Hogwarts Legacy mostly impresses with its high level of graphical fidelity and spectacular art direction, and we can’t help but dive deep into its many intricacies and see what’s under the hood. To that effect, we present a complete graphics analysis for Hogwarts Legacy.

Engine

Avalanche Software has used Unreal Engine 4 for its latest project, which might come as a surprise to many fans since so many developers are switching to the better and more feature packed Unreal Engine 5 for their games. But it’s also important to consider that Hogwarts Legacy was always supposed to be a cross gen game, which is why Unreal Engine 4 makes so much more sense than upgrading the pipeline to cutting edge technology.

Despite having been built on relatively older technology, Hogwarts Legacy boasts a comparable level of fidelity to games that use engines exclusively built for current gen hardware. Polygon counts are high across the board, the environments look fabulous with astute attention to micro detail, and the game makes generous use of taxing effects like alpha particles, volumetric fog among a slew of other things.

Of course, there’s also the world streaming technology that powers the open world – which seems to work well enough though issues can certainly pop from time to time which we will be discussing in further sections. That said, it’s also important to note that these visual features might be exclusive to the current gen console versions of Hogwarts Legacy, because we are yet to see how this experience would translate over to last gen machines when those versions release in the not too distant future.

Character Models

Hogwarts Legacy allows players to customize their character through a character creator, which allows them to choose different shades of colours, shapes, and facial features according to their desires. The game gives you plenty of starting options in the form of pre made character models, but you can also fine tune your model according to your liking. As mentioned previously, polygon counts for characters are adequately high and the clothes that they don are physically based materials. The dresses also feature physics properties, so your overcoats and other loose fit clothing items will react according to your movements.

The hair rendering solution isn’t anything special, and while they are presented with some level of care with proper texturing – the shadows they cast and individual strands of hair are prone to flickering artifacts which can look distracting if you zoon in.. On the same note, the skin meshes are also pretty average with little in the name of distinguishing factors but it gets the job done. The faces rarely exhibit any emotions in cutscenes or gameplay, which isn’t surprising since a lot of the facial animations are computer generated like so many open world RPGs on the market.

Environment, World Streaming, And Lighting

While Hogwarts Legacy might not be the most sophisticated in terms of character models, it certainly shines when it comes to the environment. The world of Hogwarts Legacy looks supremely beautiful and detailed with great art direction visible all around. The asset quality for the environments is consistently high, and some environment objects react to the player’s presence. For instance, blades of grass will move when you step on them. But at the same time, your player character doesn’t leave behind any footprints even when walking on snowcapped terrain so interactivity within the environments can be hit or miss at times.

That said, we should also point out that the environments themselves have a lot of density as well. So forests will be dotted with plenty of trees all around, while an indoor are would be filled with a lot of context sensitive props. While this isn’t any technical marvel or anything, it certainly adds up to a richer presentation all around.

Shadow quality looks crisp thanks to the use of ray tracing, and objects faraway in the distance also cast detailed shadows which results in a pretty realistic looking open world. The water rendering looks good too, with reflections that shift according to the camera. Hogwarts Legacy also uses ray tracing for ambient occlusion, which works to great effect in indoor areas like the buildings of Hogwarts where areas less exposed to direct light are naturally darker than the ones directly in the light.

One of the more impressive aspects of the environment is definitely the sky. Hogwarts Legacy’s skybox looks absolutely gorgeous thanks to high fidelity clouds brimming with detail. If you look closely, you can also see beams of light peeping through these translucent clouds which culminate in the realistic feel. Sure, it might not match upto the high standards of the Decima Engine but it looks wonderful regardless.

As for the world streaming, Hogwarts Legacy does a mostly great job with its streaming tech and everything loads in and out of view without much hassle. The LoD swapping implementation works to great effect here, and it’s very rare to see pop in during normal gameplay. However, the game is susceptible to hitches every now and then so you might notice a split second freeze when blazing across the open world on your magical broom – but it’s rare enough to not be much of a hassle.

Animations and Post-Processing Effects

As mentioned in previous sections, animation isn’t the strongest suit when it comes to Hogwarts Legacy. The facial animations are stiff and unexpressive for the most part, but thankfully body animations fare a lot better with proper frames that blend into one another. That said, players might notice some weird animation glitches here and there such as when an NPC climbs over an obstacle or some other random situation out in the open world. It’s a rare occurrence, but players can expect to see such goofs more than a couple of times during their playthrough.

The combat mostly revolves around spells which are cast when stationary, so any inefficiencies in the animations doesn’t really hurt the gameplay in any major way. On the topic of combat, we should also mention that Hogwarts Legacy makes good use of alpha particles in combat where plenty of sparks start to fly with every cast spell.

PS5 Version’s Resolution And Frame Rate:

The PS5 version has five modes, with Quality Mode running at 1800p resolution and 30 FPS. It also improves draw distance and more graphical effects on PS5. Enabling Ray-Tracing Mode applies it on shadows and reflections, though it seems to generate a lot of shimmering on some surfaces. High Frame Rate Modes are also available for Balanced and Performance, though you can only enable them on 120 Hz displays. In terms of performance, stuttering problems persist in some locations. The frame rate can be unlocked too.

Conclusion

Hogwarts Legacy might not be the best looking game on the market, but it’s still a solid adventure with plenty to love. The environments in particular look great – thanks to beautiful skies, densely packed areas, and accurately lit indoors. In a similar vein, shadows and reflections look great as well – thanks to the use of ray tracing. Sure, there are some apparent flaws with the presentation as well such as robotic animations and the occasional loading but when you look at the bigger picture those problems don’t really affect one’s enjoyment in any particular way.

The Mandalorian Season 2 Character Pack includes characters like Moff Gideon, Ahsoka Tano, Bo Katan, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand. Star Wars: The Bad Batch Character Pack comprises Hunter, Tech, Echo, Wrecker and Crosshair. Based on their class, each character will have their own unique abilities to wield in battle.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC. It sold 3.2 million units in its first two weeks of launch and is currently the biggest launch in LEGO series history. Check out our review here to see how it fares.

If, however, you’re not entirely convinced and want to dip your toes in the water before taking the plunge, there might be some good news for you around the corner. As spotted by Nintendo Life, the UK Nintendo Switch eShop states that a demo of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is available to download. Of course, that isn’t something that has yet been officially announced, and the game’s page itself doesn’t have the option to download a demo.

There’s a chance that this is a mistake, but if not, a demo of the game might soon be available- though if that happens, it’ll be interesting to see if it becomes available on other platforms as well. We’ll keep an eye out for updates, so stay tuned.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Our review of the game will be live soon so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Unlike previous LEGO Star Wars titles, The Skywalker Saga collects all nine mainline films into one package. The Prequel Trilogy, Original Trilogy and Sequel Trilogy are all here with 45 different missions to play, 23 planets to explore (including classic locations like Tattooine and Endor), and more than 300 playable characters. Along with improved visuals, combat has seen a fairly big overhaul with lightsaber characters having proper combos and blaster characters gaining a third-person perspective.

Of course, the fun doesn’t stop at launch. Additional characters will be added via the Season Pass with The Mandalorian Season 1 and Solo: A Star Wars Story packs out today. For more details on upcoming DLC characters, head here.

There’s no preload option so you’ll have to download the game when it releases. A quick peek at the PlayStation Store confirms that the PS4 and PS5 versions will release today at 9 PM PT (or 12 AM ET/BST tomorrow). The Xbox Store doesn’t have any information on timings so they’re assumed to be the same as PlayStation’s.

Releasing tomorrow for Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga encompasses all nine mainline films. Each can be played sequentially or in any order one chooses with 45 levels in total and over 300 playable characters. Check out the latest trailer here which highlights all of the different villains, from Darth Vader to Kylo Ren.

Spanning all nine mainline films in the series, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has no shortage of bad guys to throw at players. Palpatine, Count Dooku and General Grievous from the prequel trilogy along with Darth Vader and Boba Fett from the original trilogy are all here. Of course, this is a LEGO title so humorous instances like Kylo Ren tearing his shirt off or Clone Troopers doing a dance as part of “Order 67” abound.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is out on April 5th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. Along with the over 300 characters in the base game, Season Pass owners will receive access to The Mandalorian Season 1 and Solo: A Star Wars Story packs at launch. Digital pre-orders also get the Troopers Pack which includes four different Stormtrooper variants.

The video, which you can check out below, focuses on how the game’s developers went about bringing the entire Star Wars saga’s galaxy and all of its iconic locations and planets to life. As a game that’ll cover all nine mainline films in the series, it goes without saying that players are going to visit a vast variety of locations throughout the experience, and it certainly seems like the team at Traveller’s Tales went all-out with crafting it down to the finest detail.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga recently wrapped up development, and will be launching on April 5  for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The game’s DLC and Season Pass were also recently detailed- read more on that through here.

The first of these is The Mandalorian Season 1 and Solo: A Star Wars Story which are available at launch. The former includes the Mandalorian and Grogu (who’s sadly not playable), Greef Karga, Kuiil, Cara Dune and IG-11. The latter features young Han Solo, young Chewbacca, young Lando, Tobias Beckett, Qi’ra and Enfys Nest.

On April 19th, the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story pack goes live. It includes Jyn Erso, Bodhi Rook, Cassian Andor, K-2SO, Chirrut Imwe, Baze Malbu, and Director Krennic as playable characters. On May 4th aka Star Wars Day, The Mandalorian Season 2 and Star Wars: The Bad Batch packs will be available. The former includes Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, Bo Katan, Fennec Shand, and Moff Gideon while the latter features Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair, and Echo.

The Classic Characters Pack and Trooper Pack will also be out in the coming months. The former includes Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Darth Vader and Lando Calrissian while the latter has four Storm Trooper types – Death Trooper, Incinerator Trooper, Range Trooper, Imperial Shore Trooper, and the Mimban Stormtrooper. While the Classic Characters Pack is available early when ordering from select retailers and launches on April 19th for everyone else, the Trooper Pack is available at launch for those who pre-order the digital version and on May 4th worldwide.

As for the base game, it launches on April 5th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. Head here to learn more about its features and gameplay.

Features All Nine Films

In terms of scale, this is the biggest LEGO game yet, encompassing all nine films in the Star Wars saga. Everything, from The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith to A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, culminating in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, is here. You can also select and complete any trilogy in any order you wish, instead of having to play through them all in linear fashion.

45 Story Missions

Each mainline film offers five story missions, making for a total of 45 missions in the entire saga. Of course, they’re not all straight shots either. As revealed in the recent overview trailer, some have multiple routes which encourage going in, guns blazing, while others reward stealth and sneaky tactics. Each level also has varying mechanics, whether it’s the Speeder Chase on Endor in Return of the Jedi or lobbing projectiles at Droid armies during the battle on Naboo.

Side Missions

If that weren’t enough, each locale has a number of different side missions to tackle. When you’re on Tatooine, for instance, you can partake in a mini-game to shoot Womp Rats (as Luke was known for doing) or resolve the mystery of who shot first – Han or Greedo. The full extent of side missions has yet to be confirmed but levels are incredibly expansive, and there are plenty of collectibles to discover.

Over 300 Playable Characters

The biggest appeal to a game like this is the sheer number of playable characters. Make no mistake, this is the largest roster yet with over 300 characters to control, from Qui-Gonn, Darth Vader and Princess Leia to Rei, C3PO and Mace Windu. Each character has their own specific class which can be upgraded by finding Kyber Bricks. They also have unique abilities like the Scavenger’s Net Launcher for climbing faster, the Scoundrel’s sense of finding opportunistic shots or separating your body as a Protocol Droid to venture into tight spaces.

Freeplay Mode

Based on the overview trailer, it seems that the main story missions will lock you into playing as specific characters (which makes sense given how the movies played out). But don’t worry – there’s also Freeplay Mode. This lets you pick anyone from the roster and go crazy, whether it’s some piddly droid, Count Dooku or Jabba the Hutt. You’ll have to spend some time to unlock everyone but the sheer amount of choice is crazy.

Planets and Moons

There are numerous planets and moons to explore throughout the saga including Tatooine, Coruscant, Kamino, Endor, Jakku, Hoth, Kashyyyk, and even Starkiller Base. Plot a course on the star chart and venture to a location, exploring its numerous levels upon arrival. Certain ships like the Death Star and Star Destroyers can also act as hubs to freely explore.

Random Encounters in Space

Plotting a course isn’t just a matter of fast-traveling to another planet or moon. You’ll actually hop into your ship, fly out into space, travel through hyperspace and arrive outside of a planet’s orbit. Of course, much like the movies, you could also be assaulted in random encounters. For example, a random Star Destroyer may suddenly appear and send TIE Fighters after you, thus prompting a fight for survival.

Space Dogfights

Random encounters aside, there are plenty of iconic space dogfights to satisfy the hardcore Star Wars faithful. You’ll control Luke and his X-Wing in the assault on the Death Star in A New Hope; play as Han and fight off Star Destroyers and TIE Fighters while trying to escape in The Empire Strikes Back; and much more. This is in addition to piloting vehicles like the Landspeeder and Slave-1.

Melee Combat Improvements

One of the biggest criticisms against the LEGO series of games has been their gameplay and how simplistic it can be. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga takes great strides to improve this, particularly when it comes to combat. Melee combat features light and heavy attacks, along with extensive combos which allow for juggling foes into the air. Certain characters have counters and the Jedi can also use Force Powers to lift objects and hurl them at enemies or influence NPCs to do their bidding.

Third-Person Shooting and Cover

Blaster-focused characters also now have a proper third-person perspective for shooting. Cover is also important, allowing you to hunker down, take a breather and tactically pick off foes instead of rushing in headlong. All of this makes for more intuitive combat along with further immersing players in these classic battles.

Extras

Along with additional characters and abilities, there’s an entirely separate category of Extras to unlock. These include Baguette Lightsabers (which, as the name indicates, replaces Lightsabers with baguettes); Hologram Mode, which bestows a hologram effect to playable characters; GNK Civilians which replaces all civilians with GNK Droids; and much more. If you’re tired of the classic voices, then turn on Mumble Mode – this changes all of the spoken dialogue to mumbles and grunts for added hilarity.

PC Requirements

Though touted as the best-looking title in the series yet, the hardware requirements on PC are very manageable. Minimum requirements include an Intel Core i5-2400 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200, 8 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti or AMD Radeon HD 7850. Recommended requirements include a Core i5-6600 or Ryzen 3 3100, 8 GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 780 or Radeon R9 290. In both cases, you’ll need 40 GB of installation space.

DLC Character Packs

If all of the content available on day one wasn’t enough, there’s even more that’s being added post-launch. Those who pre-order the Digital Deluxe Edition will receive access to seven DLC character packs. These encompass The Mandalorian Season 1 and 2, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story and even Star Wars: The Bad Batch. You also receive access to classic characters (including an exclusive classic Obi-Wan Kenobi) and the Trooper Pack, which is also available on pre-ordering.

Local Co-op

In terms of multiplayer, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga offers local co-op for two players. Again, how this will work in the main story missions is unknown but there are several occasions, like Luke and Han assaulting the Death Star to rescue Leia, which could accommodate two players. Otherwise, there’s always Freeplay Mode for choosing whichever characters you’d like.

4K Ultra HD and HDR10 Support

In terms of current-gen consoles, the Xbox Store lists support for 4K Ultra HD and HDR10. These same features should be present in the PS5 version (hopefully along with cross-gen saves and free upgrades). Resolution and frame rates for each platform have yet to be detailed but it’s somewhat safe to expect 4K resolution and/or 60 FPS support on Xbox Series X and PS5.

Releasing on April 5th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga encompasses all nine mainline films in the Star Wars series. Each has five story missions and can be played sequentially or in any order that fans please. It offers some 300 playable characters and numerous planets to explore including Tatooine, Bespin, Endor, Kashyyyk and many more.

The combat changes are arguably the most compelling feature. Lightsabers now use light and heavy attacks along with Force moves while blasters now shift the camera into an over-the-shoulder perspective for easier shooting. For more details, check out the recent overview trailer here.

#LEGOStarWarsGame has gone gold – cue the Throne Room Theme! Huge congratulations to the team for the galactic work they've put into the game.

Fun fact: When a game is gold it means it's ready to ship! pic.twitter.com/SdUUWLaJvZ

— LEGO Star Wars Game (@LSWGame) February 23, 2022