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Hogwarts Legacy Receives Positive Reviews With Solid Scores
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After a few dozen reviews, both Opencritic and Metacritic give Hogwarts Legacy an 86. Even though it might not be good enough for a 90+ GOTY, an 86 is a very, very good average in the industry as a whole, where developers used to get bonuses if they got above an 85.
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IGN gave it a 9, 9.5, and 10 in the US, Spain, and Portugal, respectively. Here's a bit from the scored review by IGN US:
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The elephant in the room was this growing story that some in the games media, which tends to be liberal, would give the game a low score because J.K. Rowling has made transphobic comments in the past.
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It doesn't look like that's the case. Even in the bigger reviews I've read, only one of the ten I've read even mentioned her.
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Most of the attention is on the game's content, which is described as a fantasy RPG set in the famous Wizarding World that will likely please most Potter fans.
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There are problems with things like the variety of enemies, the user interface, simple side quests, and other things that are common in modern games. But as a whole, the experience is said to be "immersive" and "magical."
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If anything, the JK Rowling controversy may have skewed scores higher, as reviewers who couldn't unlink JK Rowling from Hogwarts Legacy either didn't want to play/review it or didn't want to be publicly shamed for giving it a bad score.
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Polygon and Kotaku, liberal outlets, have no reviews yet. I don't know if they didn't get codes or if it's an editorial decision. Though usual in the industry, WB may have self-selected channels they thought were more friendly to them.
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However, we have a game that earns good scores at launch, unlike Cyberpunk 2077, which had huge technical issues on console.
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If Hogwarts Legacy turns out to be even just a pretty good game, and if the idea of a Harry Potter role-playing game (RPG) gets a lot of attention, we're about to see one of the biggest games of the year. Possibly in the last few years. Prepare for a hit.