Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom owes its design to two ‘90s PC game studios

It’s a given that modern video games give us the ability to do things in different ways. For example, we can solve a problem, navigate through a game, or even survive an encounter. “Player freedom” is baked into many tentpole releases — especially open-world games, which rely on your sustained curiosity even after you’ve repeated the same general objective ad nauseum. Sure, you’re about to clear your second enemy outpost in 10 minutes — but this time, you could be Stealth.

2017 is a year of optimism and growth. The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild The amount of real freedom the game gave its player was amazing (and it still is). There were a lot of ways to solve any particular problem. Its weather system, physics system and Rune abilities combined with its robust inventory, Rune abilities and a variety of other features. There’s a reason speedrunners flock to it. It’s true that you can go from Bokoblin to Bokoblin, and kill each of them with a spear, a club or arrows. You can charge your sword with electricity during a thunder storm and throw it in the direction of an enemy mob just before lightning strikes.

This open-ended quality is at the heart of The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild’s longevity, and based on everything we’ve seen from Tears Of The Kingdom’s trailers and gameplay presentations, Nintendo is doubling down on player freedom in the sequel. Link’s newfound Zonai powers, including the ability to fuse weapons and rewind objects, let him build vehicles. He is now a magic engineer. After playing for over an hour I was able to play Tears Of The Kingdom last week, and I’m still thinking about all of the tricks I didn’t try.

There’s a term for this kind of game: immersive sim. Like most subgenre monikers, its definition is not always agreed upon, and it’s often misused (by me), but to sum it up as succinctly as possible, immersive sims are games that try to say “yes” to the player as often as possible. It’s more of a design philosophy, really. Although Tears Of The Kingdom seems poised to be the biggest immersive sim ever, this dedication to player choice actually goes back several decades, to the work of one studio that was making PC games in the ’90s.

Looking Glass Studios was originally Blue Sky Productions. It was created in 1990, by a group of developers with similar interests who saw 3D games as a way to tell stories. The studio also aimed to emphasize player empowerment, and move away from video games being a linear experience. Studio released such games as Ultima Underworld – The Stygian Abyss and System Shock Its sequel is called The Dark Project. You can also Like Breath of Wild and its sequel, these games each gave players numerous ways to solve puzzles or eliminate enemies (even if those options were limited compared to what’s possible today).

Looking Glass Studios closed in 2000, despite its innovative sensibilities. This was due to difficulties with publishers. Many of the Looking Glass employees went on to create immersive games or put their skills and expertise gained at Looking Glass into good use. Bioshock, Guitar HeroThe Xbox, the Xbox 360 and other products were all designed by former Looking Glass employees. Arkane Studios, the company behind games such as Dishonored, Prey, You can also find out more about the following: Deathloop. Arkane’s impending release Redfall It seems that the mentality of Looking Glass is also rooted.

Tears Of The Kingdom isn’t an anomaly in the realm of modern AAA games that pull from the immersive sim school of thought — apart from Arkane, IO Interactive has pushed the subgenre to its comedic extremes with Hitman World of Assassination, For example. For example. System Shock A remake will also be released at the end May. But it is exciting to see Nintendo, a company mainly known for extremely fine-tuned games that don’t necessarily let the player cause trouble, doubling down on what I consider to be the most exciting element of Breath of Wild’s design: a willingness to let the player bend the rules. And come May 12, I’m hoping I even get to break a few.