Short Thought: Hogwarts Legacy Learnt From The Batman Arkham Series

If you haven't picked up Hogwarts Legacy yet, but are wondering how the combat feels, well, it's awesome!

As the title of this article suggests, in many ways, it's similar to the Batman Arkham series. However, rather than breaking out into a flurry of fists and feet — like the Caped Crusader — your 15-year-old wizard or witch chains together various spells to take down enemies. And it's this ability to freely combine attacks, in a sleek manner, with an auto-targeting feature, that stirs my memories of the Arkham games.

In some ways Hogwarts Legacy's combat is superior to the Arkham series'. As Batman predominately attacks with punches and kicks, he's forced to leap around the screen delivering them, which often comes across as looking a little wonky. Hogwarts Legacy has no such issue, as the combat is all ranged; characters need only flick their wands to engage in combat. The approach has also been simplified, and is far more forgiving, when compared to the Arkham games. The Arkham series encourages you to use Batman's entire arsenal of moves and gadgets to make Batman more effective and efficient in combat encounters; Hogwarts Legacy mostly just lets you get on with fighting how you'd like to.

Countering also makes an appearance in Hogwarts Legacy, and in a similar way to how it worked in the Arkham series, except it's far easier to execute — even allowing your magic to deal increased damage if it's utilised properly. When you throw in the Devil May Cry-style enemy-juggling mechanic, you have a very fun, satisfying, and interesting overall approach to combat.