After what can become a tedious and hours-long tutorial that players will experience at the beginning ofHogwarts Legacy, Avalanche’s wizarding world action-RPG finally withdraws its leash and allows players to explore the open world at their leisure. Sure, players are encouraged to mainline the golden path’s story content so that players can indulge in every feature available (namely theRoom of Requirement and Vivarium’s features), but that doesn’t have to thwart them from clearing the fog fromHogwarts Legacy’s mammoth world map and encountering numerous bandit camps along the way.
Some encampments are larger and fortified somewhat, which usually signifies that more environmental objects are around and ready to be flung at Ashwinders and poachers via overpowered ancient magic. Otherwise, players can stumble upon tiny camps with Ranrok’s loyalists hanging out in the open. Either way, enemy camps are rarely enticing visually and could certainly use an overhaul in aHogwarts Legacysequel, preferably by leaning on a neat wizarding world gimmick thatHogwarts Legacyitself underutilized: charmed tents.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Charmed Tents Could Make for Spontaneous Dungeons
There are a couple of instances inHogwarts Legacywhere players enter into charmed tents that seem ordinarily sized on the outside but are enormous encampments on the inside—one inNatsai Onai’sHogwarts Legacycompanion questlineand the other in Poppy Sweeting’s. Granted, both tents are essentially dungeons barred by loading screens and not seamlessly entered into, but them behaving identically to dungeons is great nonetheless.
There are far too many enemy encampments that are literally just enemies huddled outside, let alone enemies roaming idly as if awaiting the player with no prior commitments. In such cases, mobs seem less like inhabitants of the wizarding world and more like NPCs who were plucked and dropped indiscriminately.
Rather, an enchanted tent’s advantages are twofold: the total area they monopolize as encampments is minimal since their exteriors are mild-mannered tents while their interiors are however large they’re needed to be and, while inside, enemies can presumably be scheming or tending to other clandestine, mischievous matters.
It’s fantastic entering into the tent with Poppy to see an illegal dragon-fighting ring, for example, as this proves that anything could occur within. Charmed tents could be a sequel’s way of demonstrating creativity when it comes to enemy encampments and having each one be more extravagant than the last could make simple mobs tremendously robust. If so,Hogwarts Legacy’s sequelcould also easily get away with an open-world map that is a quarter of the size since so much of its content may be stashed away in unassuming and magical shelters.
Harry Potterand the wizarding worldin general explore this premise quite a lot, andHogwarts Legacy’s successor would likely find a ton of favor in ditching endless hole-in-the-wall caverns for tents bearing unknowable depths and shady activities. Of course, it might be a bit silly if the open world in aHogwarts Legacysequel is simply littered with tents. Choosing where and when to have tents, though, could elevate certain mobs and make those encounters tremendously entertaining and memorable.
For instance, if there are moreInfamous Foes or comparable bosses inHogwarts Legacy 2, a gargantuan tent encampment themed with them in mind could be sensational, not unlike how players contend with Gwendolyn Zhou and a slew of dark wizards to rescue Natty in a cellar hideout beneath Hogsmeade.
Then, some mixture of tents, real cave dungeons, and ordinary encampments could make for much-needed diversity regarding where humanoid enemies choose to reside organically. This all depends wholly on whether the Scottish Highlands will even be explorable in the same capacity, and only time will tell precisely howHogwarts Legacy’s sequel is going to take shape.
