God of War Ragnarok may now be available, but there are no shortage of titles to look forward to. One release lingering tantalisingly on the horizon is Hogwarts Legacy, and developer Avalanche has decided to refuel our enthusiasm with over 40 minutes of PS5 gameplay footage, spanning the character creator all the way through to a short tour of Hogwarts.

In short, it looks incredible. The team’s done an amazing job of making each individual corridor of the famous wizarding school feel unique, and while it’s perhaps not quite as interactive as you may have hoped, it’s bursting with activity, as students gather outside classrooms and teachers go about their business. As far as open world games go, this is certainly a very unique setting.

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The video does confirm that there’ll be no scheduling system, so unlike titles like Bully, your classes will be part of the main mission structure. The loop has clearly been inspired by most modern sandbox games, as you discover fast travel points, collectibles, and quests from fellow students. The conversations look a generation behind something like Horizon Forbidden West, but to be fair, Guerrilla has set a high bar to beat.

The gameplay concludes with some combat, which seems quite complicated, but refreshingly original. Effectively, you can assign different spells to four slots on the HUD, and you’ll then need to utilise different coloured attacks to break the shields of your opponents. You can also counter attack by guarding at the last moment, much like in the Marvel’s Spider-Man games, for example.

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All in all, we’re impressed. We’ve been waiting pretty much a lifetime for a game like this, and while it’s clear the developer has had to make compromises – no playable Gobstones, for example – you can already tell this is going to be an amazing open world to explore. What are your thoughts on the showcase?

[source youtube.com]