The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Review - 9 Ups & 1 Down
You've not played an open-world game like this.
Iterating on one of the most time-tested, influential and all-round popular gaming formulas of all time is never an easy thing. It’s why Nintendo have mostly stayed true to the template they established for The Legend of Zelda back in 1991’s A Link to the Past, though that gets around the fact, that the inaugural 1986 original had far more open-ended aspirations.
Enter Breath of the Wild, an entry in the series that revitalises those core foundations and rebuilds them anew. If you can imagine a world where the original Zelda was a one-off, and after 30 years, Nintendo decided to resurrect what would then be an ‘old classic’ to give it a new lease on life, Breath of the Wild is that game.
Yes, it takes the lessons learned from how Nintendo would iterate and innovate over time, but going forward, if we ever talk about how a game or franchise is ‘rediscovering its roots’, Nintendo have provided a new industry standard on how to do so.
As you've no doubt seen from the overwhelmingly positive press coverage, Breath of the Wild is fast-becoming the best-reviewed game of all time, but how does that break down into what really works and what needs calling out?