Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity REVIEW - 5 Ups & 3 Downs

When Breath of the Wild 2 was delayed, Nintendo fans weren't the slightest bit surprised. (It happens so often, delaying a Legend of Zelda game is basically a rule at this point.) But what gamers were surprised by was the announcement of another game in the series to wet their appetite; Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Although the game's announcement was unexpected, fans were exhilarated at the prospect of taking control of Hyrule's heroes while wailing on a siege of enemies once more.

Dynasty Warriors developers, Koei Tecmo, have devised a hack-and-slash that serves as a follow-up to the original Hyrule Warriors as well as a prequel to the Breath of the Wild, set 100 years in the past.

Although Hyrule Warriors was fun, it still received criticism for being repetitive and unimaginative.

So, does this sequel/prequel learn from the errors of its predecessor? Does Koei Tecmo's latest instalment maintain the spirit of Breath of the Wild or does it feel like a cash-grab? And let's not forget the biggest question of all; does Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity deliver the goods?

Nearly every side-mission or level centres around your character unleashing every form of attack on a never-ending sea of monsters. Because you could be easily overpowered by half a dozen Bokoblins in Breath of the Wild, it's exhilarating to cut loose on a scale of this magnitude.

But once you've done this 50 times, the action can't help but feel tedious. At a certain point, you'll just ignore the endless hordes and only kill who you have to do to reach the goal. This repetitive gameplay was the most common criticism the first Hyrule Warriors received and it's disappointing that it's still an issue.

At first, it may seem contradictory to criticise a hack-and-slash for putting in too much... well... hacking and slashing. But when Age of Calamity diversifies the gameplay, it's a welcome change. Some of the missions are broken up with traditional LoZ puzzles. During these periods, you may need to activate a Guardian to blast through a wall or blow up a tree to seal off an area.

It wouldn't have been difficult to implement more of this sort of gameplay into Age of Calamity so it's a shame these sort of puzzles only appear sporadically.