Hogwarts Legacy | An Honest Review

hey what's up everyone welcome to let's talk the series where [Music] this is your friendly neighborhood Birdman and today I'm going to give you an honest review for Hogwarts Legacy [Applause] [Music] I break games down into five sections sections that I believe matter when talking about a game each of those sections can receive a maximum of 20 points for a total of 100 points overall first up are the graphics to your broom say up firmly and clearly then kick your leg over and rest your weight on the seat [Music] thank you now your turn so I stream this game on PC and as we all know PC versions of games typically have the best visuals if we're comparing them to consoles that being said I thought the visuals in this game were pretty good but nothing to write home about you're immediately thrust into the character creation screen when you boot up the game and right away you'll notice the game is middle of the pack when it comes to Graphics character models aren't exactly the most detailed I've ever seen But the game is generally inconsistent on this front some of the beings you meet have incredible detail on their faces and then strangely the player character's face feels a little flat in comparison on that front I felt the game's customization options could have been a little more in depth as well for as well as they get black people's hair and they do a damn good job of that the faces themselves feel a bit cookie cutter and there's an obvious lack of facial hair options I can sense someone getting ready to type in the comments section that we're playing a kid in school but I remind you I was 15 years old Once Upon a Time and there were plenty of 15 year olds with facial hair when I was in school but I digress the Hogwarts Castle and World itself are a little on the drab and dreary side but that's obviously done on purpose I mean it is a medieval castle after all and most of the environments outside of the gothic Castle are caves and dark forests so that makes sense the game borrows design elements from the Harry Potter films which is a great design Choice especially for those that only know of this world through the films it's awesome to just troll around the castle and find places that you recognize from the films the game's frame rate is generally stable outside of the odd hiccup or two which is a testament to the game's engine as this game can get incredibly busy with all the various objects and particle effects that appear on screen I opted to play the game at 60 frames per second and the frame rate was Rock Solid even in the most intensive boss battles rarely dipping more than four frames for me the lighting and particle effects in this game are stellar and the way light casts shadows and bounces off of surfaces is top tier stuff image quality is great but in the Overworld I did notice a bit of pop in especially while flying but aside from that the graphics in this game are okay they just won't be winning any visual Awards anytime soon [Music] hold R2 to go faster and enter forward flights oh my God oh boy this is great what [Music] if I had to describe the gameplay in Hogwarts Legacy with one word it would be um have a brother out Harry it's brilliant exactly the gameplay in Hogwarts Legacy is brilliant first of all we have to understand why this game works by peeling back a layer of this onion games have what is known as a gameplay Loop for example in a game like Resident Evil that Loop is find the object you need to solve a puzzle that opens a locked door by traversing a set of corridors while avoiding or dispatching enemies take the hawk emblem puzzle in cold Veronica for example you need to take the hawk emblem outside to unlock the main gate but there is a metal detector that prevents you from taking it outside so you need to head outside Dodge a few zombies grab the fire extinguisher put out the fire in the cemetery pick up the briefcase containing the non-metallic tg1 alloy head back to the metal detector while dodging a few zombie dogs place the alloy in a 3D modeling machine duplicate the hawk emblem then we grab Mum go over to Liz's Place hole up have a cup of tea and wait for all of this to blow over that is generally what you will be doing your entire playthrough of a Resident Evil game and that is what is known as a gameplay Loop in other words the bass mechanics of a game this is important to talk about because we are dealing with a game that is based on an already established franchise with over 25 years of lore in the bag and if you're a Harry Potter Super Fan like me then you know that lore like the back of your hand oh I guess I'll catch up with some shots uh please go to vodka diver Rampage I'm pretty sure you can't do any of the unforgivable spells but um let it be known I'm ready for the shits anybody come with the smoke extremely armas I got the [ __ ] Elder Wand in this piece foreign are not ready for me what the hell does this all mean well the developers have taken something as mundane and wrote as an action-adventure gameplay Loop and blended it seamlessly with the lore you actually feel like a wizard learning things in a school and then implementing what you've learned in the real world and I mean that literally part of the early gameplay Loop is learning a spell in the classroom and then finding ways to use that magic you've learned to help you solve puzzles or protect yourself in the Overworld do you even remember how to perform a basic summoning charm [Music] accio well it seems that we are entire need of review summoning John that is not bad you are a swift learner I see a lot of potential but remember potential is nothing without practice keep at it you might just rival Miss on eye here many hours later also I can't quite Express how incredible it feels to perform magic in this game and how will Harry Potter magic works in the context of a video game for example if you come across an area where everything is too dark you can cast a lumos charm and just like the books and films you now have the equivalent of a flashlight in other games you can fast travel like in most open world games but you do so through the usage of flu powder just like in the books and films if you don't want to fast travel you can Traverse the large open map on the back of a fantastic Beast or a broom it's almost as if the Harry Potter world was originally envisioned as a video game because the elements from the books blend so well with the mechanics of a game combat is fast fluid and intuitive you can cast a variety of offensive spells to defend yourself from enemies in the game spells like Expelliarmus which will disarm your opponent or incendio which sets them on fire similar to the combat in Spider-Man and the Arkham series when an enemy decides to attack you an indicator will appear over your head and you can cast protego the defensive Shield charm you can also retaliate with the Stupify and stun your enemies there are so many combinations and spells to choose from that part of the fun is to see what combos you can come up with and you're not even limited by the usage of unforgivable spells Yes you heard that right along with the cruciatus and imperious curses you can cast the killing curse in this game and yes it is an insta kill that's what I love about this game it's apparent the developers themselves are fans of the source material and they meticulously crafted a game around the lore and it shines through the mechanics of the gameplay Loop just like in the World of Harry Potter students can learn about the various disciplines of magic and then employ what they've learned in side quests and free roam like Hagrid or a newt scamander you learn how to capture magical beasts feed and groom them and even breed them you can cultivate magical plants like Neville Longbottom or you can try your hand at being the Half-Blood Prince and becoming a potion brewing badass okay I'm exaggerating a little as these aren't as deep as they could be but they are there and these magical disciplines help flesh out the world and make it feel alive almost like a Wizarding simulator if I had to point out what I didn't like about the gameplay it would mainly have to do with two things inventory space and spell slots you start off with a laughably small inventory space which is counter-intuitive because you are constantly finding loot after beating the game I realized the loot you find isn't all that important but you don't know that when you first play through the game so it feels as if you are losing out on important items because you are constantly strapped for cash and the game's economy is quite expensive destroying old gear is almost a non-starter because you can sell your old gear for galleons to one of the many merchants in hogsme the way to rectify this is by doing the various Trials of Merlin scattered around the open world and that gains you inventory slots if I were making this game I would have put the charm Hermione has on her bead bag on the player's inventory and given the player infinite gear slots and make completing the trials of Merlin more lucrative by giving the player a special cloak or wand for completing all of them The Spill slots are harder to rectify given the fact that this is a video game and they need to limit your power somehow but it's very annoying to need a specific spell during an encounter and having to pause the action slot in the spell in my quick slots and then get back to the action yes you do get the ability to have multiple sets of spells but the problem is that you have too much magic more than will fit in all your spell sets and you don't know which abilities you need until you need them which means you will potentially have to pause the action and do what I mentioned I think the quest log should have a suggested Spell section next to the description of that Quest so that you come prepared beforehand and don't have to break immersion so often those are relatively small quibbles though because otherwise this game feels so so good getting around the world isn't a pain in the ass like it is in God of War doing side missions actually adds to the experience instead of dragging you out of it the combat is not only pretty to look at it's incredibly easy to get the hang of in the control rules just make logical sense in a world of needlessly complicated controls and boring tedious gameplay Loops Hogwarts Legacy stands alone as the game with the best gameplay and controls I've experienced since ghosts of tsushima being completely honest I am kind of tired of open world games and can you blame me almost every game I've played in the past couple years has been open world cyberpunk 2077 Pokemon Violet Dying Light 2 Far Cry 6 ghostwire Tokyo the Spider-Man games hell even Halo infinite was open world I have no idea why every developer has to make their games open world these days it's like a plague open world games are to this generation what first person shooters were to the Xbox 360 generation clearly I'm one of those guys that prefers a linear experience because admittedly I get distracted when there are too many options and I'm very susceptible to analysis paralysis I also hate the post game of open world games they're either Bland with nothing to do or riddled with repetitive busy work so understand me when I say this this game being open world didn't bother me a single time this is because the developers Don't force you to do the thing other open World Games force you to do and that's Traverse their giant sandbox at a snail's pace I'm looking at you God of War Ragnarok in addition to your standard waypoints the game gives you the ability to summon a Trail of Light that appears in the Overworld that is also a waypoint but keeps your eyes focused on the Overworld itself and not the minimap this allows you to experience your surroundings and makes the open world and Castle feel more like places and less like meaningless pixels in the way of your objective ghost of tsushima tried something similar but I prefer this style 10 times over and I'm going to be disappointed that more developers don't implement this kind of Waypoint system in their inevitable open World Games the rest of this generation earlier I mentioned you can fast travel by using the flu network but what I didn't mention is that in order to use any of these points you have to Simply pass by them at least once the reason this isn't tedious is because almost immediately you acquire a broom and can fly nearly anywhere on the map once you've acquired a fast travel point you can go there at any time from anywhere on the map including to and from the inside of the castle this makes getting anywhere an absolute Breeze and makes post-game achievement hunting an activity that doesn't make you want to pull your hair out and speaking of the castle chef's kiss Avalanche you have lovingly recreated the Hogwarts Castle and it is a genuine pleasure to walk around inside it and when I say lovingly recreated I mean that as we all know there are four houses at Hogwarts Hufflepuff Slytherin Gryffindor and Ravenclaw each house gets their own distinct common room with their designs being actually based on their descriptions and the books take some time and understand what I just said the developers created four distinct rooms in a giant castle three of which due to the nature of the house sorting ceremony most players won't even get to see in their initial playthrough that's love they created an experience that will be unique to you based on the house you get sorted into this includes some of the characters you meet in certain quests that are only available to your house they could have taken the cop out most developers would have and giving you a color swapped version of the same room but that wouldn't be Hogwarts and that's why it's incredible what they've done here the downside to the beauty that is the castle is relatively speaking the other environments aren't as engaging hogsmead is beautiful but it feels smaller than a village should feel the caves are on the Bland and forgettable side and the Forbidden Forest just felt like any other Forest after a while to be clear I didn't think any of these areas were bad they just weren't as bad as as the castle and that's a little disappointing my little gazelle you are well intentioned but you must not meddle in the Affairs of dangerous people if someone had meddled in matabila land father would still be with us oh got him I must get to class perhaps your friend can get you to listen to reason Hogwarts Legacy is a pseudo Choose Your Own Adventure narrative where like Mass Effect your character engages with other characters in dialogue that you can guide with dialogue choices this means you will spend the majority of non-combat and non-exploration time in cut scenes with the Litany of characters that surround and are in the castle while not explicitly a choices matter type of game there are a few times where your choices affect the narrative most especially the times regarding the unforgivable curses the problem with those specific instances though is that the game does not exactly follow through with consequences for those choices outside of narratively irrelevant dialogue in the books and the films we are repeatedly told that using those curses will get you into trouble in The Wizarding World in fact Alistair Moody explicitly states that using any of these curses will get you locked up in Azkaban which of you can tell me how many unforgivable curses there are threesome and they are so named because they are Unforgivable the use of any one of them will earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban correct are you sure about that well in this game I have used all three unforgivable curses and nothing happens to the player character the thing is though I'm not sure that even matters when regular spills outright kill other Wizards and goblins anyway I mean I literally explode people with magic how is this any different than Avada Kedavra anyway the fact the game doesn't explicitly encourage exploration around the castle means you have to actively seek out side missions that help flesh out the world personally I appreciate this approach as it allows the player the choice whether to do the critical path or engage with the world at their Leisure the only caveat is that some critical path missions require you to be a certain level which then lightly pressures the player to grind a little bit in order to reach the next bit of story although that is a tad annoying it is not heavy-handed and usually I only had to grind a single side mission to gain enough experience to be able to progress if I had any major complaints about the plot structure it would be that the game doesn't really allow you the freedom to be the kind of wizard you want to be I would prefer the game Go full Mass Effect and have a morality system where you can choose to be a dark Wizard or a good Wizard and allow those choices to affect the story as a whole I completely understand that this game is Canon to the Harry Potter universe and that they have a story they wanted to tell it's just that we finally have a real you can be a wizard game and you don't really have a choice not to be a good guy it would be incredible to have a GTA like wanted system where aurors chase you for being a bad Wizard and if your wanted level got too high Dementors would enter The Fray forcing you to use a Patronus charm I mean we all know slytherins want to be evil right so I say let them am I enjoying the game so far I am enjoying the game the vulture guys uh I think this game is brilliant so far I haven't had any complaints outside of like the lag when I'm trying to like open the map like there's a there's an obvious Delay from when I press the button and then the map opens other than that though voice acting's great characters seem great the game is very responsive it's smooth it works out of the box which is sounds like a weird thing to say but like you know how many games just don't work at launch especially on PC which I'm playing this game on PC for those of you who do not know this so yeah it's like um I have not many complaints Hogwarts Legacy tells the story of a new student that is enrolling in Hogwarts as a fifth year which is entirely unusual but hey the student is mysteriously imbued with a special power called ancient magic which holds a secret that may turn the Wizarding World on its head with the help of the student's Mentor Professor fig they uncover a plot by the Goblin randrock and his associate a dark wizard named Rookwood just like in a normal Harry Potter Story the student must balance his studies while trying to uncover the mystery of ran Rock and stop him before he uncovers the legacy of Hogwarts I thought long and hard about what I thought about the story of this game during my playthrough I was intrigued and I really felt like I was experiencing a Harry Potter book come to life I've tried to explain to people many times that the novels are technically mystery novels and that's exactly what I got in this game a compelling mystery with twists and turns and actual Stakes to that end I have to say I truly enjoyed the story in this game being a long time fan of this franchise I can say that without a doubt the developers did JK's World Justice and gave us a real story worthy of being part of the Harry Potter Canon the acting in this game is downright phenomenal with moving performances from Professor fig in the goblin lodgok to the Whimsical performances of the various professors at the school just watching this colorful cast of characters is entertaining in and of itself the only issue I had with the cast was with the player character himself as he came across a little flat in comparison I also tried giving my character a deeper voice and instead of a different voice actor the game simply modulated the pitch of my voice and that was deeply distracting for a long while my character's voice was incredibly robotic sounding and I cannot fathom why a large game like this didn't simply hire more than two voice actors for the protagonist I mean Saints Row was able to get multiple voice actors so why did a triple A game only have a single male and female voice it seems like a strange area to cut Corners especially since the rest of the cast is so great I'm gonna knock off a couple points for having a game where you make choices but the choices don't have a huge impact on the story itself again I get it they have a story they're trying to tell and allowing the player to too much agency could upend the Canon but my contention is that if you're going to allow us to make choices please make them matter in a tangible way no spoilers but there is a choice you make at the end of the game that is presented as a big deal but ultimately it doesn't really change much to be clear there are multiple endings and your choice determines them but they're not different enough where large swaths of the player base have a unique experience I mean cyberpunk 2077 had at least five different endings if you're a fan of this franchise you will have an absolute blast with this game it's incredibly faithful to the source material definitely blending the lore of the books with the design elements from the films everything you expect from Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts is here from the magic to the character traits of the four houses it's a game that will continuously impress even the hardcore fans of this series but the real question is will this win over people that aren't fans or have never experienced The Wizarding World if you ask me my honest opinion is that this game is well worth your time and your money and I'm recommending a buy at full price it's dense packing in a lot to do the controls are tight and responsive and the game didn't have any game breaking bugs at least on the PC version it tells an imaginative and original story that fits the lore perfectly and you don't even need to be well versed in that lore to jump in so jump in [Music] foreign foreign

Channel: Th3Birdman

Views: 37,576

Keywords: Hogwarts, Hogwarts Legacy, Hogwarts Review, Hogwarts Legacy Review, J.K. Rowling, J.K. Rowling Hogwarts Legacy, Rowling Hogwarts, Rowling Hogwarts Legacy, Hogwarts Legacy Controversy, Woke, Hogwarts Legacy Drama, Hogwarts Legacy Boycott, Harry Potter, Harry Potter Game, Harry Potter Hogwarts Legacy, Hogwarts Legacy Gameplay, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin Common Room, Gryffindor Common Room, Hufflepuff Common Room, Ravenclaw Common Room, Hogwarts Legacy Common Room

Id: RMmALcEcnf8

Length: 21min 44sec (1304 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 13 2023