The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Review - 9 Ups & 1 Down

6. Reinvents The Idea Of An Open-World

Think of the open-world genre as a template. Every single developer looks at it as an excuse to parse out collectibles, mission start prompts and all sorts of 'optional side content' to fill your time. In essence it's a lot of time wasting, and unless you really have a lot of time on your hands, you'll never see all of these things through.

In BotW, the world feels like one big, traverse-able 'level'. Thanks to how your Sheikah Slate can push and pull every part of it and how you're free to stealth-crouch, climb over or blast your way through the rest, there's an unparalleled degree of freedom to Link's agency from front to back.

MGS V: The Phantom Pain certainly tried this too, letting you tackle missions from any direction - but they were still very specific 'pockets' of the world where these missions occurred. Yes, Breath of the Wild has Bokoblin camps, cities, villages, Shrines and more to find and discover, but to even get there requires a degree of play and interaction that completely reworks the purpose of such a large, detailed environment.