Taste of Thomas

BOTW2 will probably do many things right and some things wrong, but it will get that ratio better than BOTW1 did. My view of the game is that I very much enjoyed it. It does many things right, but because the stand-out of the game is the discovery (of creatures, systems, biomes, secrets, items, locations) and the rate of that discovery diminshes over time (assymptotic to y=n), players end the game at a much lower state of fun than when they started one-or-two-hundred hours ago and when you've played a game that long, the flaws become more glaring. This doesn't bode well for replayablility. It also doesn't help that the Ganon fight(s) is lacking.

The beginning and end are strong. The beginning in particular has great atmosphere. The game is at its best when it's surprising you. Most of the middle is repetitive filler. The middle 40% or so has no new enemies or mechanics. There's like 2 new weapons, but we're talking across ~8h. The enemy variety already felt lacking even before the middle. My reference point for that era is Spider-Man 2 for the PS1 (2001). Maybe for some people it's an upgrade from military shooters in that regard. There are only a few points of plot progression (including the subtle ways information is given to you), which would be fine in a much shorter game. Felt like giving up on it many times; nearly didn't do the end because of a glitch with Gonarch that stopped it from entering the boss arena. I started HL2 at some point, but it annoyed me so I went back. For some reason I kept feeling determined not to be bested by it. There are times when it seems like something might change for the...