Genshin Impact is a free-to-play open-world RPG with gacha elements, developed and published by miHoYo. You’ve probably already heard about this exciting product, which has been overwhelming the gaming community since its release on multiple platforms in late September.
It has undoubtedly been something of an unexpected success, reaching 10 million pre-registrations on all platforms and in all regions. The fact that this is only the second game from mobile game developer miHoYo makes the success of Genshin Impact even more outstanding.
Genshin Impact, based on the manga of the same name released in 2018, is a single-player game in which you play the role of a traveller from another world. You are one of a pair of twins, a boy and a girl. At the beginning of the game you have to choose which twin you want to play, and the sibling you don’t choose soon faces an unhappy fate. You awaken through an unknown time period, alone and trapped in an alien world called Teyvat.
By now we are all used to playing games on handheld devices. We’ve already forgotten the innovators that were the PSP and 3DS, and have moved on to the Switch, perhaps complaining to ourselves that it’s not powerful enough. And for years now, most of us have phones or tablets that can easily handle resource-intensive games.
However, even now, being technologically spoilt, we still occasionally come across a game that is so graphically impressive that we have to pause and appreciate the fact that we’re playing such a gem on a small six-inch screen. Such is Genshin Impact.
Even on consoles, the game’s graphics will make you marvel. On a small phone screen, you can be amazed at how detailed and crisp the images were, how smoothly the game ran even on a device that isn’t the latest or greatest. Not that there aren’t occasional lags, and the phone lacked power. But even on an outdated device, Genshin Impact performed surprisingly well.
At first, the game resembles the aesthetic of Breath of the Wild with cel shading, except with denser detail and slightly less saturation. Genshin Impact looks just fine. Leaves fall softly from the trees, plants sway in the wind, fabric flaps in the breeze as you travel around the world, all accompanied by the peaceful chirping of birds or a subdued soundtrack.
And this breathtaking world is faithfully reproduced on the small screen. The interface changes slightly, unlike the controls, which change a lot. But the clips, gameplay and exciting art style are all present. The game you play on more powerful platforms is the same as on your handheld, with only minimal noticeable degradation.
The game world, created with so much love, is enormous, and it will take dedication to explore it fully. And keep in mind that Genshin Impact is still in development. So far, two regions have been opened for traversal, but a total of seven are planned. If you can’t resist plucking every flower, chasing every lizard or mining every iron knot for crafting, expect the game time to grow exponentially.