Hogwarts Legacy Review

The elephant in the room with Hogwarts Legacy is Harry Potter’s creator, J.K. Rowling, whose comments about transgender people in recent years have left a sour taste in the mouths of many current and former Potter fans, both at IGN and in the world at large. This has driven some to call for a boycott of the Wizarding World altogether - including Hogwarts Legacy, though Rowling was not directly involved and there are good reasons (both in-game and out) to believe the developers at Avalanche don’t necessarily share her views. Regardless, IGN has always and will continue to champion human rights causes and support people speaking with their wallets in whatever manner they choose. As critics, our job is to answer the question of whether or not we find Hogwarts Legacy to be fun to play and why; whether it’s ethical to play is a separate but still very important question. So just as in virtually all cases, we’re choosing to expose and address the views of the franchise creator separately from our consideration of the work of the hundreds of game developers and evaluate Hogwarts Legacy as it stands, leaving behind-the-scenes context to be considered in addition to that evaluation, rather than in place of it, so that it can be weighted according to your own values.

Imagine a LOTR game from these devs with this attention to detail?

Not a potter fan in the slightest, but i'm glad the fanbase finally has a game that they deserve and can be proud of. It's seriously impressive and the art design really captures the magical world. I'm glad they got a win

Art design and a passionate dev team really carries this game.

Avalanche Studios needs to make the next Lord of the Rings game! They did an epic job on this game!!!

This game is so great not just as a harry potter game but as an open world game. The map is not as big as many other big open world games like valhala but it has many interiors to explore and most of all the world actually feels alive like im actually living in the hp world

Looking forward to an Azkaban dlc for dark wizard storyline players. Would be cool to battle a dementor or even attempt escaping Azkaban

9/10 for a game made by developers doing this for the FIRST TIME is something we haven't seen in ages. I'm in awe.

Several hours in and so far finding it a wonderful game that truly delivers on the promise of the concept. Filled with affectionate detail and polished like a gem. It also should not be discounted how much better the game probably is because it's a single player experience without all of the baggage and technical challenge of it being an MMO-style game. A very wise design choice that obviously raised the ceiling for quality + experience.

This game would have been a 10/10 if we could put our name in the Goblet of Fiyah!

10/10 They need to make a movie about this game.

No words could describe how much details they put in the map. Absolutely amazing

This is one of those cases where you can see it's more of a labor of love than anything else. The attention to detail, the amount of things that we're lacking from previous experiences, the original storyline that completely fits to the universe, the gameplay mechanics that visibly takes advantage of the potential within the world. This is a game that was clearly made by Harry Potter fans who knew exactly what was lacking elsewhere

Voldemort's going to seem like Gandhi after I'm done with this game

Avalanche has come a long way as a games studio. They went from average to exceptional.

About 17 hours in and I'm having a lot of fun. I've been a harry potter fan since the first movie came out. It really captures the Harry Potter and Hogwarts vibe. The crazy spell combos you can cast if you're fast at switching spell sets is insane. 9.5/10 for me. If it had Quiditch, it'd be a 10/10

Congrats to the dev team for embracing the concept and lore and delivering a franchise-worthy experience. Just super happy for those folks rn. Bc this could’ve (and still might) go down poorly.

I’m not a Harry Potter fan but this game looks crazy🔥🔥🔥

The game is truly brilliant

Yes 🎉 been waiting for this game and glad it lived up to the hype. Well done Avalanche. 👌🏻

29:00 The surprise ending kept me waiting to the end and after getting to the end it filled the satisfactory hole in my heart. Thank you

Amazing. There is so much scope moving forward for this game… the future is extremely bright - great game

Amazing game, you really feel like you are there. Very immersive and created with such care to the actual book descriptions. 10/10

You guys should really start mentioning musical scores in your reviews. Music was one of the most important element in the harry potter movies that made me a fan of the universe.

What a time to be alive. We have a Harry Potter game that’s better than most triple aaa games that have been released in the last few years

Thank you, Travis, for the awesome review! Cannot wait to play it tonight!!!

Been waiting for a game like this for 20 years

Truly a great game! Definitely worth every penny!

Now that's impressive

If it had a quidditch mode it would have been a 10/10.

Great game! Definitely worth playing!

Very nice, Happy to see a great review for once 😁 I'll pick it up as soon as possible. 😎

It really makes you FEEL like a wizard. 10/10

For years I’ve wanted a 19th century wizarding world game. I’m gonna love this!

Been waiting to have an experience like this since playing Chamber of Secrets on PS1 as a kid :)

Fantastic review. Can't wait to buy it.

never was a fan of harry potter but man this looks hella fun

I'm 8 hours in and loving everything about it so far....

An amazing game worth the full price 🙌

Loving the game, for sure having a save for each house, gonna have a blast with my evil save aha

Game looks really well made. you can tell the devs are big fans and wanted to make a game for fans

This game seems to tick all my important boxes. I'm so excited!

If you love the franchise this game absolutely hits the spot

Płaczę ze szczęścia …😊

The fact is that there is gear personalization in the form of traits which augments specific spells or manner of combat.

Considering this the developer's first go at big RPG game after doing mostly Disney Infinite and other smaller scale tie-in games, it's impressive this game is being received so highly.

Fine I'll buy it! Great review actually got me excited for this one.

Wow, this game is awesome. Just a WOW effect.

Great game just about halfway through it so far

This game is fantastic!🧙🧙‍♂🧙‍♀

The game is glorious, so much fun, and beautiful!!!

It's great to see peeves as a character, but it is heartbreaking rik mayall passed away before we could ever see his portrayal as the character

Playing this game as Harold Potter, Harry’s grandpa. Joined Griff and saw a familiar face. Amazing game, play it

Im 6 hours in and its a fantastic game im enjoyed the little details , cant wait to play more later

I’m loving this game! About to start charms class!

I'm sure in the character creation screen you could make your character look like harry,or any of the other characters from the films.

Well done Avalanche! First step to becoming a great developer

One thing that the old Harry Potter games of the early 2000s had that this game doesn't is Jeremy Soule's beautiful soundtrack.

This seems like an excellent game!

This games fun as f**k! It's about time they made a HP game like this. Can't wait for DLC!

hope to see the upcoming dlc's adding more spells, beasts, enemies, plants, potions, quidich it lacks in these regards, and how fun it would be to recreate the movies storyline but in the same engine, so much can be done, something similar to spiderman miles morales :-?

Awesome! Thanks for the review!

Hogswarts Legacy really makes you feel like Harry Potter

For the limited enemy types, I'm sure there was an edict that "we can't have players harming animals or other people".

Excellent review excited to play

Hands down one of the best games ever made!! So magical, avalanche got everything so right!! Please please please bring some dlc

Fantastic game!!! Def a sequel

my favorite quests are the ones where you go get something precious for someone and than tell them that you actually also really like it and decided to keep it XD

There is so many little references to the story we all know. It feels like home but fresh at the same time

Thought the graphics would be slightly better but looks great otherwise. A must buy

I’m more of a LOTR type but damn this game looks very interesting def need to check it out

I’ve had this on pre order for months ! Hope it lives up to the hype

You don't see everyday a game made mixing a movie and a book saga. Phenomenal.

Nice to see Peeves makes it back, I’ve only seen him in the games/books - shame he wasn’t in the films

really makes you FEEL like a wizard

Nice to see peeves as a character but heartbreaking that rik mayall passed away before we saw his portrayal as a character

Cannot wait to play it technical issues or not this is my childhood in a game 😁

Great to get a review that focuses on the game and only the game.

This game looks awesome!

Thank you Travis, excellent review. Can’t wait to jump into the wizarding world

This is a well written and told review!

So excited! Can't wait for it to come out! My new puppy's name is Bellatrix Lestrange lol so I'm definitely a fan!

Appreciate the honest review.

Doing a complete Harry Potter main story as a dlc would be awesome. Being a random student in voldemort era would be amazing.

This game looks so fire. Imma get it asap

So glad this game is being well received by people!! I’ve been waiting for a game like this for YEARS!! Just by looking at the gameplay and details you can tell this game was made with love and care. This game was made by Harry Potter fans for Harry Potter fans!

This game looks insane. Can't wait to play it tonight

Seeing the fantastic beasts and where to find them reference you threw in put a smile on my face :D

Thank you IGN, for the honest review 👏.

This is one of the greatest review by ign.

Looks incredible.

I'm so glad this game is getting great reviews. Going to buy this for sure now!

I'm so glad they got this game right

9 outta 10 for IGN that’s rare which means as a wizard if world I’m going to be spending hours in this world.

still waiting for launch day but glad to see the reviews are mostly positive.

Shocked that nobody is talking about all the possible updates Hogwarts Legacy could have… new task, creatures, mechanics, etc.. 😮‍💨 I know what I’m doing this weekend

The open world of hogwarts is the absolute best part of the game…. Though it’s not that interactive

The review definitely makes it sound like a great game. Can't wait!

I’m a few hours into the game, it’s great so far.

Excited to see where modders can take this.