What separates The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild from other open-world games?
This article comes courtesy ofDen of Geek UK.
When Nintendo made the decision to take its long-runningZeldafranchise into open-world territory, the risks were clear.
The best sandbox games allow us to create our own stories within a carefully-built framework.
you’ve got the option to create ice blocks in a river to catch fish.
Dont have time to wade through the puzzles and fighting required to capture one of those Divine Beasts?
you’re free to head off into the mountains to look for precious stones and other minerals.
But the games immediacy runs much deeper that arguably, its woven into its very fabric.
The side-quests start to feel repetitive.
The amount of time spent travelling between locations becomes a chore.
An example that springs to mind isFuel, a half-forgotten sandbox driving game from 2009.
Buy The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild right here!
Conceptually, this all sounds perfectly fine.
In practice, the game just felt empty.
You could spend endless hours driving around with no real sense of purpose.
The developer seemed to realize this, since exploringFuels open world was an optional extra.
If you just wanted to jump straight to the races, you could simply select them from a menu.
So what is it?
Take those Korok seeds, for example.
Some youll even discover completely by accident.
Every element inBreath of the Wildis balanced with this same level of care.
Heres an example to illustrate this.
But its as a thoughtful reinvention of the open-world formula thatBreath of the Wildreally excels.
