Hogwarts Legacy fans are already declaring it 'GOTY material'

Hogwarts Legacy has swept fans by storm with a beautiful reimagining of the school in the 19th century, representation in the character creator, and the secrets to be found scattered across the grounds.

Of course, it's not officially out yet and those who are playing are benefitting from the 72 hour early access bundled in with their Deluxe or Collector's Edition of the game. Hogwarts Legacy offers over 70 hours of content as well as exclusive goodies for students playing on PlayStation like the House Cup event and 'Haunted Hogsmeade' DLC. It seems like smooth sailing, however, there is a strong current dragging the game down for the fact that Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling earns royalties for every sale. Her critical comments towards transgender issues, ranging from fear that individuals who seek out treatment for gender dysphoria are a risk to children to the conclusion that transgender identities are homophobic, have soured the nostalgic sentiment that some long-standing fans have had for the Wizarding World.

Check out the Quidditch Pitch in the game in our tour below:

Overall though, the game is sitting in the 80s on Metacritic for the three platforms that it is out for now, and players are pretty pleased with the final product. "This is probably GOTY material," said Reddit user Immediate-Chemist-59, surging to the top of the game's subreddit with over one thousand upvotes. "So far only few hours, going to work for 10 hours everyday, but every time I [can't] wait when I turn it on again! Such a joy to play."

"This has quickly become my favorite game of all time. The gameplay is rather simple, even the puzzles are pretty simple but I find myself just so happy to complete them," said user UCF2HSV. There is particular praise for the lack of faff in Hogwarts Legacy - specifically speaking, there are no multiplayer modes, microtransactions, and no part of the open world that feels crowbarred in for the sake of something to do.