You wait in vain for 14 years for an owl to stray to your home window with an invitation to Hogwarts in its beak, and suddenly the dream is within reach. Well, I’m no longer eleven years old and I don’t have anything to do with school anymore either. But that’s exactly the chance I’ve been waiting for ever since I accompanied Harry Potter to wizarding school for the first time and got lost in the books well into the night.
My love of Harry Potter, combined with my soft spot for video games, naturally made me want to explore the castle on the console myself, when in real life there was no career in witchcraft and wizardry waiting for me. A game where you are the center of attention and you can explore Hogwarts to your heart’s content, maybe add a few adventurous quests to that… a dream come true! My expectations were correspondingly high as a Hogwarts Legacy (buy now / €53.99 ) was first announced over two years ago. Now it seems like we’re in for a pretty generic action-RPG, and that’s totally fine.
Like looking into a pensieve: somehow familiar
At a preview event in Hamburg, I was not only allowed to explore the greenhouse and the library of the magic school and duel with other students for my detailed preview, but also play a mission that is actually only available later in the game. And I immediately felt at home, after all, various blockbuster productions and action role-playing games/adventures can be found on the list of games I’ve played. Hogwarts Legacy felt exactly like those games during the quest.
Whether I’m tracking leads with my focus as Aloy, sneaking through enemy camps as Eivor, or scouting for a group of poachers haunting the vicinity of Hogwarts as a junior witch, the gameplay is pretty generic in the end. I’ve done similar tasks countless times in numerous missions in various games, even if the context, the setting and the characters always looked different. But don’t get me wrong, because the development team behind Hogwarts Legacy made exactly the right decision.
Many fans – and I can’t exclude myself – would have been happy with some kind of Hogwarts simulation. After all, just going about the school day and being able to escape the magic-free everyday life for a while is exactly what I wished for every time I was faced with these almost unsolvable math homework.
But since the game wanted to be more than that, a way had to be found to combine the wizarding world with a hopefully compelling story and entertaining gameplay. Avalanche Software could have jumped at the chance to bet on exceptional mechanics with the financial opportunities that such a big brand brings.
Innovations are always welcome in the field of video games and also necessary so that the industry develops and not every title corresponds to the same scheme. However, the developers have to dare to do something, and in the worst case this can mean a shot in the oven.
Gryffindor Nemesis: Playing It Safe
There are two reasons why the generic core of Hogwarts Legacy is not only okay, it actually makes sense. On the one hand, games that are intended to appeal to the widest possible range of potential customers often rely on proven gameplay without any special frills. Since the title will certainly also attract Potterheads to the console who are otherwise not very familiar with gaming, it will probably appeal to a very large number of people.
On the other hand, you don’t need extraordinary ideas to make a good game. If you’re like me, you just want to immerse yourself in the magical world and feel well enough entertained to spend as much time there as possible before cabin fever sets in and you need some variety again. So yes, I want to look for clues, run after NPCs that are way too slow, sneak my way through enemy bases more or less skillfully, and do it again and again!
As long as it’s done well, I have no problem with generic gameplay, especially for after-hours relaxation. For example, in Ghost of Tsushima I had a lot of fun following the wind and grazing one point at a time marked on the map. And I was so excited about Horizon Zero Dawn at the time that I jumped straight into New Game Plus after the platinum trophy.
As much as I love the sense of challenge in games like Elden Ring, it doesn’t always have to be that challenging. Especially if it’s an adaptation, which due to the popularity of the template could potentially go quite a lot wrong, it would engage in daring experiments. We’ll see in about two weeks whether the rest of the approximately 150 quests in Hogwarts Legacy are similar to the reference mission and offer the typical blockbuster package. If the suspicion is confirmed, there is no point deduction for Hufflepuff. It would be perfectly fine.
