the poltergeist Peeves, whom fans would know from the books as a troublemaker. It is great to see so much of what we already know about Hogwarts come to life, beyond the books and the films.
WIZARD DUELS
At the Crossed Wands duelling club, you get the opportunity to practice and increase your skill in duelling other witches and wizards. Duelling itself is one of those ‘easy to learn, difficult to master’ aspects of the gameplay, and the first duel I was in I lost spectacularly. In locking on to a witch or a wizard, you must use your tactical nous to understand how to best defeat your opponent – shields are colour-coded to certain spells, so once you know what to look for you can break open your enemies’ defences and take them down. You also have the ability to parry spells, and throw objects during the duel as well, which can make for some killer combos.
If you get held up by an enchantment, there is usually a quick-time event button to press to release yourself, otherwise you’ll take the full brunt of the attack. There are also cooldowns on spells, so you can’t keep spamming them over and over to hope to win. As you get into the game further, you’re definitely going to need to refine your duelling style, otherwise you’re going to be seeing a lot of ended journey screens during climactic battles.
MISSION: FIRE AND VICE
This is where it gets serious – one of the missions that we were able to play involved a smuggling ring and a dragon. Tagging along with a character named Poppy Sweeting (a fitting foil for Xavier Diggleby), your mission is to uncover what poachers are up to just outside of Hogwarts. Our spell repertoire was increased in this mission compared to earlier in the duelling club, so we can expect to see the ability to unlock and uncover new and dangerous spells as the game progresses. The game gives you the ability to play how you want – I first used stealth when coming up against enemies, but I gave myself away too quickly and ended up in an all-out battle. If it weren’t for the quick heal potions, I definitely would have lost.
As you progress through the mission you do also have the ability to use Petrificus Totalus on enemies, knocking them out cold so that you can sneak past them. Diving further into Horntail Hall, we uncovered a dragon fighting ring – and some seriously powerful dark wizards guarding it as well. There’s definitely suspicious things afoot! Sneaking through the ring to save the dragon, we get to see some of the puzzle elements as well, including lock-picking, which will obviously be a common event.
In the battle against the poachers I also realised that not all of the spells I had learned were ‘common’ spells, but Unforgiveable Curses. What impact this has on my gameplay remains to be seen, as this was obviously just a preview and not my own characters’ personal journey, but it will definitely be interesting to explore the potential of using Unforgiveable Curses on witches and wizards alike, and how that affects your development as a powerful magic user. I managed to make a goblin… explode. Maybe I teleported him somewhere, I couldn’t tell you.
After vanquishing the poachers and taking the dragon egg as my reward, we’re treated to a nice little cutscene between our wizard and Poppy, before the scene ends. Credit where credit is due, the game’s characters look great, and the narrative really manages to draw you in as you uncover exactly what is going on at Hogwarts, and in the greater Wizarding World. Remember, this is the 1800s, so well before the adventures of the characters we know and love today.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
From the brief time I was able to spend with Hogwarts Legacy, I was definitely entranced by its sense of adventure and grandeur. Avalanche Studios have put a lot of effort into expanding the Wizarding World and allowing players to explore and become their own magical being. Aside from a few minor teething issues such as limited environmental interaction, and some user error issues in not understanding the controls, Hogwarts Legacy is set to be a very fresh and entertaining instalment in a rich world we’re already quite familiar with.
We also got to speak to Technical Director, Stephen Dona, which you can read about here.
Hogwarts Legacy is out February 7th for Deluxe Edition owners and February 10th for standard owners. The cheapest copy is currently $79 from Amazon with free shipping.
