With a greater focus on going from one quest point to another, players may frequently feel compelled to rely on the fast travel mechanism instead of immersing themselves in the open-world. In Skyrim, traversal is tedious, especially when players don't have a horse. There are options to climb, clide, ride a horse, or even ski on the shield. In Breath of the Wild, traversing the map is fun. In an odd way, Breath of the Wild even feels more immersive than the more grounded world of Skyrim because of small details: Wearing metal during a storm can lead to electrocution, walls are slippery to climb when it rains and cold terrains force Link to dress appropriately.Īnother factor contributing to immersion lies in the way the two titles approach traversal. Instead of having a bland, realistic world like Skyrim, Breath of the Wild takes liberties and has absurd but interesting things peak out from the horizon or lie around in the middle of nowhere, nudging the players to investigate. In fact, the game can even be completed with the HUD off, as there's always NPCs to give hints that aid in discovery without hand-holding, something even Skyrim's predecessor, Morrowind, did well despite releasing a decade earlier. Instead of map locations being provided, players have to survey the area and decide on an interesting location to investigate. Related: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Has Aged Surprisingly Wellīreath of the Wild avoids this destination-focused traveling by designing the world to encourage discovery and appreciation of the journey. Players more often than not look at their HUD while they move, in the process missing all the little details of the intricately-designed world in a rush to reach the next location. To get to the next destination, players need to mark the location on the map and then follow a navigation bar, rather than discover the next point of interest through exploration. However, in Skyrim traversing the map is more akin to traveling than exploring. The purpose of an open-world, in theory, is to allow the player to do whatever they want and explore to their heart's content. However, there are some overlapping aspects of the two games where Breath of the Wild is superior. However, the 2017 release of open-world game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild immediately set a new standard.īoth are great open-world games in their own ways: Zelda has more of an adventure focus and Skyrim has an RPG focus. Following Skyrim, many more open-world games popped up, with several trying to replicate what it achieved. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim took the world of gaming by storm when it released in 2011 and subsequently established what a successful open-world looked like.

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