Is Genshin Impact Worth Playing? Genshin Impact 2020 First Impressions

This is probably one of the biggest game releases of 2020. No joke, a cross-platform adventure Gacha game that is more watched and has more active players than the majority of AAA budget titles released in the last year? Absolutely ridiculous.
But at the same time, it stands to reason as to why. Genshin Impact is an enormous game that is packed full of content to consume.

There’s a very deep story that is spread out across – what is currently believed to be a grand total of 7 large, region-wide Chapters each with their own unique characters, bosses and aesthetic look and feel.

There’s the combat – which, okay, well, let me elaborate a little on the combat here. For a mobile game, this is some ridiculously top-tier action combat. I haven’t really seen it handled better than it is here in almost 200 games I’ve played for this channel.
However from a PC perspective, while it’s definitely a great combat system, it is still very limiting, and that’s very noticeable – not so much for mobile gamers, but for PC players.
Yet at the same time, there are combos you can utilize, like pyro and anemo, electro and cryo, and geo and hydro to name a few. This makes for some devastating potential damage, yet also allows for status ailments like freezing the target, damage over time and debuffs.

The graphics are probably the best I’ve seen in a mobile game. This should be the benchmark for the entire mobile genre going forward. If games looked as good as Genshin Impact does, I don’t think PC or console gamers would have the disdain that they currently do for those of us that opt to play mobile games.
Not only is the world beautifully rendered, but the characters, their animations, expressions, the combat, the special effects, abilities, boss fights – especially the boss fights, man. Everything looks ridiculously polished, but when you take a moment to think about who developed the game, the team behind Honkai Impact.. it makes sense.
Honkai Impact is an incredibly polished, very high quality game as well, and what miHoYo, the devs behind the game learned really shows here.

The Gacha system is probably my only complaint. I did a video on the main MMOByte channel showcasing how Mrs Stix spent $200 on the game and obtained literally nothing but 6 Fischl’s and a bunch of 4* weapons, but the rates are a joke.
Seeing people spend thousands of dollars to get the characters they want doesn’t encourage me to spend money on the game – it makes me weary of spending money at all, knowing it’s actually a waste of time and money.
Are the characters worth the money? They’re worth whatever you deem them worth investing. A dollar? A hundred dollars? A thousand? There’s nobody that can tell you how much is too little or too much for something you plan on using long-term.
Heck, I spend $200 at the Angus Barn here in Raleigh, North Carolina every time we go out and that’s literally for a single meal for Mrs Stix and I. Some people might deem that wasteful, but I enjoy it.
While I think the Gacha system is terrible for me, other people might be more than fine with it.

Finally, there’s the multiplayer aspect of the game. While it can definitely be a lot of fun playing with friends and random other players, it’s worth noting that the multiplayer functionality is severely limited.
For one, you can’t continue the story while grouped with other players. Your loot is also limited when in an instance other than your own, meaning that things are not nearly as rewarding for the entire party, only the instance owner.

Overall, Genshin Impact is probably the highest quality mobile game I’ve ever played.
If every game came out with this quality, I daresay I’d probably play more mobile games than PC games. Granted if this were playable on PC, as I am first and foremost a PC gamer at heart.
Everything about Genshin Impact is incredibly polished. Everything looks and feels amazing. Other than the Gacha system, I have no complaints about the game at all. I’ve been hyping Genshin Impact up ever since the day it was announced, and I’m glad to see that I helped in growing the hype and playerbase for the game.
Mrs Stix will continue playing this long-term as she’s having a ton of fun, but since I’m not too fond of the multiplayer, I won’t dedicate nearly as much time to it as she will.