Horizon Zero Dawn Vs. Zelda: Breath Of The Wild - Which Game Is Better?

7. Side-Quests

Ask Ubisoft and they'll tell you side-quests are "Go here, kill 5 of X, come back". Ask Rockstar and you're likely to get a comedy skit or throwaway cutscene, CD Projekt RED and it'll be a labyrinthine tale of morality that always leaves you stranded in a sea of grey.

Over time we've seen every developer ply their trade when it comes to making an open world feel worthwhile, and Guerrilla Games have definitely been playing The Witcher in this case.

Zero Dawn's myriad of side content is more of that five-step Wild Hunt-type design, first letting you talk to a new character, discover something empathetical or human about their needs, before setting off and discovering it was (usually) all a lie in the process. It provides some solid narrative depth to the world, lets you meet characters that stand out amongst the rest, and fulfils the notion that this is a populace worth talking to.

Contrastingly - and not to knock Zelda's style - but Breath of the Wild's are more routed in mechanics. Yes, there's a ton of variety between 'how far can you glide?' minigames, hunting and gathering, transporting certain artefacts or looking into how to acquire that set of clothes, but when it comes to side-quests that don't even remotely feel like busywork, it's Horizon.

Winner: Horizon Zero Dawn