Hogwarts Legacy PS5 Hands-On Preview. My knowledge of the spectacled wizard and his chums is admittedly limited to the brilliant movie adaptations, but I’m pretty confident I can spot a muggle from a mugwump. Not that it really mattered during my hands-on with Portkey Games‘ ambitious fantasy-RPG Hogwarts Legacy, as regardless whether you’re a Potter aficionado or casual fan, you feel instantly welcomed by this sumptuously-realised recreation of the Wizarding World.
Hogwarts Legacy PS5 Hands-On Preview
First, a little backstory. Hogwarts Legacy is set during the late 1800s, so we’re looking at about 100 yeas before the events of Harry Potter. You’re a newcomer to Hogwarts in his fifth year, which is almost unheard of at the time.
My hands-on started with a character customisation screen, ranging from gender, clothes, hairstyle, eyebrows and all the usual things you’d expect. Naturally, I choose a spectacled wizard chap as my character and named him after myself – I mean, why not?
The Powers That Be forbid me from talking about what comes immediately after, but I can talk about everything else. The hands-on itself wasn’t one long playthrough; instead, I was bounced around to various points of the game, from the early stages to around 15 hours in.
By far the biggest location I sampled is Hogwarts and its surrounding areas including Summon’s Court. The castle itself is the centrepiece; a sprawling, lavishly-detailed structure that towers over everything, emitting an almost patriarchal aura. Potter fans will go nuts, for sure. At this point I hit L1 + Circle to whip out my broomstick and take to the skies to soak up the sights, but were restricted to travelling firmly within Hogwarts’ grounds.
The controls for the broom were pretty easy to get to grips with; the analogue stick is used to steer your character, while L2 gives you a speed boost that must recharge over time. It’s definitely an easy way of getting about and acquiring a lay of the land, and feels great. Seriously, broom navigation is everything you could hope for and more.
Meanwhile, chatting to fellow students yielded various mini-games, including broomstick lessons and flexing your magical muscle by levitating and pulling a ball as close to the edge of platform as possible without it falling off.
Even during this brief look, it’s clear that Portkey Games has done a fantastic job at nailing the look and feel of the Wizarding World. Students populate the grounds and inside Hogwarts, going about their business, ghostly figures waft majestically through the air before disappearing from view, and the interior of the castle itself oozes atmosphere.
After poking around inside Hogwarts for a bit, I was able to start up Duelist training with a partner and solo. It’s here that you are given a good idea of how combat works. You’ll steer your student with the analogue stick and use Circle to dodge, while hitting R2 repeatedly casts a basic attack spell.
It’s not just about mashing R2, though. Some enemies wear protective shields (yellow) that must be broke using Levioso before they can be harmed normally. Others meanwhile have a physical barrier (purple) that you must shatter by lobbing objects at them using R1.
This lends encounters a distinct whiff of strategy, and before long I settled into a comfortable rhythm of dodging, attacking and chucking objects to overcome multiple adversaries. Battles can get pretty heated and occasionally messy thanks to some camera issues, but overall it was solid fantasy frolics.
My final section of the hands-on came with a mission around 15 hours into the game. Here, I had access to more spells and brushed shoulders with poachers, goblins and even centaurs. Combat and exploration here are punctuated by Assassin’s Creed-style investigation segments, although it remains to be seen just how much they’ll feature in the overall scheme of things.
Some of the battles here were pretty epic. At one point, I came across a bunch of wizard folks who destroyed a bridge, sending me plummeting to my death; I quickly returned to the fray, made my way across the bridge, and pulled them across it to me before dealing some close-range damage.
It’s clear that Portkey Games is having fun when it comes to the array of spells on offer. Disillusionment is turns you almost invisible, which I employed to creep past some chattering goblins while attempting to locate a captured dragon.
I also got to wield the iconic Expelliarmus, which dishes out major damage to unshielded enemies and really helped me out in a major ruck between a wizard boss and his flunkies.
And that wraps up my time with the game. It’s admittedly difficult to get a good idea of how it’ll play out, as the sections were not exactly cohesive; the narrative, broader exploration and interactions with your Hogwarts students remain a mystery at this point, but I can at least say that I enjoyed what was on offer.
Portkey Games has certainly nailed the Wizarding World aesthetically, and the combat makes great use of the spells from the series, so much so you really feel like a capable wizard or witch. Quite how everything else shapes up is up in the air right now, as it’s obvious I barely scratched the surface of what Hogwarts Legacy has to offer.
Hogwarts Legacy is scheduled for release on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S on February 10, 2023. The PS4 and Xbox One versions are due on April 4, 2023 and the Nintendo Switch version on July 25, 2023.
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