Genshin Impact

By far the most popular game of 2020 was Genshin Impact. This open world game is an action-adventure with stunning anime style graphics. It offers hundreds of hours of gameplay without getting dull, and an ever-widening map to explore. The developers, MiHoYo, make excellent use of character ability here to help control what you can see and where you explore. These areas expand with player ability. As an example, there’s an unmarked island off of Stormbearer point that can’t be reached through gliding or swimming easily—but it can be walked to through creating a bridge with an ice character.

Other quests and challenges require a character with a specific element to get through. You may not be able to open a vine covered chest without a fire character, or you may need an Earth character to add weight to a plate for other quests. This variety in challenges both encourages you to gain new characters and level them and encourages you to explore carefully as well.

Gacha system

Genshin Impact is free-to-play, but in order to gain new characters or 5 star weapons, you’ll need to use the “Wish” system. MiHoYo is very generous with primogems, the currency used to pay for wishes, through quests in the game, but you can pay for primogems as well.

Besides primogems, you can also purchase special items from the store or get more resin for dungeon fights. Buying primogems is optional however, and the game can easily be enjoyed without spending a dime.

Hack-n-slash fighting

If you’ve ever played MiHoYo’s Honkai Impact, you’re well suited to play Genshin Impact. Genshin uses the same style of fighting, as well as the same art style. Genshin Impact makes the basics of fighting very easy, with characters who automatically target the nearest enemy, as well as very simple controls.

The standard controls are a click of the mouse for normal attacks, pressing the “E” button for an elemental burst, and the “Q” for their ultimate attack.

Although the controls are very simple, skill can still be used to make the most of these fights. The most important of these is understanding elements and their combinations. Water can be used in combination with electricity to magnify the effects of an attack, as can several other combinations. Boosts are also given if two characters of the same element are in the same party.

Overarching plot

The main strength of Genshin Impact is that it offers open world exploration with plenty of quests and dungeons to explore. It’s major weakness however, is the strength of its plot and the believability of it. In the beginning of the main quest you are separated from your twin, and must explore the world of Tayvat in order to find them again. This itself is believable, but then other things like getting into cooking contests and helping find lost cats become more critical to gameplay than finding your sibling. It feels as if the very plot point that holds you to the world is also the least important thing on the character’s mind.

This is a minor issue however, since the main focus of the game is exploration and leveling rather than the main quest line.

Pros:

• Amazing graphics
• Endless hours of gameplay
• Constantly growing world

Cons:

• Weak plot

Here we have a title touted to have an intuitive combat system, a vibrant and expansive open world filled with loot and treasure to plunder, a cel-shaded art style with realistic elements and a well-told and intricately woven narrative. You may be thinking, surely you’re talking about a guy with a green outfit that lives out in the region of Hyrule. Well, we understand the confusion but in this case, we are talking about Genshin Impact.

This Breath of The Wild inspired adventure is currently still in the closed beta stage. However, what it already offers shows that this game takes the blueprint of the iconic Zelda title and adds enough unique features and charm to allow this one to stand on its own as a brilliantly produced RPG adventure.

Has its own identity

Although there are clear visual similarities between this one and the Zelda franchise’s last instalment, there is more than enough about this title to set it apart. Take the outstanding party system and multiple playable characters to choose from. Meaning that you can use different party members unique skills and abilities on your quest. Not to mention the tactics and combos that you can access through being able to change your active party member on the fly with great effect.

The game also has an elemental system which allows the player to control air, water, fire and lightning depending on the character of choice. Having a party which have diverse elemental abilities is essential and enemies tend to have weaknesses and immunity to different elements. It’s just another layer to the very well thought out gameplay.

Imitates Zelda’s High Points

Breath of the Wild had an inherent sense of scale and vertically to the environment and Genshin Impact replicates this wonderfully. Within this title, you will be able to scale pretty much any surface, use wings to glide across gaps and soften falls and there is a series of caves, dungeons and areas of interest that will grant the player a series of rewards and boosts to their stamina in the form of Goddesses teardrops for their exploration. However, it doesn’t hit all the notes of Nintendo’s near-flawless epic. The art style for this title is far more akin to an anime style which means that the game does struggle to stand out in areas, often looking like any modern-day, cel-shaded anime title of recent years. For what it is, it is very competently done. However, it does seem like this title could have tried harder to have a more unique look.

It can also be said that although the combat and environmental design is great, the puzzles and platforming that Zelda has built its name on makes appearances in this title too. However, these puzzles are far from taxing, asking very little of the player and asking more like a chore than an intriguing challenge to overcome.

Free to play

This game does have the important caveat of being a free to play title. Considering the refinement of the free experience and the amount that the player receives with no investment, it is outrageously good. The game is supposedly going to have a system where you can invest real-world currency into new characters, weapons and loot. However, there will be options to earn in-game currency through gameplay such as monthly dungeons. It’s an interesting system that may really shake up the free to play market.

Breath of Fresh Air

Firstly, this game does not provide the near-flawless experience that Breath of the Wild does. It has a much less unique art style and has gameplay aspects that are borrowed and not replicated to the same level of success. However, this title does a number of very interesting things. The story is truly captivating, the gameplay as a whole is tight and fun to play with, the party and elemental systems make for a great combat system and most of the parts that draw inspiration from the Zelda franchise are done well.

Pros

• The combat system is excellent and dynamic
• The storyline is compelling
• Free to play

Cons

• Generic anime art style
• Puzzles are underwhelming