Introduction
Just recently Genshin Impact was released for PC, PS4, and mobile devices, and ever since its release I haven't been able to put it down. It is a open world action role-playing game published by miHoYo, a company known for previous mobile titles such as Honkai Impact and Guns Girlz, both of which are only semi-popular games. However, with the release of Genshin Impact miHoYo has attracted the attention of just about everyone, and currently has over 2.6 million players on PS4 alone. Personally I never thought I would play a game such as Genshin Impact, as I felt I would be judged for my decision to do so, but it's not often that you find such a diamond in the rough that is the entire online RPG genre. Enjoyment Genshin Impact is definitely a fun game to play, and whenever I finish playing I'm always left hungry for more. Having a party of four characters that you constantly switch between during combat, each with their own combos and abilities, ensures that combat is never boring and each fight feels fluid and unique. That being said, as the game progresses enemies become harder to kill and storyline quests become more spaced out, but there is never nothing to do. While there currently is no way to "win" or "beat the game," the replay value of Genshin Impact is insanely high. On average players should wait about 12 hours between sessions in which they play in order to ensure the best experience, as the game features a resource used to obtain certain loot that takes about 12 hours to fully recharge. On top of that, players who would rather continue to playing instead of waiting 12 hours can use a resource obtained throughout the game to refill their limiting resource and continue playing. Of course refills can also be purchased with real money if the player runs out, but in no way is Genshin Impact pay-to-win. It is entirely free with no payment roadblocks, which makes it beyond worth the $0.00 it takes to download and play the game. I would recommend the game to others, though unfortunately I can't because everyone I know is already playing it so recommending it would just be a waste of time. Narrative Due to the fact that not even half of the story has been released yet (Genshin Impact is episodic) all I can say is that the exposition is both fun and informative. I never found myself bogged down with details, or just killing enemies not knowing my objective. Understanding that I'm not exactly the target audience, I can't say whether or not the story is engaging or exciting, but I can definitely say that it was written well. Each character had their own introduction and backstory, as well as their own unique objective when introduced to the player. Both the storyline and gameplay are certainly targeted toward the same market audience, which is generally anybody who enjoys games equally for their story and their gameplay, fantasy games, games in which combos are performed, or enjoy Chinese/Japanese-influenced media. Gameplay Being an open world game, it should be expected that Genshin Impact provides a more open experience for players, which it does, but it also does a good job ensuring that the player stays on track with the storyline. Quests progress in a logical manner across the vast expanse of the map, and provide players the ability to explore nearby areas and unlock waypoints which can be teleported to later along the way. The gameplay tied in well with the narrative, requiring the player to complete reasonable objectives depending on how far they have progressed in the story. As the player progresses further in the story and events become more intense, the gameplay increases its intensity to match that of the story. Due to the fact that each player will obtain completely different characters (because Genshin Impact is a gacha game) the difficulty of the game can only be estimated. Based upon my playing experience I found myself falling into the state of flow many times during my gameplay experience. At times the game would be nearly frustratingly difficult, though once I overcame those challenges I only felt more satisfied than I had ever been before. Learning how to build your team and combo them together is a huge part in overcoming difficult challenges. For example, if you find yourself fighting a tough hydro enemy, you may want to use cryo or electro elements in order to react with and counter that enemy. Because each character specializes in one element and you can only use four characters, building a party that can face multiple elements or completely counter one can be crucial to your success. The gameplay was very fun yet logical at the same time, there are many occasions in the game that provide the same satisfaction of fluid motion in combat that players may experience when playing Doom or Devil May Cry, though unlike Doom the storyline is easily seen playing out even during combat, rather than only contained in lore and secrets. Even with that feeling of fluid combat though, the player will still experience challenges, most of the time without even breaking their flow, this is because the flow comes more from mixing elements to produce reactions than it does from killing enemies in rapid succession, so if the player does come across a tough enemy, they will still enjoy the experience just as much as they would when fighting easier enemies. Visual The graphics style fit the theme of the game and enhance the player's experience. Genshin Impact features cel shading graphics of which are extremely similar to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, creating what feels like a 3D anime experience in which the player is in control of the pacing. All elements of the game were recognizable and rendered well, and for most part human characters were proportionate (except for their eyes, which are often rather large as is common for the anime-like artstyle of the game). All backgrounds within the playable map featured appropriate shading, depth of field, and perspective, yet when standing at the invisible border of the map and looking out towards the unfinished content of the game, terrain is very low quality and barren, though typically players don't even come across a scenario that leads them to looking beyond the borders of the map. The colors and intensities of them used in the game blended well with the selected graphic type, and were neither too dark nor too bright, which made for an aesthetically pleasing gameplay experience. The animation is very smooth and all characters move in such a way that not only does it feel natural, but you can also get a feel for their personality based on the way they move. When playing online however, animations tend to get more buggy and sometimes players even appear to just be running in place when they are moving around. Objects, much like players, also move in a realistic and logical fashion, making their movement believable and not distracting from the gameplay itself. Audio The music is varied enough so that the same song is not played over and over to get stuck in your head, but generally during combat the same combat music will be played for every fight. Even though combat music is often repeated, the music of the game is still very enjoyable as it well-composed and includes a variety of genres as far as video game music goes. Voiceovers were professional and believable, never breaking the immersion, though for some reason some voice lines during less important part of the games are not even acted out at all. The game could have at least done what other games such as Monster Hunter do during less important dialogue, which is include just a single "hey" or "alright" from characters when they are saying more than that, but not having anything said by the characters of Genshin Impact during those less important lines is sometimes confusing and makes it appear as though your audio may be broken. All game sound effects were useful, and could lead the player on the path to progression. Interface The controls are well-designed, make sense, and can even be changed if the player does not feel they are perfect. All menus are user-friendly, and even orient themselves to be intrinsically easy to understand. Like many games of the modern era, options to adjust audio and graphical elements could be found in the settings menu. The inventory is organized and easily accessed, with long descriptions of each item as well as quick notes on where to find them. The map is accessible during all parts of the game and is extremely useful, as it can be used to fast-travel around the large domains. The hint system offers the solution if you are stuck long enough (trust me its a long time), otherwise only useful nudges are provided. Accessibility There were no spelling errors and subtitles are provided for players who can not hear, from what I saw there did not appear to be anything that would exclude any particular player from enjoying the game. Technical To this date the game has never crashed for me or had any performance issues of any type, there are no dead ends or obvious technical errors either, for such a large game it does a good job staying organized. Conclusion I would most definitely give Genshin Impact five stars, as it is an amazing game and is free at that. It has a few small issues, but it is a very large game that isn't even half finished yet technically and yet its already better than over 80% of the current market.
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AuthorMy name is Andrew Prichard and the this is my first digital arts class, I look forward to a good year with lots of hard work. Archives
May 2021
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Last updated 5/14/21
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