#39
YoY: -1 My Rating: 9.1/10
For many the de facto best game of all time, Breath of the Wild was in many ways something of a revelation upon release back in 2017. Very few games before or since have created such an impeccable feeling of freedom and sense of discovery than this game did, and it did so by essentially returning to the series roots, albeit with modern design sensibilities and decades of accumulated knowledge sanding off the rough edges to make the experience even better.
Whether it's the inspired gameplay design, wonderful setting and world, the sheer volume of things to do and secrets to find, or as I mentioned before, the freedom the player is afforded to decide how to play the game, Breath of the Wild is simply a wonderful experience. It's not perfect, the stamina meter is far too small early on, the weapon durability system is still a misfire as far as I'm concerned, the music is quite forgettable, though admittedly the ambient style fits the game perfectly, and Link remains a blank slate of a character with nary a distinguishing trait, but each of those issues and a few others are ultimately minor problems in the face of everything the game does right.
