Genshin Impact

An adventure game that offers immersion in the exciting events of the fairy-tale world of Teyvat. Together with a group of brave companions, you will explore the ruins of ancient empires, use forbidden spells, and test your strength in battles against fantasy creatures and overcome incredible bosses. This journey lasts for hundreds of hours.

The graphics do not claim realism but will be a feast for the eyes. Simple, easily readable shapes of objects, quality drawing, colorful effects, and real-time rendering create a unique artistic style. Characters are well-animated, move naturally, and respond to hits during combat. Lighting and weather change dynamically, bringing the visuals and gameplay to life.

Genshin Impact is a single-player story-driven action RPG from a third-person perspective in a vast open world. A gacha game focused on character collection, forming a team based on abilities, and endless leveling up.

At the same time, it is a free-to-play grind game, a service game with a long development cycle. Solo play can be diversified in co-op by inviting one to three friends into your world. Regardless of the chosen mode, the game requires an internet connection to function.

In the first days, players are overwhelmed with resources, rewards, and characters, but after a couple of days, the flow of freebies dries up, and leveling slows down significantly.

For the game, the studio miHoYo created the medieval world of Teyvat, well-defined the main rules and laws of the world, the chronology of events, and the current state of affairs in the local states. More details can be learned by visiting the library in the game and listening to dialogues.

Teyvat is governed by 7 gods or Archons — Anemo, Geo, Hydro, Pyro, Electro, Dendro, Cryo, embodying the known elements. The game map is also divided into 7 regions, whose inhabitants worship only one deity. Each region has a major city (capital) and several settlements, farms, and productions.

The stylistics of the regions are unique due to the medieval cultures they embody: Japan, China, India, Russia, Ancient Rome, Germany, and France (including national and climatic features). There is a semblance of ideology: some love order, others — freedom, and others — financial prosperity.

The game world of Genshin Impact is truly vast and large; it can be explored not just back and forth, but also up and down. Teyvat is filled with numerous activities: daily and weekly tasks, defeating enemies and bosses, opening chests and exploring unusual puzzles.

In the spirit of an MMO, the map of each region is divided into zones with levels, which determines the set of quests and enemies. The greater the difference between the zone level and the character level, the harder it is to defeat even a simple mob.

Genshin Impact inherits gameplay and controls from mobile games. One button is responsible for the basic attack—pressing it several times results in a combo. Another is for elemental magic attacks. There’s also an "ultimate" that charges over time.

The basic part of the combat consists of one-handed and two-handed swords, bows with magical arrows. Characters gain abilities from elements: fire, water, wind, electricity, ice, earth, and living plants. In addition to offensive spells, there are supportive and defensive ones, like healing auras or summoning pets. The environment also reacts to magic—you can freeze water or set grass on fire.

During combat, only one character is directly controlled, but switching between heroes in the party can be done instantly and at any moment, thus utilizing all types of weapons, skills, and "ultimates".

The abilities of different characters can be linked together. Dousing a target with water and hitting it with fire will create a "steam blast." Freezing a target and hitting it with lightning will result in "shattering." Alternatively, you can soak a target with water and strike it with lightning, spreading damage. Earth powers assist in defense and crowd control, while air powers enhance attacks.

Using combos can deal significantly more damage to a target than a basic or magical attack. Especially since some enemies and bosses are immune to physical or magical damage. Movement is complemented by climbing any walls and ledges, dodging with a dash, and flying in the air. There is a stamina system.

Collecting a cool build in Genshin Impact that destroys everything in its path is not easy, as classes are tied to specific characters. And they are already linked to the gacha system. This is a monetization method where a player receives a random set of items for a specific amount. In Genshin Impact, the chance to obtain a five-star (ultra-rare) character is 0.6%, and if you need someone specific, like an earth mage, the chance drops to hundredths of a percent.

Technically, the game can be completed with free characters, which will be given out in the first few hours. But storming dungeons or completing cooperative tasks with them will be tough; better heroes are needed. This will require opening quite a few loot boxes, which means hours of grinding or spending real money.

At the same time, the game has numerous manipulative mechanics that encourage collecting characters or even desiring to obtain them all. Limited heroes will certainly be a long-awaited surprise. This creates addiction and compels players to invest significant money in cute anime waifus.

The story of Genshin Impact is simple and full of clichés. In the prologue, the main character has their brother/sister taken away, after which they put all their effort into retrieving their loved one and defeating the main villain (who is evil just because). However, the script is infused with unusual plot twists and well-developed characters.

Side quests are straightforward but will delight with their unconventional approach to completion. Players will need to show ingenuity, unlock certain skills, or accumulate in-game currency for a bribe. There are also personal quests from characters that can be quite lengthy.

As players complete quests and explore the game world, they gain several types of experience, leveling up their character, friendship , or adventure levels. The latter is the main measure of success, unlocking further progression in the story, fractures into complex dungeons, and various opportunities.

All collected content is used to improve what is already available, as players feed unnecessary weapons or gear to their useful items. The same goes for characters — obtaining a duplicate must be "applied" to an existing hero, thus elevating them. This significantly boosts their stats and unlocks an additional talent.

Leveling up any element is additionally broken down into stages; you cannot just level up weapons or heroes; everything must be developed simultaneously, or progress will simply halt.

Unlocks at the sixteenth adventure level. The mode is cross-platform, allowing friends from any gaming device to join the team. Characters are distributed according to the number of participants. Cooperative play offers its own set of quests:

Successful co-op play requires knowledge of one's abilities and synergies with other characters, as well as good gear. At launch, Genshin Impact did not plan for a PvP mode.

In co-op, "Twisted Abyss," story quests, and additional quests are not available for the entire team. Only the host will receive rewards for challenges and can open chests and collect items.