10 Unmissable Single Player Gaming Experiences

Even the most ardent fans of the Zelda franchise would have to admit that the series hadn’t really evolved all that much since Ocarina of Time, and the last two home console entries (Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword) felt a little like they were simply re-treading old ground. In all honesty, it seemed like Nintendo were running out of ideas, but as it turns out, this could not be further from the truth.

Breath of the Wild opens with an excellent tutorial section on the Great Plateau, which rather than trying to explain all the different controls and concepts through dull text, simply teaches all the basics by allowing the player to explore a limited area of the map. Once you gain access to the glider that allows you to leave the Plateau, you’ll quickly realise just how big this open world is.

And guess what? You can go anywhere you want! There’s no artificial restrictions or areas you can’t access without finding a certain item: Breath of the Wild shows you a world of possibilities and simply says have fun. Never before has a game so actively encouraged exploration and experimentation, and even in the 120 shrines that replace the traditional dungeons, there are multiple solutions to every situation.

In Breath of the Wild, Nintendo not only set a new standard for the Zelda series, but a new standard for all open world games to try to live up to.