Live: Hogwarts Legacy reveal – first look at Harry Potter RPG gameplay

While we were expecting Warner Bros would announce a specific release date, the publisher wasn’t quite as exact as we were hoping. Instead, the State of Play’s main segment ended simply saying that it would be released in ‘Holiday 2022’. Will that be as late as December or is September still on the cards? After all, International Literacy Day is right there on September 8 – what better way to mark the occasion than with a massive Harry Potter game?

As a fifth year student you’ll be catching up with your classmates, and for that you’ll be using the Room of Requirement. In the books this space changes to fit the needs of whoever walks through its doors, becoming a training room for Dumbledore’s Army (or a bathroom for a wizard caught short late at night). 

In Hogwarts Legacy it becomes a room where you can install equipment that lets you unlock and upgrade your abilities, leveling up your power. As you grow stronger you’ll unlock and improve your spells for combat, but also learn skills that let you reach new areas of the school and areas beyond.

Next we’re onto combat. Naturally, there’s a lots of it in Hogwarts Legacy – from duelling with other students, fighting dark wizards, and putting a stop to a goblin rebellion.

Spells will be your main tool in combat – though, there are also powerful potions to give you an edge in battle. Your spells can be stitched together to perform combos, too, with a flick of your wand sending stunning enemies and sending them high up into the air where you can hit them with follow up attacks.

While combat and lessons will be a big part of your time in Hogwarts Legacy, it’s clear that there will be a lot of wandering around the school and discovering its secrets.

Using the spells you unlock, through lessons and friendships with other students, you’ll find new ways of navigating the space. Dragging bookcases together in the library to open up pathways to hidden rooms, for instance.

For Harry Potter fans who have been absorbed by the books, it must be a thrilling prospect to be able to walk the halls of this school and see places for your own eyes that have only lived on the pages.

There’s a main story that runs through Hogwarts Legacy, just in case you were worried that the game would let you loose in the school with no direction. Working with Professor Fig, you’ll be investigating a goblin rebellion.

This should give us a closer look at the inner workings of Gringotts Bank, but personally, I’d be keen to have the action remain centered in the school and its many nooks and crannies.

Interestingly, Hogwarts Legacy isn’t set in the modern day, like the Harry Potter books. You’ll be a student in the 1800s, which is why none of the professors you know from the books will feature in the game. Though, some of the ghosts will be familiar – with Nearly Headless Nick making an appearance.

And we’re off!

The stream begins with an introduction to the character creator and sorting system. You will be shuffled into one of the houses based off your answers to the hat’s questions and each house will offer a different path through the school.

Unusually, you won’t be starting the school in first year, but jumping straight into fifth.