I finished the main game and played for over 40 hours with plenty of exploring and side content (still lots to see and do). I have mixed feelings about the game. It does some things exceptionally well, while half-assing many others.
What I like:
- The game provides a great sense of adventure and rewards exploration. There are lots of interesting things that constantly beg to be investigated.
- Solid traversal and gameplay systems that lead to few restrictions and emergent gameplay.
- Well integrated physics that enhance gameplay.
- Good art direction and detailed world with nice little touches and attention to detail.
What I don't like:
- Frame rate and performance issues.
- Disposable weapons with poor durability and no ability to repair them. This is a very annoying interruption to battle gameplay.
- Too much time spent in menus/GUI due to swapping weapons, lack of slots, and general tedious micro management. This is partly due to the heavy focus on survival elements.
- No proper dungeons. I miss the themed dungeons of old Zelda games where you would get a new ability/gadget and part of the dungeon was uniquely designed around that. They were elaborate, large scale, had mini bosses, puzzles, keys, hidden rooms that you could find by blowing up walls, etc..
- Weak puzzles. This is a real shame as the physics system has so much potential that is only touched upon in some of the shrine puzzles.
- Lack of epic boss battles.
- Lack of enemy variety.
- Lack of music.
- Story is shit.
- NPCs are boring and dull. The quests they give are not very interesting. The Witcher 3 destroys this game in that regard.
- Lack of voice acting.
I feel that the scope and focus of this game had a major shift during development and it shows. They scrapped a lot of the epic and unique elements that would take a lot of design and custom work. They decided to focus on solid game mechanics and make an interesting world that is fun to explore, but ultimately makes the game more generic and similar to other open-world games. While the game is executed well, they failed to incorporate a lot of the strong elements of previous games. This new shift in the formula is not to my liking.
I give it an 8/10. Ocarina of Time is still the best Zelda. I will continue to play the game and enjoy exploring, but I can't shake the feeling of disappointment.