3 years ago (2020), the first promotional film for "Hogwarts: Legacy (Hogwarts: Legacy)" released by Warner Harry Potter was officially released. Developed by Avalanche Studios with the "Just Cause" series as a word-of-mouth guarantee, and the unparalleled appeal of the "Harry Potter" IP, this short 2-minute short film ignited the enthusiasm of players and fans around the world.
For players, with "legitimate defense" in front, the setting of Hogwarts: Legacy's open-world action RPG+ Academy of Magic sounds addictive; For Harba fans, they are even more eager to travel to every corner of Hogwarts House, and even the entire wizarding world.
However, as you can see, from the first game to its official release, Hogwarts: Legacy bounced for two years before it was belated. What kind of experience can this game bring to players after two years of polishing and optimization, it is a little humble to talk about holding a magnifying glass, and I will talk to you carefully.
When it comes to the design architecture of open-world systems, Avalanche Studio has long proven that it has the ability to handle it easily, and this is no exception in Hogwarts: Legacy.
While ensuring the linear development of the main story, Avalanche Studio has turned the Academy into a truly medieval castle building worth exploring: the well-known first-floor row hall, the Ravenclaw in the tower, the library with forbidden books, and even the prefects' bathrooms and kitchens directly below the hall, which have never been seen in movies. Exploring this magic academy, which has been fantasized countless times, is not only the greatest wish of all players who enter the pit, but also one of the core goals of Avalanche Studios.
The game opens with a foreshadowing where the player, as a Year 5 apprentice who starts a cross-level game, is supposed to travel to Hogwarts House with Professor Figo to report. However, the mysterious scroll given by the professor's wife Miriam caused the group to be attacked by a dragon, but the protagonist could feel the magic of the keykey on the scroll, which saved the danger and teleported to another location: the Scottish Highlands, far from London.
When mentioning the doorkey in the game, I believe that many players have begun to have a sense of substitution, after all, this thing is not used in the original book, such as Harry used a tattered shoe to teleport when watching the Quidditch World Cup, and the championship trophy of the Goblet of Fire was directly passed to Harry to Riddle's graveyard and so on (BTW: The portkey is made of rags, usually to prevent Muggles).
Let's talk about the first big scene of the game: the Scottish Highlands. We often see this kind of performance in some triple-A games: after a short foreshadowing and shuttling through narrow spaces, the camera zooms out to show a magnificent landscape, which is used to install (beep) to deepen the player's impression of the game, as was the case with the first shot in the Scottish Highlands. Standing in the cliff cave watching the waves lapping on the reef, a fog in the distance obscured more information, although it was not expected to see Hogwarts House for the first time, but there was more mystery and the fear of the unknown sea, coupled with the scene of being attacked by the dragon just now, it also created a sense of atmosphere.
However, the two seagulls at the top left of the camera were previously exposed as "looping", and the official version is still spinning in the magical place, which is really a bit dramatic. It can be seen that the details still need to be polished.
When it comes to details, almost all of the game's hard-to-ignore slots are on the protagonist. Without a face pinch system that offers a high degree of freedom, players can only "piece together" the image they want from a limited number of templates. At first I thought I was doing this to better handle the details of the protagonist's face based on the preset scheme, after all, this is not a first-person RPG, and the protagonist has a lot of opportunities to appear. In fact, I was wrong, when the protagonist first smiles, it gives a very unnatural feeling.
And as the plot advances, the protagonist still has a weird smile, even a toothy smile, in other situations that need to be serious (such as when he was attacked by a dragon in the first scene, he was almost GG and laughing?). I said I couldn't understand it), it seemed too ghostly. Especially when other NPCs appear at the same time, the sense of déjà vu of facial expression collapse is more obvious.
The protagonist also has some small problems when he is blown by the sea breeze in the highlands: the details of the coat being blown by the wind are in place, but the protagonist's shawl curly hair has not moved, is it some black technology used to maintain it?
Returning to the plot of the first chapter, with the teleportation of another portkey in the Scottish Highlands, the two arrived at the impressive Gringotts in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", and then began the tense plot of Vault 12. Recalling the 687 vault where Harry Potter was incarnated as a rich second generation, the 713 vault with the Philosopher's Stone (later transferred to the secret room on the fourth floor of the academy) and the Hagrid happy car that appeared in the game made me a fan very emotional.
After escaping Gringotts, another set of commendable camera designs: the two continue their journey to Hogwarts House for the sorting ceremony, and as the camera progresses, it slowly changes to the perspective of an owl: through a dark forest, the magic train from platform 93/4 whizzes past.
Accompanied by Harry Potter's most classic BGM "Hedwig's Theme", a solemn medieval European castle slowly emerges: Welcome to Hogwarts!
At present, "Hogwarts: Legacy" Deluxe Edition Steam has been released, and PS5 players may face two problems: first, the price of PS5 Deluxe Edition up to 628 Hong Kong dollars is prohibitive; Second, the download capacity of about 80G is enough to make players itchy in terms of domestic network speed. In this regard, in terms of network speed, I recommend that players use the "Xunyou Host Acceleration Box", which may be the best solution for host acceleration on the market.
First of all, the Xunyou host acceleration box has a super cool shape, which is the biggest boon for me and other beauty controllers. This acceleration box designed with reference to the Cosmic Cube looks more like a unique artistic ornament, whether it is placed next to the console or in the e-sports room.
Secondly, improving the network is the core function of the acceleration box. The Xunyou host acceleration box is equipped with 5G WIFI and Gigabit network port, which can easily cope with both WIFI connection and wired connection. After the upgrade of the flagship version, with the blessing of the new chip, the connection stability, network uplink, and download speed have been improved. Previously, when playing "Monster Hunter: Dawn", I relied on it to stabilize online multiplayer hunting, avoiding embarrassing stuttering and disconnection. Now in the face of the large download capacity of "Hogwarts: Legacy", it is only a matter of minutes to have the Xunyou host acceleration box to pull up the download speed.
Finally, the gameplay of less than 40 minutes begins with a full demonstration of the quality of Hogwarts: Legacy. The protagonist modeling does need to be optimized, but the game as a whole does not explode. In all respects, the influence of the Harry Potter IP is the biggest trump card of this game. After all, who could bear to refuse to become a student at Hogwarts House and explore this mysterious and interesting wizarding world?