The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Breath of the Wild has been a disappointment for the first few hours, but it grows on you little by little until you will not be able to stop playing. You will just need some time to wander around and figure out all the main mechanics. I usually don't like open-world games, but this is actually the first time I felt like exploring all areas and finding out new things rather than going on with the campaign. The continuous changes in the environment and the use of elements have a big influence on the game dynamics, and there are so many little details that will make the experience unique. Puzzles and fights can be solved in many different ways, and sometimes the craziest and inventive solutions end up being the most effective. Looting, cooking and picking up weapons can be frustrating at times, but it will eventually add to the satisfaction of finally being able to survive tougher areas and enemies.

However, while the open world is beautifully crafted and full of different things to do, the number of enemies is extremely limited. We probably have less than a dozen monsters endlessly multiplied by palette swapping. As map events are pretty sparse, running aimlessly and bumping into the same monsters all the time makes exploring pretty dull without a horse to speed up things. Little effort was also made in the plot and characters. All my interest was in exploring and getting stronger, but dialogues were mostly redundant and there is literally zero development in the characters and main story. Side-quests were mostly repetitive and come with very little rewards too (in some cases, you spend more on rupies and resources that what you will eventually get as a reward).

Breath of the Wild is overall one of the best open-world games in recent years in terms of gameplay, but the thin plot and quite repetitive dynamics are the only things preventing it from becoming a true masterpiece. (8.5/10)