Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Hands On Reaction
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Hands On Reaction
2016-06-18
III is over and for me by far the best
floor demo I got a hands on with was the
Legend of Zelda breath of the wild
especially because of just how freakin
long it was most of us at e3 go for only
5 to 10 minutes maybe 15 or 20 if it's a
multiplayer game that drags on well
breath of the wild it was a full 35
minutes and what was really interesting
to me about this demo is how it kind of
simultaneously moves away from what I
think a lot of people would consider to
be core traditional mechanics of the
series but at the same time it's
creating this feeling that to me is very
old-school Zelda I mean really think
about the old games and what it is you
did you were thrown into what was back
then a pretty open world given only
basic instructions and then pretty much
have to figure out everything you're
supposed to do sure there's a certain
order you end up having to follow but it
was your job as the player to explore
the world to find out what that order
was and that's a lot of the feeling I
got from the breath of the wild demo the
game just gives you a cold open of
waking up from some kind of deep sleep
you're given a few basic instructions of
where to go next and how the games map
and try and challenges work and then
you're basically left to your own
devices in fact a large part of the demo
was just being dropped into the world
and being allowed to do whatever we
wanted and to help facilitate this the
game has picked up a lot of mechanics
from already established open-world RPGs
like the elder scrolls link now has
proper equipment options like changing
insurance and pants and you could pick
up and wield a multitude weapons that
all have limited durability what's much
more engaging that was just how
interactive the world is around link
being able to burn things down chop down
trees for resources cook herbs you find
with meat to create food the game even
gives you a little meter gauging the
temperature of where you are and how
much noise you're making now this sounds
like a lot of stuff but it's actually
very simple in nature it's far from
being some kind of crazy hard simulation
game but compared to the kind of freedom
we've had in past Zelda games it's a
huge step up during the course of my
free roam part of the demo I spent most
of my time really just wandering around
and seeing how far I could get which
isn't that far within the grand scheme
of the world it just keeps going it
wasn't super dense but it was far from
empty it didn't take long for me walking
in any direction to encounter enemy
camps of mob wounds animals I could hunt
for food or old-looking structures with
treasure
right from the start of the game you're
able to freely swim and climb but doing
either quickly drains your stamina which
will just leave you falling or drowning
if you aren't being careful and there
were lots of little game plated bits I
discovered while playing like being able
to use the environment against my
enemies or much more importantly and way
more cool surfing down a hill on my
shield while shooting enemies with my
bow
now the demo had a second part that had
us playing through the beginning of the
game which also introduced a few things
we couldn't do in free roam like
unlocking a special room power that let
us manipulate objects with magnetism
which might be this game's approach to
replacing some of the older traditional
tools the beginning of the game
definitely felt much more linear in
design at first glance but a lot of it
seems to be just setting up for a sort
of prologue tutorial section where once
you've finished it the game's gonna let
you do a lot more stuff freely or at
least that's what Nintendo has implied
and I'm really hoping it's true now a
lot of these concepts are ones that
aren't exactly for indie gamers and
we've seen a lot of these in one form or
another but something about the way they
combine with the feeling of the Zelda
universe just makes it so much more
memorable it's like there's this fantasy
setting I grew up with as a kid and I've
always used my imagination to get more
immersed in it but with this game you're
so much closer to everything I will say
though the demo was not without its
flaws for one thing the framerate was
not great in fact lots of activity
consistently led to frame drops which
hopefully this is something that just
gets fixed as development continues or
it's just one more reason why you might
want to grab an NX for this game when
it's released my other issue was that in
the demo weapons would break pretty
quickly and there was no way to repair
them forcing you to constantly scavenge
weapons off your enemies which could
either mean they just haven't
implemented rules for repairing yet or
you just have to live with ritually
collecting everything that drops which
I'm personally hoping for the first of
those two but it's not a deal-breaker
either way also the story bit of the
demo had us unlock the regional map by
finding a special tower and then
climbing down it which gives me
flashbacks of every Ubisoft game made
since Assassin's Creed which I really
hope isn't a central mechanic of the
game I'd much rather just be rewarded
for exploring the world myself rather
than have to find the magical map tower
so those things aside I loved pretty
much everything else going on in this
demo it was easily my favorite game at
e3 this year and I cannot wait and
we get some more heart info on when we
can actually play this thing for real
the push backs have been rough for a lot
of people but if this demo is any sign
of what the final product would be like
it's gonna be worth the wait
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.