I’ve spent about 20-30 hours (no thanks in part to the number of sicknesses going around our household) on Tears of the Kingdom and barely sunk my teeth into the story itself. For the most part I have kept the story to a minimum, doing some of the first few steps of each of the main storylines but not venturing too deep, instead opting to explore and take in the new. Trying to see everything that is new and compare, while also getting a feel for all the new gameplay elements and things to do.

A follow up to the legendary Breath of the Wild has been a long time coming, even disregarding the fact that the Zelda series is usually not one to dwell on games and instead moves on to another new and unique title. In knockout after knockout of successful Zelda games, does Tears break this tradition?

The answer is most assuredly: no. It somehow surpasses expectations, even if all you’ve heard is that it is a Breath of the Wild sequel and it takes place in essentially the same place, not long after the events of the first game. But to stop with such a simple overview of the game is a complete injustice.

At the start of the game, the world is literally upended, throwing many chunks of land to the sky and creating chasms across Hyrule. These floating islands and archipelagos form one of the major changes to Hyrule itself, with the sky above packed with these interesting islands that contain puzzles and challenges throughout. The three dimensionality of the map goes up several notches with how high some of these islands reach, with some being true challenges that I have yet to uncover. I did manage to make it up to one that was incredibly high and my jaw dropped when Link bounded across the landscape as if he was hopping across the moon, because apparently it was lower gravity. It was so neat.

The added three-dimensionality doesn’t end there though, the map is littered with new caves and recesses to explore. And most of all, plunging down the chasms scattered across Hyrule brings you down to the depths where a huge cavern network exists – a completely new and different land to explore that is dark and mysterious.

The game throws you into a familiar tutorial area similar to the Great Plateau and forces you to complete several shrines to gain more abilities. It is in a lot of ways a mirror image to Breath of the Wild’s intro. In some ways I found it frustrating because I was very eager to move on to the part where I could go anywhere and do anything. Yet Tears’ intro is yet again a perfect example of how to do an intro to a game.

At a gameplay level, Tears features many new gameplay elements while ditching some of the more cumbersome ones for streamlined options. Addressing a common complaint of its predecessor, Tears also features a lot of new enemies, some of which I fear I’m nowhere near capable of taking down yet, and that’s okay. UI and controls in general have been greatly improved, making it far easier to cook, switch weapons or call on Link’s new abilities.

Link’s new abilities are very fun and offer some incredibly interesting challenges with the puzzles you face. One thing I found quite clever is that there’s one guy in dozens of locations across Hyrule that is holding up a sign (of varying shapes and sizes) and you have to create something using Link’s abilities with the wood nearby to brace the sign so he can let go and secure it.

Some of the things, story-wise that have left me a little confused that haven’t been answered (at least not yet) are regarding the legendary beasts. Where did they and their champions go? Where did all the Sheikah towers and shrines disappear to? Just some things that aren’t really stated, at least explicitly.

I look forward to a full review as I continue to plunge into the game, mixing it as much as I dare with my current workload. It’s incredibly hard to put down and harder still to decide on what I’d like to do… before I get distracted on my way with something else.

My biggest challenge thus far has been avoiding spoilers. For the most part it has been easy but I’ve had a tough time even forcing myself to avoid looking for help on one thing or another, or where to find something specific. For the most part I’ve managed it but this is a lesson to you all, the game is best played with a lot of mystery and you’ll not regret immersing yourself into the game.

One small detail that just shows the level of detail put into this that you don’t really see in modern AAA titles anymore: At the beginning, when Link was not wearing any pants / boots I tried to open a chest. If you circle around the chest to the side or back, Link will kick the chest open instead of opening it with his hand. When he kicks it, he recoils in pain because he’s shoeless. Did they have to animate that? Not at all, especially considering, how often does he kick open a chest without boots? How often would a player be running around the game without that?