Let’s find out, in this dedicated review, how Hogwarts Legacy behaves on PS4: fear for the old-gen versions has now settled in all gamers, but how will the guys from Avalanche Software have worked?
Fans of the magical world of Harry Potter have had the opportunity, over the last few months, to go back to dreaming. It will be the announcement of the dedicated HBO TV series, which after so many rumors has finally seen the official arrival, it will be that the frenzy from Hogwarts Legacy has not yet subsidedanyone who loved the adventure of the most famous young magician of every era, beyond any controversy that may arise from the questionable claims of its creator, was able to go back to being a child, even if only for a while.
Recently there has been talk of Hogwarts Legacy for its arrival on last generation consoles, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Meanwhile the Switch version has been postponed again, due to the need for further time to achieve satisfactory results on Nintendo’s small hybrid, all those who have not been able (or wanted) to put their hand on a tenth generation console again will finally be able to live this new experience. We too have restarted the adventure and are ready to tell you about it with this review: let’s talk about Hogwarts Legacy again, how does it run on PS4?
Hogwarts Legacy has also arrived on PS4: here is our review!
Small correction: our test, for this review, took place on a PlayStation 4 Pro. In terms of content, obviously, there is no difference whatsoever and we also confirm that if you have purchased the PS5 version you can redeem the old one for free -gen, including Sony exclusive DLC. Net of everything, the events, the gameplay and the various mechanics are therefore exactly the same as we told you about in our “next-gen” review, which you can find by clicking here.
In this review we will exclusively analyze the quality of the porting, therefore, and although it is trivial to admit it, Hogwarts Legacy on PS4 is the “pumped” PS5 version; but is it really something to denigrate? The comparison that comes most spontaneously is, of course, the one with the late Cyberpunk 2077, but there is a fundamental difference. The title of CD Projekt Red was clearly conceived for PC and next-gen consoles, and was therefore too tight on hardware that was now decidedly outdated (ten years, with the fast times of modern technology, are really too many).
The House Cup | Review Hogwarts Legacy su PS4
Hogwarts Legacy, as well as Horizon Forbidden West and many others, are instead titles clearly developed to run well on old-gen, and then improved and transformed into those splendid graphic feats that a PS5 or an Xbox Series X run smoothly and with decidedly performance superior. Is there anything wrong with that? For those who would like a more decisive step towards the next-gen, we unfortunately have to say yes. However, considering the current market, which still looks to the past and in favor of a decidedly greater installed baseit is very clear why it still develops, basically, thinking of the old generation of consoles.
Digressions aside: how does Hogwarts Legacy run on PS4? Surprisingly well, net of a visible graphics and performance downgrade. But let’s go in order. The first thing that is clearly noticed are the loading times, much higher than what the PS5 was able to perform with its SSD, reaching about 40 seconds for loading an area of the Hogwarts castle. On PS5 it took less than 6, to make you understand the extent of the difference.
Potting Mandrakes | Review Hogwarts Legacy su PS4
In one respect, the fact that most of the time Hogwarts Legacy is set indoors definitely helped the developers. Although the quality of the textures is significantly lower and the game aims at a resolution of 1080p for a stable 30fps (almost always), one can very well notice a lesser presence of objects on the screen (especially vases, books and other accessories scattered around the different game environments). On the other hand, however, the lighting performance is really good, globally speaking, although there are big differences when the lighting effects on PS5 were really phenomenal, as in the case of the large windows in the castle.
The character models are visually pleasing to the eye, albeit less and less detailed, while the hair clashes particularly due to an imprecise and not very detailed visual rendering. In any case, when the camera finds itself framing the protagonists in the foreground, we have not noticed any particular distortions and, in general, also in this case the visual rendering is satisfactory on older hardware.
Seeking the Keepers | Review Hogwarts Legacy su PS4
So let’s move on to the exteriors which suffer from the same drop in quality in terms of texture and resolution as the interiors, but also from a general, decidedly marked, albeit understandable, pop-in phenomenon compared to the next-gen counterpart. There will therefore be fewer trees, fewer rocks and fewer particles and everything will be visible at a much shorter distance, but nothing that could really affect the enjoyment of the Warner Bros and Avalanche game. Even on the outside, however, Hogwarts Legacy is still very beautiful to look at and would really be for everyone, if we hadn’t already got used to other standards.
Finally, the frame rate. Stable and rocky at 30fps on PlayStation 4 Pro, with some slight decrease in the most agitated situations in the open world, the frame rate is the thing that most surprised us in terms of performance. You can also decide to unlock it in the appropriate menu and in this way it could easily reach 40/45 fps, but all at the expense of the performance of the console which, when fatigued, will tend to make it drop dramatically downwards. In short, a highly discouraged move, keep those 30 solid, sweet and decidedly amazing.
Legacy of Magic
We end this brief review on the PS4 version of Hogwarts Legacy by praising the work done by Avalanche Software on a version on which, we admit, we had very few expectations. Instead, the game runs well on old-gen consoles, net of a whole series of physiological quality and performance drops considering the now advanced age of the reference hardware. At this point we just have to wait for the Nintendo Switch version and to hope that the same care and attention have also been paid to an even less… performing console.
Hogwarts Legacy is currently available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One and PC. Let us know what you think of the title below in the comments, we will continue to keep you updated with all the videogame and tech-themed news, guides and reviews! And if you are interested in game keys at advantageous prices, we suggest you take a look at the Kinguin catalogue!
Plus points
- A really nice and surprising porting
- Frame rate (almost always) rocky
- Still satisfactory visual rendering
Points against
- Really long loading times
- We are too used to the “next-gen”…