Polygon reviewed Hogwarts Legacy but forgot to review the game.
The Original Review
“I genuinely wanted to like this game, and there were moments that enchanted me.”
Ah, Polygon. The publication that turned a game review into a confessional booth.
Let us examine what we have here: a review of a video game — a toy, if you will — that spends more paragraphs on the reviewer's personal moral framework than on the actual mechanics of play. Maddy Myers opens by telling us how conflicted she feels. She tells us again in the middle. She tells us a third time near the end. Mon Dieu, we have understood. You are conflicted. The croissant has noted your anguish.
The review mentions combat exactly twice. The open world receives one paragraph. The RPG systems — the actual skeleton of the game — get fewer words than the author's feelings about engaging with the Harry Potter universe at all. This is not a review. This is a therapy session with a word count.
Polygon chose not to score the game. A bold editorial decision that conveniently allows them to avoid the embarrassment of putting a number next to a game that would sell over 24 million copies and become the best-selling game of 2023. When the entire world votes with their wallets and you voted with your diary, perhaps it is time to reconsider what a 'review' is meant to accomplish.
The game itself? Irrelevant. We are here to review the review. And this review told us everything about the reviewer and almost nothing about the game. That is what we call in France: un blog post.
Polygon's Hogwarts Legacy coverage generated more articles about whether to cover the game than actual coverage of the game. They wrote think pieces about the think pieces. It was ouroboros journalism — the snake eating its own editorial calendar.
If I wanted to read about someone's internal struggle with consumer ethics, I would read Sartre. At least he had the decency not to call it a game review. This is not criticism, this is not journalism. This is a reviewer reviewing themselves. And for that, we give Polygon a generous 2 out of 10 — one point for honesty about the conflict, and one point for eventually pressing 'publish' at all.
