I’m about 12 hours in on the PS5 and I can say it’s been super solid. I crashed once 10 minutes in and never again. That’s about it. Some graphics glitches for sure, but considering how big this game is this is a very very good showing for an open world game.
I just wish I could remap the block. Y is killing me. I just have to rely on dodging like a moron most of the time as my puny brain can’t adjust. ;)
Is anyone playing this on an old-school Xbox One? If so, how does it look/perform?
I don’t think its out yet for the prior gen consoles.
Ah yeah! Release date of April 4. Bummer
Yes I was a bit hyperbolic. Although in context of this particular game, I do find the included RT effects useless when they prevent stable 60fps. That is how I meant it. Not as a general statement.
Hopefully in a year when I plan to pick it up, it will be better optimized.
Given that it seems like a monstrous success, my guess is it will be very well supported.
So Ignatia Wildsmith is big tech. She knows where I and what I’m doing at all times.
So my impressions, 5 hours-ish in:
I should start by stating that if you’d have ever asked me, I’d have told you that I wasn’t much of a Harry Potter fan. When the books came out I was well out of college, and my book-reading was Boyle and Saunders and Chabon and Hornby. You’d probably find a copy of some Pynchon thing or other in my bookcase, likely gathering dust while waiting for a date to notice and think I was smarter than I actually am. But not Harry Potter books. Nope.
And I didn’t bother to see any of the first three movies in the theater. I eventually watched them at home, and I think I liked them for what they were. It really wasn’t until the third movie (“The Cuaron One”, as I think of them; there’s the Columbus ones, the Mike Newell one – still amazing to me – and then those Yates ones) that I noticed them, and my interest in them increased. And so with friends I saw the rest in theaters and enjoyed them well enough, though I thought the quality fell off a bit towards the end.
Thus and so, I’d probably not describe myself as the biggest Harry Potter fan. Tried reading the books, but gave up after the third. Not really my thing. But I’m not immune to the charms of this universe, either. I’m not the first choice on your Wizarding World trivia team – but I’ll do OK on a lot of the questions, I reckon.
My main interest in this game was an interest that I suspect is shared by others: I loved the game Bully, and the chance to maybe play something like that, but at a Wizard’s boarding school sounded neat. That’s what I really wanted.
Well.
Hogwart’s Legacy isn’t Bully. It’s far from it. Everyone’s so nice and polite and only occasionally interesting. I want teen angst. Hell, in the movies, Harry is beset by a bunch of total assholes. Heck, Harry and Ron and Hermione act like assholes themselves a fair amount of time. Give me hormone-driven, hyper-emotional anger and lashing out the way you get it in Bully! But alas, I don’t think we’re up for that here.
And so about three hours in, I found myself wondering, “Who is this game for?” Which I know sounds like a very negative thing, but it wasn’t in this case. What I meant was, I was certainly enjoying myself, in spite of realizing fairly quickly that Bully in Magic School this was not. But yes, I was very much absorbed in the game. But let’s say you don’t give a tinker’s dam about Harry Potter or the Wizarding World. Is there anything here for you?
I honestly don’t know the answer to that question. But I have an answer to a different question. It’s something I noticed on the road to Hogsmeade, a trip you make pretty early in the game. I found myself turning round and round, gawking like a country rube visiting the big city for the first time at the sights and sounds and all the things going on around me, on and off the road. I really wanted to complete the Hogsmeade quest I was on, but the urge to just go and do other stuff was quite strong.
And then in Hogsmeade, it’s time for you to get your proper wand. (Not a spoiler, you’re literally told this within 10 minutes of the game beginning.) And at the Hogsmeade regional branch for Olllivander’s, there are about 2 or 3 minutes of cut scenes that play as you make your acquaintance with your wand.
Now, I am positive there are players out there who will find all that incredibly pointless. They’ll want to dash into the store, get a proper wand, and then proceed to the next quest objective – and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I suspect that Hogwarts Legacy isn’t going to be their game. Meanwhile, me, the Potter-dabbler who professes mild interest is sitting there utterly delighted by all of this nonsense.
And so what I think is that if you have even a degree of affinity for this particular milieu, and if you’re up for just exploring all the interesting shit that goes on around you, this game connects very well. It’s going to maybe make you appreciate the world (as I think of it, by the set designers and costumers and effects geniuses who made the films) in which all this is set.
I’m also finding that I am enjoying the combat much more than I expected to. Managing the spells feels a lot like managing your special abilities on the controller when playing AC: Odyssey. The combat feels fluid, although that’s maybe because when I play something like the Batman Arkhams or the Assassin’s Creeds of the world, my signature combat style is reacting - block or dodge, then counter…and this game rewards that tendency, I’m finding.
So yeah. This ain’t Bully, or at least it isn’t in the first few hours. But it is a really interesting, often very engaging world that feels alive, with all sorts of spots that just seem to cry out for exploration. Which, in the end, is plenty enough for me to have a very favorable first impression.
Good review. Sums up my feelings too. One additional comment is the music. I don’t normally notice music in games, which is a shame because I know so much goes into it, but I notice it in this game. I’m not sure if they are using the movie pieces or combining it with original stuff, but it is pretty great and helps with the immersion.
This was exactly me as well - I even got a warning to turn back and return to the person I was with, because I was too far away from her.
I commented on this to my GF last night, that there isn’t much re-use that I’ve noticed in locales, and its pretty damn wonderful to be wandering the world - Just like the first movie was to me, it just feels magical.
I tend to engross myself into games, with all the benefits and drawbacks it gives me, and this one absorbs me pretty much and I can’t wait to get more time to play!
I’m at 16 hours (Yes I have issues) and it really might be one of the best paced games I’ve played ever. There’s ALWAYS something you want to go do and it’s generally fun and interesting. Aside from the beginning of the game there isn’t much fetch five of these for me quests. It’s usually a task list of items where they give you not subtle hints on how to do them. It’s enough to turn on your brain without making it hurt. :)
I think I’m going to blow wayyy past 40 hours easy as there’s like so much collection stuff I haven’t even made a dent in. Heck I still haven’t collected a single beast.
I’m still really struggling with the combat. I just can not stop hitting the lb to block. It’s super frustrating lol.
I generally don’t get into crafting stuff but building up crafting areas is simple and fun. I really like that mechanic a lot. I still haven’t figured out how to upgrade equipment. I may have to look it up. Or I just haven’t gotten to it yet.
I caved. Ps5 deluxe digital. Made it to my bedroom and calling it a night.
Was supposed to be asleep by 11 tonight for an audit early in the morning. Nope, started playing my 3rd hour, got outside the castle for the first time and just explored. Ran around south of the castle, up in the hills, finding loot, killing Dark Wizards and large ass spiders, found tons of resources. It was just fun. Hard to stop. Not many games do that to me anymore. Really enjoyable.
What are the spiders like in this game? On the scale from Elden Ring relatively tame hand-crawly things to Skyrims super-creepy ice spiders where do they land?
I don’t like spiders - I hate them in Skyrim. In this, they are fine. A bit creepy, but a bit cartoony.
Well, this is a lot of gpu charts
1080p:
You left out (I’m sure it was an honest mistake though) that this is on Ultra settings, TAA high, with RT set at ultra.
At 1080p settings at Ultra, TAA high and no RT that card manages 69/89. Easy solution, seems like. Turn RT off. You’re unlikely to miss it, really.
No mistake. A rtx 3070 is still a fairly modern card. A few months ago it costed $600. So for $600 I expect a much better framerate, even with all the detail turned to max and RT on. I think Wicher 3 has better raytracing (RTGI) and it has a broken dx12 implementation, and despite all that it’s able to do 30fps, not frigging 17fps. And in CP2077 you will have around 38fps.
Like I said, maybe show that that’s with RT on, otherwise it feels pretty misiniformation-ish.
Hogwart’s Legacy GIVEAWAY! (Maybe)
So I bit and bought this on cdkeys, but when I went to install it on Steam, it said I already had it? I checked my Steam purchase history and both email addresses that I ever use to buy such things and I can’t see where I did, so I might have a free (to you) key up for grabs. I can’t promise this will work, but the secondary key for a promotional critter in the game did.
SO. How do we do this? Louisville trivia? Make somebody from California say, “Kentucky isn’t that bad a place after all.” ? No, that would be unnecessarily cruel. I’ve got it, Map challenge! One of our favorite coffee pastimes is searching through Eastern Kentucky and finding funny town names, so:
First post that has the correct name of the town obscured in red gets it!
