An interesting discussion by BMO and Ureshi on wingkon's review got my brain ticking. (Wingkon's review is a considered, fair enough take but I'll probably end up disagreeing with it when I get around to Tears of the Kingdom). I’d like to throw my own thoughts about Breath of the Wild and reviews/opinions in general into the ring.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an open world, sandbox, do it yourself, playground thing wearing Zelda’s skin. It’s grotesque and a bit bland. It came at a time when I was already facing ‘open world’ fatigue. It doesn’t respect player’s time. I spent so long just walking, riding, gliding, climbing, running and rarely felt rewarded for it. Off brand Ghibli visuals, no proper dungeons, doesn’t always work well, weapons degrade too quickly, lack of really good music, directionless and probably more I’m forgetting. It just didn’t click with me. I have to give credit where it’s due though, at least Nintendo is trying things with mechanics and not just pushing story and graphics. I also need to admit I never finished it. I’m glad people have a game they really enjoy; I just hope it doesn’t come at the cost of something I’ve loved for decades. I’m really hopeful Nintendo will return to ‘traditional’ Zelda.
You know what some 10/10 games are though - Wanted: Dead, Killer is Dead and South Park 64. I enjoyed them, so why not, right? Telling people these are 10s or putting them on best ever lists without mentioning anything else about them is fine, right?
As savage as I just was to Breath of the Wild, I would still give it a solid review, one that talks about its strengths and weaknesses. I think it’s still a really good game that just about anyone should try and I would put somewhere around the 7/10 range. However, I do plan on giving it another go and reassessing my thoughts on it. I will also attempt Tears of the Kingdom one day. The best reviews/opinions, I think, are those that bring plenty of personality and strong thought out personal views but also keep some objectivity and see the reality right in front of them.
I don’t think we can just dismiss reviews, reactions, popularity and discussions about games as just opinions like they don’t matter. Whether or not we like it or admit it these things do have an impact, especially the ‘professional’ ones. They shape opinions, start discussions and steer conversations. They impact sales, developer reputations and potentially peoples jobs. They can shape the industries direction, enforce trends, and change future games development and impact history.
This may sound silly to some but I think people that have studied old movies or books will get it. At some point in the future a young student could be doing an essay titled something like ‘Videogames and the surrounding culture during Covid’ and what they find will be what’s being written right now. 20, 50 or 100 years from now people will be researching videogames and our time period. It’s important that we have robust, well considered reviews, opinion pieces, essays and discussions for the immediate and long term health of this medium. These things need to be scrutinised, criticised and discussed with as many diverse voices chipping in as possible. If you love videogames, I think you should care about this a little.
Anyway, while I stand by what I just said, don’t take this too seriously. I’m a hypocrite that over values games I love too. But, I guess at least my reviews bring some nuance, which is something that probably can’t be said of many of the Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom opinions. Loving something and enjoying it a lot shouldn’t necessarily mean or be accepted as ‘it’s the best ever, 10/10.’ I think there can be something ‘nefarious’ to a games popularity, maybe even this one. It’s not just fine, but should be celebrated that everyone has different opinions, as long as there is some objectivity and give and take.
