Found something good?

tutorial is trash. story is meh. but the sense of world and mechanics and exploration is kinda fucking incredible. it's sort of like if they took *every* part of every game that ppl really liked over the last 15 years and did it all at once and all really well and also in a crazy technically impressive game engine. every system is deep as fuck. exploration and mobility feel like breath of the wild. combat feels like a fighting game, crazy fluid and deep and complex, not exactly difficult most of the time but with some real bosses and combos that take skill to learn and execute. never feels samey. skill trees and abilities unlock interesting and extremely valuable mechanics not just random stat upgrades. there's a whole base building and faction reputation and ~war system that all feel good to participate in and not tacked on. that's maybe the main thing really, nothing feels tacked on, everything is carefully thought through and integrated, everything feels balanced and useful. ur not just seeing random ore veins and picking up multiple varieties of mining tools so u can get more iron for X one off quest, ur doing it to upgrade basically all the weapons and gear u find. but that form of upgrading isnt obsoleted by leveling up and finding some random one off godsword, it remains one of the primary ways u improve ur combat abilities thru out the game. and it isnt overly grindy, its very viable with small enough time investment to stay interesting. and there's just so *many* of these systems.

so as you're exploring this huge gorgeous world u feel genuinely incentivized. u run across an apiary and u get some honey which actually significantly improves ur cooking which is the primary way u regain health in combat. u get into a random fight w a certain variety of fundamentalist goblins next door uve never seen before and one of them does a crazy vault move and u learn the skill by observing them doing it! u collect a bunch of useless swords off them which u can sell like normal but u can also donate to ur camp as weaponry resources to let ur background army of companions take on more serious missions . and it all flows together and feels rewarding and fun rather than an annoying grind.

and holy fuck is just running and flying and grappling around actually feel so amazing. some of the most vertical landscapes since.. well again breath of the wild