Vaizdas:The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild Logo.svg

THIS GAME IS HUGE! it’s about two thirds the size of the Orkney Isles. Now that may not seem a lot, but take in mind  you do this on foot ( or horse) and in a video game.

Can you tell me the last video game you saw with a size even close to that? (if you said Skyrim, it’s about twice as big as Skyrim)

If you are familiar with the Legend of Zelda games, this is a very different beast.  You wake up to a voice (which is a big deal, this game actually has voice acting, in a Zelda game, no really this is a big deal as it’s the first to have it). Waking up from a strange pool you run out to a cliff edge as a beautiful (and huge) landscape sprawls before you – complete with active volcano and ominous ancient evil entity flying round a huge castle in the distance.

Oh but the map goes even further than that ( I may be harping on about it but no really this game is huge) when a strange old man talks to you a wee bit. Then you run up to this large tower, activating a map. You are tasked with finding a treasure in this plateau you are on and he will give you a glider so you can explore the world below (without falling to your death).

The plateau is the starting area. It teaches you all you need to learn and gives you all the abilities you need to complete the game. Going to a cold area? You need to cook food to keep yourself warm.  Those robots you see, yeah keep away from any active ones or they will kill you (at least for now).

This may be a training area but it doesn’t hold your hand, and it will kill you. Plenty of enemies here can take you out with one hit.  You need to be clever and tackle the enemies by utilising your surroundings and not just running at them with a stick. Maybe you use fire arrows to blow up those explosive barrels near by.  Maybe use the magnet power to lift a metal crate to start smacking them in the face with it.  Or perhaps use your ninja skills to sneak up and take them out one by one without them even knowing it.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (www.bagogames.com)

Skipping ahead, you got all the treasure and a bit of exposition, and can now explore the world.  So what do you do?…

Well what ever you want. Want to run straight to the final boss, well yes you can ( by the time of writing this someone beat the game in under an hour). But there is so much you CAN do.  You can:

• free the 4 divine beasts
• search for the over 100 shrines to increase your health and stamina
• find better clothes
• recover Link’s (main character) lost memories or
• just explore for explorations sake.

One time running around in the world I suddenly found a giant green dragon just flying round ( oh and don’t wear any metal  during a lightning storm).

I must stress, this game is not easy, and will not hold your hand. Even the opening area with throw things at you that can kill you easily so you will have to begin by learning. Once you begin to master Link’s abilities you should be able (with decent weapons) to take down much stronger opponents that lay around the world.

I came out of a shrine at night and found the giant skeleton I found earlier was now walking about, so I had to work out how to kill it, or I could just run away ( but I killed it). The world is full of beauty, hidden secrets and dangers. The more you play and explore the more you will find, some quests that you are given early on do help to introduce important elements and skills you may be unaware of, but most you have to find for yourself.

I do have my little problems though, namely weapon durability. Weapons break in this game (except the master sword but you need to find AND earn it) . In my and several other people’s opinions, too often, should they break ? yeah  – but not at the rate they do in the game. Thankfully you will rarely be out of weapons and you can even steal them off enemies robbing them of a weapon to fight you. And they are very varied,  some with magical properties ( like Ice).

This was the game I bought with my Switch so all my opinions have been on that version, but it’s also for the Wii U. Its a wonderful game and I’m still not done with it, there is just so much to do (though some people are working at 100%ing it)

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