Hogwarts Legacy? More like Ubisoft Legacy

[ZXQuincy]

Let me set this straight before I get in into big whining. I’m writing this post as a huge Potterhead and I was hyping this game up right after they've announced it and continued hyping this game up when I first started playing. And as a big Harry Potter fan, I am immensely dissapointed by how Avalanche treated that super ambitious and important for all the fans project.

Turns out Hogwarts Legacy is no different from any Ubisoft game you have played in the last 15 years. The game is boggled with meaningless side quests, the story is lackluster and the mini games are a joke. My guess as to why this happened is because they tried to fit open world aspect in what should solely be a story-driven game, but we will get to that part later.

Being a huge Harry Potter fan, what were my hopes and expectation about this game? Well, I wanted to feel like I am a student in that castle I've been knowing since childhood. I wanted to immerse myself in studies, classes, learning spells, atmosphere, ability to interact with that castle, interact with students, make friends, discover secrets, be a bad or a good wizard of witch. I wanted to feel that my choices in this game affect the world somehow, hell, if not the world, I wanted to feel how my choices affect ME. And what did I get? Absolute barebones. The main draw of the game, Hogwarts, is both a blessing and a curse. The architecture is mindblowing. The animations of the stairs building, ghosts popping in and out, and the joyful music playing are probably the best parts of the game. That's all there is to it however, It just looks good. You cannot interact with any of the students. You attend classes but the classes themselves are a cutscene with a simple childish QTE puzzle and that's it. Brewing potions are also QTE but after you attend first potions class, you just click one button in order to brew it, no immersion whatsoever. You can't sit on any of the benches in school, you can't sit in The Great Hall, you can't even sleep in your House's dormitory. You learn Unforgivable Curses, the inglorious spells from the original books. And they do not mean sh-it. They do not affect you in any way, no one reacts to it, you can AK all the poachers and remain a good, kind wizard off screen.

My point is, they should've focused on the actual school part and making us feel like we are legit Hogwarts students. What we have now is an amusement park attraction. The only option is to walk around, observe, and eat an apple. The only other game I played set in an environment like this was Bully, and that game offered way more freedom than the developers here have allowed. It's hard to immerse yourself when you're pretty much watching a movie about your character, rather than actually playing as them. And Bully feels like you are actually in a boarding school.

Why this have happened you might ask? Here we go to the point I've mentioned earlier, the open world aspect. We have that HUGE area that's around Hogwarts. For what reason, I want to ask them? Just so you can fill this world with Ubisoft-type missions? That area still feels absolutely lifeless and dead, nothing you do have any meaning besides filling your Field Guide and achieving that 100% completion.

Before starting working on this game, they had to choose the path they wanted to take. If they wanted to go down the path of an open world game, they should've focus on exploration bit, filling this world with interesting content, making moral choices in the game that would affect the state of this world, the state of the characters. There should be side quests that have actual story rather than braindead "bring me this or that" ones. Not just filling huge open space voids with meaningless content.

And if they wanted to appease the Harry Potter fanbase, they shouldn't have made an open world in the game at all. It should've been a linear, story and atmopshere driven game, with heavy lean to the actual school part, part of being a student, studying, activities around the castle etc etc. And the open world had to be cut in half or even three times, leaving only Hogwarts and outskirts, Hogsmeade and Forbidden Forest. A much crammier space but with A LOT more attention to details and quality. It needs to be Bully but in Wizarding World. And they tried to fit everything at once and did not succeed in anything.

Hogwarts Legacy brings nothing new to the table. The graphics and the architecture of Hogwarts are the best part of the game, everything else is a either a weird gameplay decision, or a mechanic jacked from another game, yet done far worse. I would say this game is alright if you have no idea about Harry Potter, you might find it as yet another average open world game with more or less decent storyline. And for all the huge HP fans, this game is way overpriced for what it offers, and you may get bored easily once the initial honeymoon phase wears off around a few hours.

[mw00]

"Brewing potions are also QTE but after you attend first potions class"
Play Kingdom Come: Deliverance if you want to see an innovative potion brewing in a video game.
https://youtu.be/JM_Ekyo9Qtg

[LizBlizz]

Did OP literally just make an account to review this one game? Something's fishy.
Not that I disagree all that much with the review though, tbh.

[Orion Invictus]

Publicado originalmente por error2k:

"Brewing potions are also QTE but after you attend first potions class"
Play Kingdom Come: Deliverance if you want to see an innovative potion brewing in a video game.
https://youtu.be/JM_Ekyo9Qtg

How is following a recipe innovative? We've had that for decades.

[T9]

Publicado originalmente por ZXQuincy:

Publicado originalmente por subjenna:

OP sounds like Ubisoft makes bad open world games. Guess what, Valhalla's side quests are way better, between POIs there always is something to find, graphics are just as good, the map works, menus are snappy. Listen to FC6's voice acting. The accessibility options. They know their trade. In comparison, HL at times feels like an unfinished chinese clone.

What is Ubisoft actually good at it's delivering games that never fall below that "average" bar. I can't recall any recent game from Ubi that was utter garbage. Far Cry 6 was alright, your typical Ubi open world game but not utter trash. Valhalla and Odyssey both quite decent open world games.

I only made that comparison because HL jacked a lot of mechanics from Ubi games, open world mechanics.

FC 6 is 100 % trash

[subjenna]

Publicado originalmente por ZXQuincy:

Publicado originalmente por subjenna:

OP sounds like Ubisoft makes bad open world games. Guess what, Valhalla's side quests are way better, between POIs there always is something to find, graphics are just as good, the map works, menus are snappy. Listen to FC6's voice acting. The accessibility options. They know their trade. In comparison, HL at times feels like an unfinished chinese clone.

What is Ubisoft actually good at it's delivering games that never fall below that "average" bar. I can't recall any recent game from Ubi that was utter garbage. Far Cry 6 was alright, your typical Ubi open world game but not utter trash. Valhalla and Odyssey both quite decent open world games.

I only made that comparison because HL jacked a lot of mechanics from Ubi games, open world mechanics.

Well Breakpoint was trash, FC5 was kind of trash.

Thing is, Avalanche missed on some current open world standards, in some ways it feels like a step back. Why don't I have a compass, instead I got a minimap like 2005 ? The graphics are nice but I find myself too often staring at the bottom left to find the right doors and paths. They could have projected it into the world easily.

In most ubisoft games there are several ways to solve a situation, you have several weapon categories to play with, you got gear like the ac bird or the binoculars. In Valhalla, you can mark 3 POIs so you don't have to come to the map as often.

[Nonomori]

Publicado originalmente por subjenna:

Publicado originalmente por ZXQuincy:

What is Ubisoft actually good at it's delivering games that never fall below that "average" bar. I can't recall any recent game from Ubi that was utter garbage. Far Cry 6 was alright, your typical Ubi open world game but not utter trash. Valhalla and Odyssey both quite decent open world games.

I only made that comparison because HL jacked a lot of mechanics from Ubi games, open world mechanics.

Well Breakpoint was trash, FC5 was kind of trash.

Thing is, Avalanche missed on some current open world standards, in some ways it feels like a step back. Why don't I have a compass, instead I got a minimap like 2005 ? The graphics are nice but I find myself too often staring at the bottom left to find the right doors and paths. They could have projected it into the world easily.

In most ubisoft games there are several ways to solve a situation, you have several weapon categories to play with, you got gear like the ac bird or the binoculars. In Valhalla, you can mark 3 POIs so you don't have to come to the map as often.

Didn't you have a minimap in Cyberpunk/RDR 2?

[PaulGR]

Publicado originalmente por Orion Invictus:

Publicado originalmente por error2k:

"Brewing potions are also QTE but after you attend first potions class"
Play Kingdom Come: Deliverance if you want to see an innovative potion brewing in a video game.
https://youtu.be/JM_Ekyo9Qtg

How is following a recipe innovative? We've had that for decades.

It's probably the most immersive potion-making we ever got in a video-game. Not everything has to be "innovative" to be good.

[subjenna]

Publicado originalmente por Nonomori:

Publicado originalmente por subjenna:

Well Breakpoint was trash, FC5 was kind of trash.

Thing is, Avalanche missed on some current open world standards, in some ways it feels like a step back. Why don't I have a compass, instead I got a minimap like 2005 ? The graphics are nice but I find myself too often staring at the bottom left to find the right doors and paths. They could have projected it into the world easily.

In most ubisoft games there are several ways to solve a situation, you have several weapon categories to play with, you got gear like the ac bird or the binoculars. In Valhalla, you can mark 3 POIs so you don't have to come to the map as often.

Didn't you have a minimap in Cyberpunk/RDR 2?

Didn't play Cyberpunk, and RDR2 before Origins so yes, a minimap feels dated to me. Unless there is no orientation at all, like in Asterigos.

Like somebody stated in another thread, if Ubisoft made the game, it would have been much better (if probably not at launch).

[vaanomega]

Publicado originalmente por Orion Invictus:

Publicado originalmente por error2k:

"Brewing potions are also QTE but after you attend first potions class"
Play Kingdom Come: Deliverance if you want to see an innovative potion brewing in a video game.
https://youtu.be/JM_Ekyo9Qtg

How is following a recipe innovative? We've had that for decades.

You missed the point of his post...
What's innovative in Kingdom Come delivrance is that you are doing each steps of the recipe rather than using a menu to combine them automatically by just having the ingredients

[Orion Invictus]

Publicado originalmente por PaulGR:

Publicado originalmente por Orion Invictus:

How is following a recipe innovative? We've had that for decades.

It's probably the most immersive potion-making we ever got in a video-game. Not everything has to be "innovative" to be good.

I agree, but that's not what that guy said.

Publicado originalmente por vaanomega:

Publicado originalmente por Orion Invictus:

How is following a recipe innovative? We've had that for decades.

You missed the point of his post...
What's innovative in Kingdom Come delivrance is that you are doing each steps of the recipe rather than using a menu to combine them automatically by just having the ingredients

Like we had in the old Harry Potter games some 20 years ago?

[Adam__86]

If I wanted a potion making sim i would buy one of the many potion making games available

[Orion Invictus]

Publicado originalmente por Adam__86:

If I wanted a potion making sim i would buy one of the many potion making games available

Can you recommend one? Because I DO, in fact, want a potion making sim, but something that lets YOU experiment freely and has some logic behind which ingredients result in what. So basically Skyrim's potion crafting, but as a fully fleshed-out mechanic and the main focus of the game.

[Adam__86]

Publicado originalmente por Orion Invictus:

Publicado originalmente por Adam__86:

If I wanted a potion making sim i would buy one of the many potion making games available

Can you recommend one? Because I DO, in fact, want a potion making sim, but something that lets YOU experiment freely and has some logic behind which ingredients result in what. So basically Skyrim's potion crafting, but as a fully fleshed-out mechanic and the main focus of the game.

The ones I own are
Potion Permit
Potionomics
Strange Horticulture
Wytchwood

[vaanomega]

Publicado originalmente por Orion Invictus:

Publicado originalmente por PaulGR:

It's probably the most immersive potion-making we ever got in a video-game. Not everything has to be "innovative" to be good.

I agree, but that's not what that guy said.

Publicado originalmente por vaanomega:

You missed the point of his post...
What's innovative in Kingdom Come delivrance is that you are doing each steps of the recipe rather than using a menu to combine them automatically by just having the ingredients

Like we had in the old Harry Potter games some 20 years ago?

In Kingdom Come delivrance, recipe aren't necessary to look at if you know them (even if you don't know them but do the right things, you will end up with the potion), what's make the potions are:
Chosing the Base liquid, Wine, Water, Oil or Spirits
Second the igredients needs to be used in different way to make different potions, some might need to have boiling liquid first, some will need to be grinded or not for certain potions, you have to respect the time needed for each ingredients (an in game hourglass can be manualy used to not screw the timing)
Oh, and i forgot, but you also need to control the fire intensity because if you are making boiling liquid when it's not suposed to can screw a potion
All of this are not present in other games

Edit: small additions

[Aria Bella]

o.o you know harry potter isnt actual just about going to school right? they added classes left the boring parts out you can fly and discover alot of secrets they even added fantastic beasts o.o yes you can have nifflers! at this point its all how you look at it really is you expect to go to school and study ehm we had those times me and alot wont wanna go back to study probally just walk arround the castle and see the stuff that just happens arround you maybe that helps