Though I didn't really grow up playing Zelda on the NES or SNES I've come to fall in love with the series over the last couple of years, from the music to seeing some of the games, I thought what a better time to finally make the plunge and play the game than with the hotly anticipated BOTW for Nintendo Switch and Wii U. I chose the Wii U version.
Of course the story is pretty simple, Gannon is evil, now stop him and how you do that is largely up to you. The routes you take, the quests you do, the story you watch take shape through your actions or lack of actions. I've never been a big puzzle game person and BOTW will offer some puzzles ranging from tutorial to head scratching that requires some deep thought on the best way to solve. Many of these puzzles do have multiple ways to solve it.
The vast open world wastes no time getting down to business with nothing more than a pair of shorts you are thrusted and expected to figure things out. Thankfully the game is very intuitive it's not hard to pick up on what needs doing and how to do it, quickly, especially in combat. As the game progresses you continue to explore the large and vast world of Hyrule and figure more challenges and obstacles, much through trial and error.
Traveling is time consuming, you will spend a great deal of time moving from place to place. There is always something to see and do, finding a shrine to solve a puzzle or uncovering more of the map by climbing large towers. Doing the shrines is optional but will benefit you in the long run by allowing you to increase health and stamina to better handle the obstacles.
Combat while intuitive is more often a hassle than a reward. Weapons are puzzling fragile and break after so many uses. While weapons and shields plentiful, you're still limited by what you can carry, unless you want to embark on quests to expand your inventory by finding tiny little needles in the large haystack of the world. Breaking weapons is all to common as even with the best weapons you're still only doing chip damage on tough enemies and bosses.
Cheap one-shot-kills also seem oddly common, even when equipped with armor getting a single arrow in your side or a lucky swipe from an enemy you'll be dead before you hit the ground. The game can still be forgiving in this sense, when you are knocked on your knees you'll have a decent moment to get back up to defend yourself before more damage can be done. Save scumming can help prevent excessive setbacks and the auto-save system works as well as it needs.
I can't speak for the Switch but the Wii U version suffers lag and even momentary lockups at times. I know this game has been in development for a long time and I know game consoles like the Switch aren't made overnight so no doubt R&D and development had to have been working on since the early days of the game's production but the fact the issues are happening when the Wii U has been on the market for several years, this is a first-party-in-house development by Nintendo just screams amateur hour.
BOTW is a visually impressive and fun game with a few minor irritants. The frustration though does lead to more and more desire to continue and push on instead of surrendering and that is the mark of a great game.
Of course the story is pretty simple, Gannon is evil, now stop him and how you do that is largely up to you. The routes you take, the quests you do, the story you watch take shape through your actions or lack of actions. I've never been a big puzzle game person and BOTW will offer some puzzles ranging from tutorial to head scratching that requires some deep thought on the best way to solve. Many of these puzzles do have multiple ways to solve it.
The vast open world wastes no time getting down to business with nothing more than a pair of shorts you are thrusted and expected to figure things out. Thankfully the game is very intuitive it's not hard to pick up on what needs doing and how to do it, quickly, especially in combat. As the game progresses you continue to explore the large and vast world of Hyrule and figure more challenges and obstacles, much through trial and error.
Traveling is time consuming, you will spend a great deal of time moving from place to place. There is always something to see and do, finding a shrine to solve a puzzle or uncovering more of the map by climbing large towers. Doing the shrines is optional but will benefit you in the long run by allowing you to increase health and stamina to better handle the obstacles.
Combat while intuitive is more often a hassle than a reward. Weapons are puzzling fragile and break after so many uses. While weapons and shields plentiful, you're still limited by what you can carry, unless you want to embark on quests to expand your inventory by finding tiny little needles in the large haystack of the world. Breaking weapons is all to common as even with the best weapons you're still only doing chip damage on tough enemies and bosses.
Cheap one-shot-kills also seem oddly common, even when equipped with armor getting a single arrow in your side or a lucky swipe from an enemy you'll be dead before you hit the ground. The game can still be forgiving in this sense, when you are knocked on your knees you'll have a decent moment to get back up to defend yourself before more damage can be done. Save scumming can help prevent excessive setbacks and the auto-save system works as well as it needs.
I can't speak for the Switch but the Wii U version suffers lag and even momentary lockups at times. I know this game has been in development for a long time and I know game consoles like the Switch aren't made overnight so no doubt R&D and development had to have been working on since the early days of the game's production but the fact the issues are happening when the Wii U has been on the market for several years, this is a first-party-in-house development by Nintendo just screams amateur hour.
BOTW is a visually impressive and fun game with a few minor irritants. The frustration though does lead to more and more desire to continue and push on instead of surrendering and that is the mark of a great game.