Review: “Genshin Impact” is an Incredibly Addicting Free-to-Play Game

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Alex Liu, Copy Editor

“Genshin Impact” is a free-to-play action-adventure RPG with a massive open world, and it has made waves within the gaming community in the last few weeks.
This game has been wildly popular since its release on September 28. “Genshin Impact” combines elements from many different games into a very appealing free-to-play package. The combat is fluid, and the animations are amazing. This is truly a triple-A game.
First of all, many will draw similarities between “Genshin Impact” and Nintendo’s “Breath of the Wild.” While the art style and gliding are extremely similar, “Genshin Impact” provides a very different experience. Like “Breath of the Wild”, there is a massive map to explore with puzzles, collectibles, and enemies. Where the game differs is the characters and combat. The combat is designed with a unique element system that creates an interesting way to play the game. There are seven elements: Anemo, Geo, Dendro, Pyro, Hydro, Cryo, and Electro. These all correspond to a specific color within the game, and they can interact with each other to create effects on enemies.
The most interesting and exciting part of the game is the character system. Each character in the game is extremely unique, and they are all tied to an element. Each one also uses a specific type of weapon. How you earn characters and weapons in this game has been quite the controversy. “Genshin Impact” is known as a gacha game. This means that there are loot boxes that give items that influence gameplay. Although the game is mostly single player with some co-op, meaning that there is no big advantage to spending a lot of money on these loot boxes (“Wishes” in-game). The best characters and weapons are 5 stars, and they have an extremely low chance of being rolled. There is only a 0.6 percent chance of getting a 5 star in a roll with the rest of the chance being divided into another small chance for a 4 star or a 3 star. At 90 rolls though, there is a guarantee of a 5 star dropping though. Basically, there is an extremely low chance of getting your desired 5-star character in the beginning.
You can spend money to increase the amount of pulls, but if you are someone who gets addicted to things easily, I would caution against playing the game. In the beginning, the importance of the loot and characters from wishes can be largely ignored, the game starts to slow down at around 50 to 60 hours. There will be a content wall tied to your level that limits how quickly you progress.
The game has an incredible soundtrack and art style. The art style is heavily inspired by anime, and it was created by the Chinese company miHoyo. The story is very pleasant although it does use many common tropes. “Genshin Impact” can be played on PS4, PC, and mobile. The mobile and PC versions have cross-save, while the PS4 version doesn’t. This means you can play on your PC and continue on your phone. With the amazing gameplay and quality, this has become one of the biggest games of 2020. “Genshin Impact” earns a 9/10 for the amazing experience it brings to the table, all for free.