The world of triple-A gaming has been going through a rocky patch for the last couple of years. Games keep getting bigger but staying around the same price as when Millennials pressed their noses against box TV screens, trying to get the drop on whichever kid at the sleepover wouldn’t stop playing as Oddjob.
For the time being, the solution is downloadable content – added bonus stuff that players who paid for the game can pay more for down the road, with varying results. Sometimes, they get a whole new game’s worth of narratives, abilities, characters, and customization options. Other times, they get a digital t-shirt and a sinking sense of diminishing returns with regard to their 20-year loyalty to The Sims. All told, the massively popular Hogwarts Legacy has been relatively light on DLC so far, only putting out one bundle: the “Dark Arts Pack.” All told, it’ll set you back about $20. What does the cost of a month’s worth of store-brand wet wipes buy you? What is the “Dark Arts Pack?”
It’s a mount, some clothes, and a new battle arena. Feel that, Potter fans? That’s what learning to hate the franchise you love is like. If you need to talk about it, look for the kids with the decades-old lightsaber tattoos; they’re getting surprisingly empathetic.
Hogwarts Legacy: Dark Arts Pack – A mount, some clothes, and a new battle arena.
This isn’t intended to throw shade at the Hogwarts Legacy: Dark Arts Pack DLC. The mount, clothes, and new battle arena are all very fine-looking. The mount is a mysterious thestral, one of the spooky, scary skeleton horses with bat wings favored by feelings-heavy Hogwarts students. One Steam user described the clothes as “some of the better-looking ones in the game.” And the battle arena? It’s new. It’s got that just-off-the-factory-floor new battle arena smell and everything.
Still, the fan response to the DLC pack has been lukewarm at best. The $20 expansion boasts an aggregated “Mixed” rating on Steam, with a full third of users voicing their disapproval, compared to the 91 percent approval rate for the base game. All told, “Dark Arts Pack” seems to be viewed among players as a cash grab, taking advantage of the remaining goodwill of the fans in an attempt to milk them for a few extra bucks – and in a school of all places. That sort of behavior used to get a person expelliarmused. Or at least suspendiarmused.
