Hogwarts Legacy Deluxe Edition - PS5

I loved this game so much! I’ll start by saying I’m a huge Harry Potter fan so I am biased here. As such, I already had my HP fan account with my house sorting and wand so I loved having the ability to link that! I’m not sure what happens. If you don’t have an account I’m guessing you have to take a quiz to get sorted by the hat, but I’ve never been able to find out since I did link my account.  I’ve completed about 99% of the game as a Slytherin and started a Hufflepuff file that I am currently playing. There has been one task that I’ve noticed is different based on the house you are in. While I haven’t had the chance to check out Gryffindor or Ravenclaw yet, I’m going to assume they also have a unique task though. Other than that, the storyline has been exactly ... MoreI loved this game so much! I’ll start by saying I’m a huge Harry Potter fan so I am biased here. As such, I already had my HP fan account with my house sorting and wand so I loved having the ability to link that! I’m not sure what happens. If you don’t have an account I’m guessing you have to take a quiz to get sorted by the hat, but I’ve never been able to find out since I did link my account.  I’ve completed about 99% of the game as a Slytherin and started a Hufflepuff file that I am currently playing. There has been one task that I’ve noticed is different based on the house you are in. While I haven’t had the chance to check out Gryffindor or Ravenclaw yet, I’m going to assume they also have a unique task though. Other than that, the storyline has been exactly the same for Slytherin and Hufflepuff. I love the dueling in this game, and I didn’t think I would! Some of the spell combos are sick and when you learn tricks to defeat certain enemies, things become a lot easier. Leveling up, using strong clothing, and smart spending of talent points let’s you just wreck people in duels and is the key to success in this game. I highly recommend learning all of the potions early on and unlocking floo flames for faster travel. The storyline is engaging (set in the 1800s) and there’s something just so cool about the magical wizarding world. The game itself is beautiful and artistic. Once you’re done with the main storyline there are plenty of side quests, so it takes a while to actually get through all of the content packed into this game, definitely making it worth its value. I’ve just had so much fun with it and highly recommend playing it yourself!

Hogwarts Legacy is a truly amazing game, however, it's not without some faults. I'm currently playing on PC, about 30 hours in, so here's my thoughts. Keep in mind, my thoughts and feelings on this game are EXTREMELY positive. This review will sound negative specifically because I'm just highlighting my problems with the game with your knowledge, but overall this game is a solid 9/10.You will find the world to be vibrant, realistic, and completely immersive. It's truly a beautiful work of art. Even stepping out of Hogwarts for the first time, you get to truly appreciate just how MASSIVE Hogwarts (the castle) is. However, a lot of these great world visuals come at a cost. That cost is the character models. The character models are good, but not great. For some ... MoreHogwarts Legacy is a truly amazing game, however, it's not without some faults. I'm currently playing on PC, about 30 hours in, so here's my thoughts. Keep in mind, my thoughts and feelings on this game are EXTREMELY positive. This review will sound negative specifically because I'm just highlighting my problems with the game with your knowledge, but overall this game is a solid 9/10.You will find the world to be vibrant, realistic, and completely immersive. It's truly a beautiful work of art. Even stepping out of Hogwarts for the first time, you get to truly appreciate just how MASSIVE Hogwarts (the castle) is. However, a lot of these great world visuals come at a cost. That cost is the character models. The character models are good, but not great. For some reason, the colors of the skin tones seem to have a much higher brightness than the surrounding environments, and a lot of the animations and design give them that uncanny valley, robotic look which takes away from the immersion of the cinematics. This also ties in to the optimization of the graphics engine, which I'm sure you've read about, which isn't very polished and needs work.The next bit is the combat. Combat in the game is fun, albeit a little repetitive where I find myself rarely using anything but one combo, but that could very well just be me. The main issue of combat for me is that whoever designed it was thinking more of from a Dev standpoint than from a User standpoint and probably hasn't played video games. What I mean by this is that you're running around with WASD per usual, you're using 1234 for spells, Q to throw things, X for Ancient Magic and then you have Caps Lock for targeting an enemy. However, if you want to switch targets mid fight, you need to use the arrow keys. Obviously if you're using WASD and Mouse, you can't really be expected to hit the arrow keys on the fly unless you intend to just bash your face into the keyboard. I have yet to find an option to re-bind these keys either, otherwise I would re-bind them to the scroll wheel.My other real issue, which is kind of more of a nitpick, is that in the beginning of the game you're introduced to the Revelio spell. This is just a reveal. It shows you stuff around you like Yellow highlights for gold/items, Blue highlights for puzzle bits. Revelio is an important part for some of the story quests, which for me is the design flaw. See, the second I got Revelio and learned I could find things, my ADHD kicked in and I went on a massive treasure hunt running around Hogwarts looking for everything I could find, trying to solve puzzles I had ZERO instructions about, etc. I only stopped once I had found and solved everything I could without progressing through the story and unlocking additional spells and skills. To me, this really took away from the story and plot. What I believe should have been done is a bigger focus on the story first, get you pulled into what's going on, teach you basic spells and features like combat, lockpicking, puzzles, etc, and THEN introduce Revelio much later in the game to really capitalize on the open-world aspect that Hogwarts Legacy does amazingly well, while not taking from the storyline. It would have just added a "Holy crap the open-world is INCREDIBLE in this!" on top of a "Wow, that was an amazing storyline!" feeling.The only other real issue I can think of is whoever did the sound design for customization did a terrible job. Let me clarify. The sound throughout gameplay is great and the characters sound good. The problem is with customizing your character. You can choose a male or female voice (only 1 option) and then you can change the pitch of that to Deeper or Higher. The problem here is they did a shit job implementing it and used a very poorly optimized sound design tool that adds awful reverb and pitch change to the voice making it sound horribly robotic like someone gave their kid an Autotune Box designed by Hasbro and sold at Toys R Us. It's bad. Like really bad. You'll end up using just the default voices, which also kind of bugged me because for a game that doesn't have Harry Potter, they went with a voice actor that sounds pretty much exactly like Harry Potter. Odd choice there.But that's it. There might be a few other small nitpicks, but nothing I can think of at the moment. This is a great game and worth playing. For you Harry Potter fans, be aware that this is NOT Harry Potter. This is like a 100 years before all that so you're not going to bump into many, if any, characters you're familiar with. This is all original content.

What can I say. I am truly blown away by the quality and depth of the combat, quests, story and animations. There’s so much to see and do in Hogwarts School itself. I am over 50 hours in and haven’t seen everything there is yet. It really feels like the developers went the extra step and added in all the ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’ ideas.Open world is a joy to explore, given the beautiful scenery and fun modes of getting around. The music also adds to the atmosphere and creates a world that you can truly get lost in. I was initially worried about combat, but a few levels in after opening up some of the spells and skills it was really fun with decent enough build diversity.Can’t wait for the DLC content! I’d love to see a Quidditch DLC, coop (maybe like Elden ... MoreWhat can I say. I am truly blown away by the quality and depth of the combat, quests, story and animations. There’s so much to see and do in Hogwarts School itself. I am over 50 hours in and haven’t seen everything there is yet. It really feels like the developers went the extra step and added in all the ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’ ideas.Open world is a joy to explore, given the beautiful scenery and fun modes of getting around. The music also adds to the atmosphere and creates a world that you can truly get lost in. I was initially worried about combat, but a few levels in after opening up some of the spells and skills it was really fun with decent enough build diversity.Can’t wait for the DLC content! I’d love to see a Quidditch DLC, coop (maybe like Elden Ring’s coop), more beasts to tame and add to my vivarium (dragons please!), more outfits and obviously more story and quests. Better character customisation and improvements to flying (ability to look down, more responsive controls) would also be welcome improvements.

Harry Potter wish fulfillment. The game is eye candy, the spell battles are a treat, flying feels like freedom. I don’t want to over simplify this and make it sound like all I can do is praise the title but they really thought this experience out. Every feature seems to be tailored to ease of use. So many games will keep the fun at an arms length due to very gamey reasons but Hogwarts Legacy’s legacy in my mind is how accessible and fun it is to play. I’m in it for twenty hours now and kicking off on my broom never gets old. The story is fresh enough, nothing truly groundbreaking but neither are the actual Potter books. It serves the experience. The only real negative I can think of is the broader map has a tendency to feel a bit like an Ubisoft game with a metric ... MoreHarry Potter wish fulfillment. The game is eye candy, the spell battles are a treat, flying feels like freedom. I don’t want to over simplify this and make it sound like all I can do is praise the title but they really thought this experience out. Every feature seems to be tailored to ease of use. So many games will keep the fun at an arms length due to very gamey reasons but Hogwarts Legacy’s legacy in my mind is how accessible and fun it is to play. I’m in it for twenty hours now and kicking off on my broom never gets old. The story is fresh enough, nothing truly groundbreaking but neither are the actual Potter books. It serves the experience. The only real negative I can think of is the broader map has a tendency to feel a bit like an Ubisoft game with a metric ton of so-so side activities. That being said, it’s side quest nature that could verge on being boring over long stretches of play really gets lost in the magic of the world. You can tell the devs are true fans. I cannot remember the last game I played with this much range and authenticity and environmental storytelling in the places you will discover. It conveyed that Harry Potter magic where each new door could very well be a new world. I’m having a heck of a time with this.

This review is only going to talk about the actual game as it stands alone.This game is, in a word, magical. It truly feels like the Wizarding World experience that we’ve all wanted for decades. Playing this game makes me feel like I did the first time I read the books as a teen. It’s so full of wonder and mystery, the world is truly something to behold.Gameplay-wise, I found the tutorial to be an excellent introduction to the mechanics of the game. I didn’t feel like my hand was being held or babied through it and once the world was opened up to me, i was truly able to go anywhere in the map (as long as I had the right spells) and experience the adventure. For instance, the moment I was allowed to leave the school, I went straight to the Forbidden Forest and ... MoreThis review is only going to talk about the actual game as it stands alone.This game is, in a word, magical. It truly feels like the Wizarding World experience that we’ve all wanted for decades. Playing this game makes me feel like I did the first time I read the books as a teen. It’s so full of wonder and mystery, the world is truly something to behold.Gameplay-wise, I found the tutorial to be an excellent introduction to the mechanics of the game. I didn’t feel like my hand was being held or babied through it and once the world was opened up to me, i was truly able to go anywhere in the map (as long as I had the right spells) and experience the adventure. For instance, the moment I was allowed to leave the school, I went straight to the Forbidden Forest and fought creatures way too powerful for me.As far as the RPG elements go, I found the gear score to only be helpful and not a barrier. You’re more than welcome to attack enemies much stronger than you. Whether you win or lose is up to you.I would have preferred a little deeper skill tree when it comes to talent points, although the items you level up make you much more powerful.Pros:A great and rich and detailed world with a lot to see.The spell combat is supremely enjoyable.Exploring makes me feel like a young Tom Riddle discovering magical secrets that no one else has done before.Cons: The RPG elements are a little shallow.There should be way more spell slot groups than just four for the amount of spells you get.TLDR; a very detailed and fun adventure game with a couple of minor mechanical flaws.

As a fan of the Wizarding World, exploring Hogwarts in this game was a dream come true. The graphics and storyline are truly amazing. However, after the initial joy subsided, I noticed some areas that could use improvement. NPC dialogue needs to be better, as it's currently irrelevant and there's no proper conversation. The enemy variety is also lacking, and the HUD and camera controls are too cluttered. One pro is that the game has RPG elements. Overall, a solid 7/10 with the hope for improvements in future updates.

Absolute blast if you love the harry potter univer

As a huge Harry Potter fan, I went into this game with big expectations that it would deliver a fun and rewarding experience and I'm here to tell you that... well. It definitely does just that. Hogwarts legacy is an amazing Harry Potter game, It's not the best rpg in the world though but not a terrible one either.As a Harry potter game It checks all the boxes for what you would want. immersive Open world exploration completely full to scale castle where you can explore every nook and Cranny, spells you can learn and use thoroughout the world, ridabke brooms and beasts, lore accurate story telling, side quests and decently interesting characters. My favorite part about this game is the fact that you can explore all your favorite areas from the movies and books and ... MoreAs a huge Harry Potter fan, I went into this game with big expectations that it would deliver a fun and rewarding experience and I'm here to tell you that... well. It definitely does just that. Hogwarts legacy is an amazing Harry Potter game, It's not the best rpg in the world though but not a terrible one either.As a Harry potter game It checks all the boxes for what you would want. immersive Open world exploration completely full to scale castle where you can explore every nook and Cranny, spells you can learn and use thoroughout the world, ridabke brooms and beasts, lore accurate story telling, side quests and decently interesting characters. My favorite part about this game is the fact that you can explore all your favorite areas from the movies and books and the above and beyond details they put in to make this work. The downsides for me are character customization, its good but not amazing and the game has its fair share of glitches but nothing that ruins the experience for me. I only hope with future updates or a sequel this gets better. I also wish this game had a similar system to that of the newer assassins creeds where you can really rollplay your epxerience by picking which people you want to romance, attack or become friends with. It would be much cooler if you could actually pick who your friends are in this game and even though it does have a choice based dialogue system its not super in depth but again definitely not the worst ive seen in a game. The map, combat and story is where this games stengths are which is vital in modern games. If you are an average or jardcore fan of this franchise you will love this game if you are a newcomer you may or may not enjoy the game, especially if you are looking for skyrim or witcher type of experience. Overall great game! 8/10

Feeling like a kid again

I loved Harry Potter as a kid: went to the midnight releases for all of the books and would read the books the next day! I went to the midnight releases for almost all of the movies. I have a child now who has also fallen in love with the Harry Potter universe. I couldn't have been more excited when I heard about an open-world game that let's you be a student at Hogwarts... So of course I had to pre-order the deluxe edition as soon as I could.This fame made me feel like I was a kid again. It brought back so many nostalgic memories and really just brought that whimsical magic that the Harry Potter universe is known for. It's a 'cozy' game if thay makes sense.The gameplay was engaging and smooth, sounh and graphics were excellent and I thought the game offered a ... MoreI loved Harry Potter as a kid: went to the midnight releases for all of the books and would read the books the next day! I went to the midnight releases for almost all of the movies. I have a child now who has also fallen in love with the Harry Potter universe. I couldn't have been more excited when I heard about an open-world game that let's you be a student at Hogwarts... So of course I had to pre-order the deluxe edition as soon as I could.This fame made me feel like I was a kid again. It brought back so many nostalgic memories and really just brought that whimsical magic that the Harry Potter universe is known for. It's a 'cozy' game if thay makes sense.The gameplay was engaging and smooth, sounh and graphics were excellent and I thought the game offered a lot of stuff to do as far as puzzles, collectibles and quests.The only downside I would say is that replay ability is lower than other open world games such as Skyrim or Breath of the Wild or Red Dead Redemption. But I don't feel like thays such a fair argument since my playthrough was over 40 hours and I still hadn't reached 100% completion.Also, the Best Buy digital edition delivery tgorigh email was super smooth and easy.

Worth the wait

The release of this was delayed again and again by the developers because they knew it would struggle on the switch. I have this on ps5 but wanted the portability so pre-ordered this months ago. The gameplay may not be as sharp but is a lot better than I expected. Game wise, it’s not GTA, you basically are playing it to go around Hogwarts on a broomstick, but for anyone who grew up on Harry Potter it’s a dream. The main story is a bit predictable and the side quests aren’t to The Witcher level, but it’s a lot of fun to play and very immersive. Very wise, it arrived on release day as promised, so absolutely bang on from them. Get the Deluxe Version and you get the Unforgivable curses a LOT earlier than you would in the normal version - well worth the extra!