Hogwarts Legacy

First, a disclaimer: I am aware of JKR's hateful views and the concerns about the game supporting. I made sure my acquisition of the game would not profit JKR at all and do not support the bigoted opinions she spouts etc.

Anyway, with that out of the way (and isn't it a shame it's required?) lets get back to the fun stuff.

The game itself.

I have found it to be fantastic fun, very engaging and immersive and very clearly made with loving care and attention to the world, lore and the entire gameplay experience.

This is a game that welcomes you into its world, and is happy to share it with you. Not that there is no challenge to the game, and that it's all happy days frolicking around the Highland valley for the entire duration of gameplay, but more that you're just not really penalised for playing at all?

I mean, you die, or you fail a puzzle or lose a contest (Yes, thank you for that commentary of my  performance Imelda, noted. I shall never let you win a damn thing ever again! Watch me save before speaking to you just so I can rewind time if I lose and start over!) then you can just... try again.

You can try again and either keep going until you pass that particular hurdle or you can wander off and do something else.

I spent hours wandering the map for dens to rescue critters from, and only after found out that the map - if you zoom in more - tells you what lives where.

I didn't mind that I'd spent my time looking fruitlessly for something the map could have told me the location of, it was a fun little ramble! I found stuff! Did challenges! Met people! I lost absolutely nothing from zipping here and there like a demented magpie in a jewellery shop, the story and side quests waited for me and I was perfectly free to catch critters and raid treasure vaults and redecorate my base room (referred to as such to avoid spoilers).

To me, that's a lovely thing in a game, to be able to freely pick and choose what to do at almost any point and be rewarded for my time and effort in some small way (cute beastie to live in my den, nice new coat, pretty view from valley side, funny bit of conversation with an NPC).

And unlike Souls-games or anything Elder Scrolls-y, the lore and the worldbuilding comes to you rather than hiding from you in dingy dungeons and one-off visual inferences and veiled references. You learn new and interesting tidbits about the wizarding world just by standing around listening to a pair of villagers criticise a shop front, or walking through a Hogwarts corridor or stealing letters off of every. single. teacher's. desk.

I love it. I never read/saw the Cursed Child, never really cared for Fantastic Beasts but I do love it when a game-world lets me explore it and learn about it and when it feels like an actual, real world. People talk shit, they babble about mundane things, get up to hijinks like you'd see in a normal town on a busy day. You hear the weirdest snippets of conversation and also stand there agreeing with that guy, what do you expect to see in a cauldron shop window if not cauldrons?

And not only can you do whatever you want, whenever you want, and have a fun and rewading time in the process, but you genuinely want to explore and find new things because a) the delightful feeling of discovery and adventure in the game and because b) the world of Hogwarts Legacy is absolutely gorgeous.

(Bonus points for the easily and immediately accessible appearances/glamour system, for those who care about not looking like Peeves dressed you.)

My main complaint about the game is the lack of photo mode, which prevents me from taking many lovely screenshots.

(And a video of the humming armour getting a beat down, IYKYK)

Still, here's a lowly gif that barely captures a fraction of how lovely the game looks:

And some stills:

I am dying for a photo mode or some camera option or anything that will let me take some in-game photos properly. I want to take pics of my baby hippogriff! and the Forbidden Forest! and the castle interiors! the Deathday room! the Library! the Clock Tower! ARRRGGGHHH LET ME TAKE PHOTOS!

The TLDR is that I love the game, I think it's been made with love and attention and is great fun!

I've (bar one, single, irritating bugged Field Guide page) 100%ed the game (which is the first time in many years I've done so for any game) and am now mopping up the last 3 Xbox achievements and checking out the different common rooms and starting quests.

Definitely worth the money to me, and I think it's a shame that such a genuinely great game will be overshadowed so much by a woman who had zero involvement in its development but has the original IP.

Slight spoilers for quantity/specifics of game content:

The last time I cleared a map like this must be Arkham Knight (I wanted to get the full ending which meant clearing all of the Riddler trophies).

And the last game before that? Maybe Arkham City, or Assassin's Creed Black Flag. The last game I nearly/actually 100%ed including achievements would probably be more like Red Dead Redemption back on the Xbox 360.

That's how much I enjoyed Hogwarts Legacy.

Now to wait and hope for DLC and a photo mode!

(And get back to my submersibles and Frontlines...)