Hogwarts Legacy Review

The castle is why this sold. Avalanche recreated Hogwarts as a place with vertical logic, moving staircases, portraits that gossip and a Room of Requirement that becomes a personal workshop, and the first ten hours of walking it are as convincing as the license has ever been. Spell combat is better than it had to be, a juggling act of ancient magic bursts, protego timing and elemental combinations that stays enjoyable deep into the game.

Then you leave for the Highlands and the seams show. The open world is stocked with Merlin trials, bandit camps and collectibles arranged without imagination, most side quests are fetch errands with a name attached, and your house choice changes almost nothing about the story you receive. The main plot is competent and forgettable, with a villain whose motive is explained more often than it is dramatized. Critics landed where players did: a generous, beautiful, deeply ordinary open world wrapped around one extraordinary building.