Genshin Impact Review: Is It Worth Playing?

What is Genshin Impact?

Genshin Impact is a free-to-play, open-world action role-playing game developed by HoYoverse (formerly miHoYo). First released in 2020, the game has seen continuous major updates, with this review considering its state as of 2024.

The premise casts you as the Traveler, a dimension-hopping explorer separated from your sibling, who arrives in the vast fantasy realm of Teyvat. Your quest to reunite with your lost kin becomes entangled with the fate of the world's seven nations, each devoted to a different elemental archon, with political intrigues, ancient mysteries, and a colorful cast of characters.

The game's core identity is that of a sprawling, anime-inspired adventure. It blends a single-player driven narrative with the live-service model of a gacha game, where new characters, weapons, and story chapters are added every few weeks.

While the base game is free, its monetization revolves around acquiring new characters through a randomized 'Wish' system. This is a point of significant discussion within the community and a key factor behind its polarizing user review scores.

Gameplay

Playing Genshin Impact feels like a polished fusion of several genres. At its heart is a real-time combat system that is simple to learn but offers genuine depth.

You control a party of four characters, switching between them on the fly to chain elemental reactions. For example, applying Hydro (water) to an enemy and then hitting them with Electro (lightning) triggers an 'Electro-Charged' reaction, dealing damage over time. This system encourages thoughtful team composition and reactive play.

Exploration

The true star is the world itself. Exploration evokes the same sense of wonder and scale as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You can climb almost any surface, glide from towering peaks, and discover a landscape dense with puzzles, hidden chests, challenging domains (dungeons), and world bosses.

The learning curve is gentle, introducing mechanics steadily over dozens of hours. The depth comes from the endgame: meticulously building your favorite characters with optimal gear and artifacts to tackle the ever-changing Spiral Abyss, a challenging set of timed combat floors.

The Live-Service Loop

The gameplay loop is compelling but follows a familiar live-service pattern: daily commissions, spending resin (stamina) on resource domains, and pursuing event-limited activities.

The core story quests and expansive regional updates, like the sumptuous nation of Fontaine, remain largely single-player, narrative-rich experiences that are the game's strongest asset.

Who is Genshin Impact for?

Genshin Impact is primarily for players who enjoy solo, story-driven adventures in a breathtaking open world. It suits those who don't mind a grind and have a high tolerance for free-to-play monetization mechanics.

It is an ideal game for casual explorers who can dip in and out, as well as for dedicated players who relish theory-crafting the perfect team compositions and mastering combat rotations.

• Best experienced solo: While it features co-op multiplayer for up to four players, the narrative and exploration are intensely personal, and multiplayer feels like a fun add-on rather than a core feature.
• Clear inspirations: The game draws clear inspiration from Breath of the Wild in exploration and art direction, while its team-based combat and ongoing narrative share DNA with JRPGs and live-service titles like Honkai Impact 3rd.
• Ideal for collectors: If you enjoy getting lost in a beautiful world, uncovering lore, and collecting a diverse roster of characters, this game will resonate deeply.

Graphics and Performance

Genshin Impact's visual style is one of its most significant achievements. It presents a stunning, painterly world that blends anime character designs with lush, vibrant environments.

From the wind-swept plains of Mondstadt to the neon-lit streets of Inazuma and the elegant, water-logged courts of Fontaine, each region boasts a distinct artistic identity. The attention to detail in lighting, weather effects, and character animations is consistently impressive.

On PC, the game can be a technical showcase when maxed out, supporting high resolutions, detailed shadows, and impressive environmental draw distances. Performance is generally excellent and well-optimized across a range of hardware, though it can be demanding at the highest settings.

The game's multi-platform nature means the PC version is sometimes held back by mobile considerations. However, it remains the definitive way to experience Teyvat's vistas. Load times are swift on an SSD, and we encountered very few technical hitches or bugs during standard play.

Value for Money

Evaluating Genshin Impact's value is complex due to its free-to-play foundation. In terms of raw content, the value is astronomical.

A new player in 2024 has access to hundreds of hours of high-quality, fully-voiced main story content, four massive major regions, countless side quests, puzzles, and exploration objectives—all without spending a single penny.

However, the 'price' is framed by one's engagement with the gacha system. The game is designed to tempt you into spending money (Primogems) to acquire specific characters or powerful weapons.

While it is perfectly possible to complete all story and exploration content using the free characters provided, the desire for a favorite banner character can lead to frustration or significant expense.

The bottom line: The game offers phenomenal value for the frugal player or occasional low-spender, but its value proposition deteriorates rapidly for those prone to compulsive spending on randomized systems.

The stark contrast between its high Metascore (84) and mixed Steam rating (4.4/10) stems from this conflict between generous free content and aggressive monetization of character collection.

Verdict

Genshin Impact is a masterpiece of open-world design and live-service ambition, hamstrung by a monetization model that many find distasteful. Its world is breathtaking, its exploration is liberating and rewarding, and its elemental combat system is uniquely satisfying.

The consistent rollout of substantial, narrative-rich updates has built one of the most compelling fantasy settings in modern gaming.

Our recommendation: We recommend it wholeheartedly to players who love beautiful, ever-expanding worlds and can exercise restraint with gacha mechanics. We cannot recommend it to those easily frustrated by free-to-play grind or randomized purchases.

You will love it if you prioritize exploration, story, and character collection above all else. However, we cannot recommend it to players who dislike the psychological pressure of randomized purchases, or who seek a traditional, buy-once RPG with a fixed party and conclusive ending.

Genshin Impact is a game of extraordinary contradictions: it is both free and potentially very expensive, deeply single-player yet persistently online, and offers some of the industry's best content alongside its most controversial business practices. Your enjoyment will depend entirely on which side of that line you fall.