Be the wizard you’ve always wanted to be! | First Impressions - Hogwarts Legacy (3-Day Early Access)

One of the most hyped games in recent years is a few days away! Hogwarts Legacy is a single player open-world action RPG set in the Harry Potter world. It takes place long before the events of the actual books / movies in a sort of a prequel setup, like the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games.

It will be released on PC and current gen systems on February 10, with previous gen systems and Nintendo Switch to follow in the next few months.

First off, we are in a bit of a different situation here than Harry and most wizards. Our custom character is a late bloomer who recently got accepted as a 5th year student for Hogwarts, and is under an accelerated learning program.

It’s a bit disappointing that we aren’t entering Hogwarts as a child in our first year, but gameplay wise it's a commendable design decision so we wouldn’t need to start from zero magic knowledge and allows for a more mature character, one that also matches with the story set in the game.

Nevertheless, our character still experiences Hogwarts for the first time, and that magical experience is still retained despite being somewhat remixed. Even though our character is a late bloomer, he is a gifted one with great potential and holds an ancient secret it seems.

Your character is highly customizable, the voice, the face, the hair, even scars and of course, it would be a big disrespect to Harry Potter, if glasses are not available for you to wear. Immediately you will notice that the graphics look great. It looks very next-gen, even other characters like Professor Fig have immensely detailed faces, and wait till you see the environments and Hogwarts itself.

After the brief introduction, Hogwarts Legacy starts off on a high note, with a surprising action-packed set piece that is even better than Harry Potter’s intro I would say. There is a bit of linear dungeon crawling to serve as a bit of a tutorial and plot exposition — including another action-packed set piece — but after that, you’re into Hogwarts!

During the Sorting Ceremony, you can either let the game choose for you by asking you questions, or override that part and get to choose one of the four houses. While that alone doesn’t really affect the overall narrative of the game, It’s a nice flavor to have and gives you a bit of variety when it comes to different common rooms, attire colors, NPCs, and companions.

So far, the world I’ve seen is expansive and big, even just exploring Hogwarts castle itself is immense already and feels really immersive with all the quests, activities, and places that you can do and explore.

The combat is downright amazing. It’s just your typical ranged combat in a hack and slash game; spam the attack button, dodge, counter, and use different skills, but as far as Harry Potter combat goes, they’ve completely nailed it and even made it more visually appealing, with different stylish poses every attack you make.

It’s flashy and kinetic, even more so than what we've seen in the movies. They actually made wand combat interesting considering they’re just waving around small sticks in the air, for all intents and purposes. They have no business being as cool and stylish as they are in the game.

They did not skimp on the details and really went all in and utilized all the existing lore to its potential. Nothing is overlooked, many elements from the books / movies are used and are even expanded upon. It’s like they made an interactive Hogwarts Museum first and built a game and story on top of that.

Even though you can explore the castle and the rest of the outside premises almost immediately, Hogwarts Legacy did a pretty good job on the initial introduction, questing, and progression to be able to provide a decent avenue for the story and its open-world nature to coalesce into one cohesive singular experience. So far, Hogwarts Legacy is set to be a masterpiece and it's probably THE Harry Potter game we’ve always dreamed of!

Full Review will be posted soon here on Taptap! Stay tuned!