10 Video Games That Broke All The Rules

2. The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

In spite of its legendary pedigree, it was easy to fear for Breath of the Wild's transition into open world territory. At the time, pretty much every major franchise was embracing sandbox elements, and the worry was that this transition was fuelled by money rather than creativity.

Especially when it came to this specific Nintendo franchise, much of the charm in the past had come from how uniquely structured the games were. They all had freeform elements and encouraged players to experiment, but never on this scale, and the bulk of the appeal came from the intricacies of the dungeons players needed to conquer.

Fans needn't have worried about the move to an open world though, because Breath of the Wild wasn't your regular open world game. While other titles on the market filled their sandboxes with an overwhelming amount of activities, held players' hands from one objective to the next and only gave them the illusion of freedom, Zelda refused to treat its fans like idiots.

Eschewing most open-world conventions, there is a real sense of freedom to Breath of the Wild. Hell, you can take on the final boss as soon as you pick up the controller if you wish, and while there aren't many "quests" in the conventional sense, that doesn't mean there isn't anything to do.

Where other open world games are only bothered about the destination rather than the journey, this title was all about those in betweens.