Elite Online Mag Elite 88 | Page 188

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Take a deep breath. And another. You’ll need it before embarking on this adventure. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild might be one of the biggest games ever made. It’s sense of scale is, qui te literally, breathtaking; from the moment Link emerges from his hundred-year slumber and emerges into the world, all of Hyrule sprawling out before him, to every new pinnacle reached and tower climbed, the world of Nintendo’s latest Zelda title never fails to impress. We’ve seen vast worlds before, of course, but there’s an artistry at work here that few can rival. Every hill, every ruined tower, every peak brings with it carefully crafted 188 (Switch, Out Now) views that feel at once too artistic to be real, yet too detailed to be mere creation. There’s a joy to exploring this new Hyrule quite beyond the usual Zelda fare; yes, it’s packed with things to discover and creatures to battle, but the exploration aspect of a Zelda title is usually a means to an end, a necessity on the way to defeating Ganon and completing the game. Here, the exploration is a reward in and of itself (in fact, you can pretty much go straight to the final boss the minute you’re let loose into the world). That’s not to say that Link’s interactions with this world are in any way lacking, however. Our hero has a more diverse array of skills than he has ever had: not only can he dash around on foot or on horseback, he can climb www.eliteonlinemag.com