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Genshin Impact is the best mobile game of 2020, and maybe of all mobile gaming history

Denys Artemiev 07 December 2020, 22:37

A huge, beautiful world that never rushes you and offers both adventure and a simple stroll along the river.

Over the past week, Apple and Google announced their 2020 year-end summaries in their mobile app stores, App Store and Google Play. Both companies agree on at least one thing: Genshin Impact is the best mobile game of 2020.

The Chinese action RPG is nominated in the Best RPG and Best Mobile Game categories at The Game Awards 2020. The ceremony will take place on the night of December 10 to 11.

According to analysts at Sensor Tower, the mobile version of Genshin Impact alone has earned $393 million since its release on September 28. Calculations point to daily revenue of $6 million from iOS and Android alone. The production budget was $100 million, meaning the game has already paid back its costs four times over.

2020 has brought many unique game releases that have unexpectedly become popular: Among Us, Fall Guys, Project Winter and others. They attract players with simple but gripping gameplay, unique PvP and primitive, often even funny graphics. But Genshin Impact is not a new take on the action RPG genre, just a high-quality product that mobile devices had not seen before.

The plot is classic. You are the hero! Decide for yourself: boy or girl. Either way, your brother or sister (depending on your character choice) is kidnapped by an unknown villain. After that, you set out to search for the missing sibling.

Along the way, you will meet hundreds of characters with their own personalities and concerns. Some you will need to help, and others you can ignore. But the most important are the third kind: they will join your punitive (read: rescue) squad.

The game has a main character in the story who appears in cutscenes. But from a gameplay standpoint, you control a squad of four cute girls (or boys?) who are meant to complement each other perfectly.

As the story progresses, more and more fighters join the squad, and you soon have to choose who makes it into the "golden four." That is when the "rock-paper-scissors" mode begins.

The game has 7 elements: fire, water, earth, wind, ice, electro and nature. It makes sense that a pyro (fire) character is effective against dendro (nature) enemies, since the latter burn. And if a hydro (water) character first soaks an enemy, then a cryo (ice) character can easily freeze it. Combining abilities of different elements produces various effects that help not only in battle but also while traveling.

However, collecting has more drawbacks than advantages. Not all characters are simply cute. The story introduces the player to each of them, reveals their personality and even requires you to try out their abilities in a dungeon. And then, that's it, they are just an NPC who will appear a few more times in the story. Oh, you want them in your squad? Then get ready to open your wallet.

In fairness, for a game built around collecting, spending money is not that mandatory here. I haven't wanted to spend a single cent in 30 hours of play. Judging by online reviews, many players also manage successfully without spending money. But remember: $393 million in profit from mobile platforms alone.

Speaking of platforms, Genshin Impact was released simultaneously for iOS, Android, Windows and PlayStation 4. A Nintendo Switch release is expected. My entire gaming experience has been on my phone. And it is simply amazing!

From the very first seconds, Genshin Impact tells a fairy tale and invites you on an adventure through a huge and beautiful world, accompanied by the cute fairy helper Paimon. It is impossible to refuse, and you come to your senses four hours later, learning to glide on wings above the first city, Mondstadt.

In that time, you managed to collect six apples, cook shish kebab, befriend a fiery archer, become a knight, pray, kill about a hundred monsters, get drawn into a diplomatic war and even meet a dragon!

In this event-filled world, there is no one to compete with and nowhere to rush. You can explore new locations while saving the world at the same time. Or, while searching for a sacred harp, you may stumble upon a deranged chef who needs your help in a culinary duel. Well, how can you refuse that?

The main feature of Genshin Impact is the hundreds or even thousands of activities that appear around every corner, wherever you go. All of them raise your adventure rank, which in turn unlocks new story quests. So it is better not to rush, but simply to explore the world around you.

The variety of activities is not only well thought out in terms of the story, but also tied to the need for constant upgrades. Players will have to level up and "awaken" characters, pull new weapons and artifacts from chests, and then improve them.

The combat system, which at first seems unfamiliar because of the constant switching of characters during battle, is implemented so well that it even lifts the spirits of a bored explorer. Five seconds ago you were calmly fishing in a lake, and now you are beating up frozen enemies.

Modern games have stopped offering the magic of adventure and immersing the player in their world. We do not understand where good is and where evil is, or what we are fighting for. We receive specific tasks to complete and specific enemies to kill. No questions asked.

Genshin Impact not only encourages you to ask questions like "how?", "where?" and "why?", but sooner or later also gives answers to them. This is a game for those who grew up on Assassin's Creed, Darksiders, Borderlands, Mass Effect and other leaders of the adventure genre. You have never experienced anything like this on a smartphone.