The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is my pick for the best adventure game yet created, and I'm not optimistic that any development team--at Nintendo or any other studio--will produce a superior experience I prefer to it anytime soon. This is the Zelda game I've been asking the company to produce for literally decades. It accomplished the seemingly impossible, made me fall in love with a post-2005 game as much as I did The Legend of Zelda on the NES.
I could give you all sorts of reasons why Breath of the Wild is such a monumental accomplishment, a joy to play for the dozens of hours you'll have to spend just to properly explore even half its content. Ultimately, I credit most of its successes to the incredible world design and the supporting play mechanics that make the most of that vibrant world. Hyrule has never felt so alive, so full of wonder and adventure. There's a new surprise around virtually every corner, sometimes even if you've passed that way several times before. A spectacular highlight is never more than a few hours away. My favorite aspect of the game, though, is the way that each minute you spend between stunning set pieces is thoroughly satisfying for reasons of its own. There's enough wonderful on hand to fill dozens of great games.
Credit: NintendoThe adventure begins as Link wakes from a 100-year slumber, in the Shrine of Resurrection. His body was carried there after he fell in battle against a dark force known as Calamity Ganon. As he returns to life, Link finds a world that is surviving the aftermath of a great tragedy. He remembers virtually nothing of his past, though, and must rely on what people tell him. He also must let his allies groom him for a second confrontation with the same menacing force that once bested him.
At first, it's difficult to get a proper sense of the game's scale, to appreciate the enormity of the project Link has undertaken. Players emerge at the center of a tutorial area, the Highland Plateau, where they meet a mysterious old man. The bearded stranger walks them through the basics of survival in this harsh world: hunting, fishing, food preparation and exploration. There's not a lot of dialogue, and busy work is kept to an absolute minimum. Most of the initial chores can either be skipped, or they are easily completed within a few seconds. All of them are highly relevant to the play that follows. Instead of spending your first few hours herding goats or running chores for villagers, as you might have in past Zelda console titles, you are immediately free to wander an interesting region as you see fit. I spent several delightful hours doing precisely that. Along the way, I found runes that gave me abilities I could use whenever I liked throughout the remainder of my journey. These included bombs, the power to briefly freeze certain objects in place, and a magnetic tether that allowed me to manipulate heavy metal objects.
Once those introductory hours end, you can finally leave the Highland Plateau. By that point, it already feels like you've enjoyed a grand adventure, but you're just getting started. Some dialogue points you toward the east, where you'll find a destination that advances the core plot, but you don't have to head there straightaway. The entire world map is technically available, and you can (if you like) spend dozens of hours exploring other possibilities before you follow the prescribed course... even if that's not technically a good idea.
Credit: NintendoSurvival in this new version of Hyrule is a feat all its own, even during the gentler first few hours. As you travel, you'll find well-worn paths that lead through ruins. Crumbling walls tell you where an outpost once stood, or a village, or even a spectacular theater. Now they are rubble, with moss growing across their surfaces and fearsome monsters patrolling or camped among them. You can rush at the mobs, try to sneak around them by hiding in the brush and wandering from the road, or you can wait until they fall asleep or are distracted. You can even find a metal crate nearby and hurl it into their midst, or grab one of their weapons that they've carelessly left propped against a wall, then carve your way through the group before it can mount a proper defense. The choice is yours. Just know that if you do face some of these monsters head-on, they might mop the floor with you. Some of them do more damage with a single hit than your puny armor and limited life meter can withstand, and that's not even counting the wandering guardians that will fry you to a crisp with their laser beams.
If you survive a harrowing early battle, your first thought will likely be health restoration. In Breath of the Wild, you eat food to regenerate life. Apples dangle from trees. Mushrooms grow in shadowy places. Fish swim in streams. And there are animals you can hunt with your bow. Then you can roast their meat on a campfire and it'll help you out even more. This isn't a world you pass idly through; it's one you come to view as your virtual home. As I played, I found favorite streams where I could dive in and catch fish, and convenient forests where the best fungi grow. I learned to budget my resources, got a feel for when I should risk conflict and when it made sense to avoid it.
Exploration became my obsession. Placed around the world, there are huge towers. You can climb them to gain access to more of the map, and to establish a warp point if you want to return later. I know that sounds like Assassin's Creed or Far Cry, but the implementation feels more meaningful here. Just having a new vantage point often points the way to a dozen possible next adventures you'll want to experience, not just skip over on the way to something better. It's exhilarating.
Credit: NintendoYou'll soon find shrines besides just the few that you encountered in the Highland Plateau. There are more than 100 of them, spread throughout the world. Some are hidden quite deviously and others are right out in the open. When you venture inside one, you'll find either a challenging battle with an armored foe known as a guardian, or a surprisingly devious set of puzzles that generally require you to use the runes you collected during the game's opening hours. You can rest assured that if you enter a shrine while carrying a decent supply of weapons, you have everything you need to clear the challenge that waits for you. It just might not feel like it at first, because this is a Zelda game that holds your hand only enough to help you find your bearings, then expects you to figure out the rest on your own.
Just a moment ago, I mentioned carrying a decent supply of weapons. That might sound like something you would never have any trouble doing, especially as you progress deeper into your quest, but the game also introduces one design element I typically hate with a fiery passion: weapon degradation. Here, though, I somehow don't mind it. Enemies carry blades and axes, bows and spears. You can beat them down, then steal their weapons and wail on their comrades. Eventually, your favorite tool will break, but a replacement is seldom far away. You're forced constantly to think on your feet and try new techniques. Thus, a normally unwelcome mechanic is used to its greatest potential, actually enriching the whole experience in the process.
Credit: NintendoI've gushed a lot in this review, and there's so, so much I haven't had time to even briefly address. Virtually all the stuff I haven't mentioned works in the game's favor, though, to contribute to the most expansive and intriguing world I've ever encountered in a video game. There's more rain than I would like, which makes things difficult when Link is free climbing and searching for new shrines and towers, but there are ways around that particular obstacle. After playing for around 45 hours, I also encountered an instance of severe slowdown, but it lasted only briefly and then I was back in action. And yes, I sometimes wish my favorite weapons didn't feel like they were made of glass.
Any concerns I have with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are decidedly minor. They melt away in the face of the utterly absorbing and peerless experience the game is as a whole. If you don't have the hardware that will let you play this essential title, address that oversight as soon as you reasonably can. You'll be glad you did.
