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Hogwarts Legacy - Harry Potter open world action RPG prequel set in the late 1800s

Taurist

Scholar
Joined
Dec 8, 2017
Messages
108
Apart from the works of Tolkien most fantasy “worldbuilding” falls a part when you look at the cracks a little too much. GRRM’s Westeros has little lineages of nuclear families ruling vast kingdoms for hundreds of years and other absurdities. The world building of Hogwarts the school is actually quite good. Almost every other paragraph of the first few novels is filled with little details about the building and the extended cast. Its also quite clear that the magic has some thought put into it. Until thats liquid luck bs I guess.
 

Darkwind

Augur
Patron
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Messages
611
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
Can't say I give a crap about the source. Does the game play ok for action combat rpg with puzzles andcollectibles. Source? Hah! I give two fucks to know what HP is about.

Is combat solid and satifying for the type of game?

Is sound & music servicable to goid?

Is the UI a mess or decent?

Am I railroaded or can I actually "break" the game in ways the designers didn't expect.

Combat is actually quite decent IF, big if... you don't abuse the counterattack mechanic. It suffers from the old "Assassin's Creed Syndrome" of basically spamming the counterattack button being enough to carry you through most combat encounters. This was why they redesigned the AC combat in nu-Creed to get away from that into a more active Dark Souls style combat. There is enough variety in the spell selection that you can setup some slick combos. But that broken counterattack mechanic definitely should be addressed.

It is much faster paced than it might look and requires decently fast reflexes. You are VERY much a glass cannon as a wizard should be. You take even a few hits and you will go down quickly.

Sound & Music are very befitting of the Hogwarts environment.

UI is serviceable, has a very typical layout you'd see in any action RPG. My primary gripe is that we are locked into console gamer hell by having to toggle between 4 spell menus corresponding to the 4 buttons on a controller x 3 different spell sets. On a mouse & keyboard, the ideal setup would have been buttons 1-10 and - / = as the 12 spells so you can just fire them off straight away w/o the fuckery of toggling them in sets of 4. Very clearly console focused.

Not "railroaded", but highly doubt you can do anything clever or game breaking too. The main problem as I see it is there is a very decently built overland world to explore and very little reason to do so. All sorts of clever nooks & crannies, puzzles, secrets and the vast majority of what is behind them are cosmetic loot with no functional benefit. That is disappointing AF. The flight model is great though and that 3rd Z axis of freedom feels really good. But again, you have great mobility around a well crafted map that doesn't offer much reason to explore it other than simply for the sake of and some minor rewards.
 
Joined
Jan 9, 2011
Messages
2,814
Codex 2012 Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
This will probably get lost in all the irrelevant bullshit discussed here, but here's my quick review of the game, after completing it to 93% and finishing at level 38. Took me around 40h.

It was fun. Some quests are pretty cool, with nice "awesome" moments. On the other hand, everything felt very scripted, and just a shallow. Still fun, but shallow.

It was waaaay easy. Game dishes out experience and good gear at you, if you do modicum of exploration. As soon as you have any gear with stats in the 80s you're set, getting anything higer doesn't really matter. Getting beast and plant materials is trivial. Winning broom racing or dueling is trivial. Only thing that I can't complete is bloody Summoning Challenge 5.
Combat is mostly very easy, and I feel there is some enemy scaling going on. Fightning single big enemy is easier than fighting multiple mobs. I've played almost whole game with Pull, Levitate, Fireball, and Expel Wand as my main spells, with Push, Freeze, Ignite, and Slice as my secondary. Worked excellent for 90% of the fights. After you hit level 35 everything just feels trivial, with big meanies like Trolls just being a chore and not a challange.

It was beautiful. The world looks great, Hogwarts is amazingly detailed. Villages look rustic, costumes vary from whimsical to really posh late 19th century. You can look like a crazy wizard murder hobo, or as a distinguished gentelman of many magical talents. Flying around on your broom is just joyous. It is also very shallow, and artificial world. There are some scripted things happening that are meant to make it feel alive (goblins fighting trolls, goblins fighting spiders, etc.), but it still feels like watching a nice postcard and not being in a living, breathing world.

Choices and consequences do not exist in this game, at least I didn't feel any impact on the stuff I said on the world or the ending. Build variety doesn't exist either. You get 40 talent points in total, and there is 52 points you can spend. Expect stealth is useless bullshit, so you won't waste 4 points there. Spending 8 on your potions upgrade is debatable, as crafting the buggers involves real cooldown timers. Person who thought it's a good design should be kicked in the nuts, or their gender-of-choice equivalent. There are couple evidently good options to choose there, and I really didn't feel the impact of anything more I did after spending 20ish points (first upgrades do feel nice though).
Casting unforgivable curses also has no consequences, so enjoy your crucio and avada kedavra.

Best quests are side quests (slytherin dude trying to heal his sister), and treasure hunts where you only get a map and no freaking quest compass. Main quest is perfectly servicable though, and has some nice moments.

So, overall, I'm quite amazed that something so shallow and un-rpg was still fun to play. Might be getting old and loosing the refined taste. Don't think many codexers will like it, but I did. It's also a cool game to play, or just faff about with your kids.
 

Nikanuur

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
1,751
Location
Ngranek
This game has some crazy level scaling. I was out killing all manner of wild critters and every single one of them was level 16 which just so happens to be the level I am at. What kind of lazy shit is that.
Hey, on the subject of meaningless flying numbers, how much of the UI can you turn off in this game?
Everything, damage numbers and info about what you've just looted from the chest included. You can have a clean, film-like screen, should you choose to.
You can eben turn off the quest marks, so you have to use the map and your own attention only.
What you cannot turn off, at least as of yet, are the advisory utterances. "Maybe I could move the platform somehow." spoils the fun of researching an approach. Fortunately, sometimes it's not so much about spoiling as it is about confirming that you're on the right track; "The waterfall! Thief as he is, Jackdaw wasn't lying about this one!", and at least sometimes you don't hear the utterances at all in places you'd expect to, leaving you to forge your own path.
 
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KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
15,385
Hmmm.... sound ok. I'll pass on the pricetag though. The flying sounds cool. I need to watch some vids on flying alone.
 

Silverfish

Arbiter
Joined
Dec 4, 2019
Messages
3,927
Are you people actually really spending 60€ for a bland open-world shitfest just to show solidarity with a bigoted snob like JKR and her entourage, or do you just enjoy bland open-world games?

I enjoy bland open-world games (big Ubisoft fan), respect JKR for making trannos seethe and still will only buy this used so that no one benefits.
 

The_Mask

Just like Yves, I chase tales.
Patron
Joined
May 3, 2018
Messages
5,931
Location
The land of ice and snow.
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Fat boy trannie Jim Sterling talking about Hogwarts Legacy haha


JFC, I didnt knew this retard became a trannie

HE4TIHu.png

I know you didn't mean this, but I read that with Simon's voice.
 

Mauman

Scholar
Joined
Jun 30, 2021
Messages
1,227
Seems there's a mod out already that offers both lighter AND darker skin tones.

Of course, the urinalists are focusing on the former with only a bare mention of the latter.
 

Ontopoly

Disco Hitler
Joined
Jan 28, 2020
Messages
3,117
Location
Fairy land
Yeah, that is an instant trahbin being a fucking kid. Bleh! I'll wait for seeing if it is full modworthy to even ride the seven seas and plunder the booty. Open world oh yipee...
:(
Either the game is good enough to play or it's not. Why would piracy suddenly make the games good? What are you, poor?
 

BruceVC

Magister
Joined
Jul 25, 2011
Messages
9,888
Location
South Africa, Cape Town
Why would piracy suddenly make the games good?

It wouldn't. Piracy is for when you think you might like the game enough to play it, but you don't want to give the game devs/publisher your money.

Not that this game fits the bill for me. From everything I've seen about it, it looks dull as dirt.
Lambach !!You forcing me to make another normie comment and I'm trying really hard to not do that but you leave me no choice

Dont justify piracy, its not acceptable on any level. If you dont like the Devs\publishers then dont play or buy the game. Make a stand on principle and not rhetoric. Speak with your wallet but ALWAYS say " no to piracy " :salute:
 
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Nikanuur

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
1,751
Location
Ngranek
It was waaaay easy.
No difficulty settings?
I'm not sure what Yaar Podshipnik has to say about this, but I felt that some parts of the game were aimed at children, that is correct. But really only some parts. And I totally wouldn't say the combat on hard difficulty is easy. It depends on the monster type and number, I suppose, but when you have 5 wizards + some of their ranger friends several levels higher than you implementing all kinds of different shields that can only be broken by casting spells from an appropriate category, it can get you really dead really fast from all that chaos of trying to choose what to do while shielding, dodging unblockable attacks, and frustratingly doing no damage yourself. By the way, I also thought that the combat would be single-point attacks the whole game, but it's not like that. Later on, AoEs appear too.
 

Nikanuur

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Mar 1, 2021
Messages
1,751
Location
Ngranek
The main problem as I see it is there is a very decently built overland world to explore and very little reason to do so. All sorts of clever nooks & crannies, puzzles, secrets and the vast majority of what is behind them are cosmetic loot with no functional benefit. That is disappointing AF. The flight model is great though and that 3rd Z axis of freedom feels really good. But again, you have great mobility around a well crafted map that doesn't offer much reason to explore it other than simply for the sake of and some minor rewards.

We must pray to a very different god of rng then, my friend, because the majority of what I loot from any cranny, nook, puzzle, secret, etc. is indeed a piece of gear, potion, or money ":D
I get the cosmetic stuff mostly only from completing challenges.
 

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