The world has a heavy synergy with the films in a good way (chiefly from the refrains of John Williams’ soundtrack), without being too cloying. And of course, Hogwarts, with expansive detail.

The music, presentation, and myriad lore bits really make it.

It’s wrapped in a flawed open world shell, but that game came all the same, and a lot of people will likely want to experience it. If you’ve been waiting for a Harry Potter game though, this is it. With help, they’ve discovered the secret sauce that helps a lot of open world games stand out above the crowd, but also succumbed to a lot of tropes and backed themselves into a corner that begs for some quality of life patches. Disney Infinity was certainly on the cusp of it, but was mostly a sandbox-driven experience: this is something else. Although they had a lot of help with the development of Hogwarts Legacy from satellite studios, it’s fascinating to see Avalanche Software in this position, making an expansive open world project.

Hogwarts legacy xbox one review