Review and Rating: Is Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Worth It?

This is our spoiler-free review of the game Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, as well as our rating. Find out Game8's score of Age of Calamity, and everything else you need to know before picking up a copy!

Age of Calamity Review Score from Game8

Who Should Play This Game

• ★ Fans of The Legend of Zelda games ★
• Fans of Dynasty Warriors games
• People who have played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and enjoyed the story
• People who have played Hyrule Warriors and enjoyed the gameplay
• Players who enjoy strategic, Hack-and-Slash games with RPG elements

Age of Calamity Full Review

Experience Hyrule's Last Stand

Mostly advertised as the precursor to the events of Breath of the Wild, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity takes the players a hundred years before the Great Calamity. You play as Link, Zelda, Impa, and a whole slew of unlockable characters as they fight to save Hyrule from ruin. So if you've been planning to revisit the chracters and places from the last Zelda game, the game is definitely worth picking up!

However, it wouldn't be a Zelda game if it didn't mess with a timeline just a little bit. Age of Calamity introduces a new character, an adorable white, egg-shaped Guardian named Terrako, who accompanies Team Zelda in their quest. As this is our spoiler-free review, all we'll say is that the new Guardian brings a couple twists to the story than what we're used to.

Is Age of Calamity Canon? Plot Summary

Hyrule Warriors and More!

If you've played the first Hyrule Warriors, you'll definitely feel right at home with this game. The main objectives of the game are to slash your way through hoardes of enemies, capture outposts along the way, and defeat Bosses to complete a level. Each level will have you defeat different enemies based on the story's location, so the fighting never goes stale. Even if you think you've seen an enemy before, the game will show you a different type of the same enemy, many of which we've never seen before in Breath of the Wild.

If enemies do get repetitive, you can easily switch things up by choosing from the huge cast of playable characters. Each character has a distinct power/weapon and playstyle, which make mastering one (especially an underrated one) so satisfying. You can even play as Link with 3 variations of his weapons just like Breath of the Wild (One-Handed, Two- Handed, Spear). The games also introduces Elemental Rods to add another way to play the game different from the first Hyrule Warriors or even Breath of the Wild.

You can also change the difficulty level after Battles to keep the keep each fight interesting. The game comes in 4 difficulties to choose from: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Very Hard, the last of which being actually posing a real challenge for Dynasty Warrior veterans.

Difference Between Difficulty Modes: Which Difficulty Should You Choose?

Choose How to Play

One of the best things Breath of the Wild has to offer is how you can achieve any goal in multiple ways. Age of Calamity works with similar mechanics, which means defeating enemies doesn't necessarily mean melee attacks. Each character can make use of the Sheikah Slate and its runes to break obstacles are defeat enemies. There are also advantages to using the Sheikah Slate instead of melee attacks, which the games doesn't automatically tell you to do.

For example, you can the Cryonis rune on enemies of water to momentarily freeze them or defeat them. You can also strike lightning on a metal box with an Elemental Rod to strike at nearby foes. Just exploring how else you can play the game than just the standard hack and slash makes for satisfying gameplay.

Loaded with Things to Do

The game also offers multiple game modes like Two-Player Mode (co-op), Challenges, and Quests so you'll practically will never run out of things to do. Each map also has its own secrets that you may miss on your first playthrough. Collectibles such as Korok Seeds and Treasure Chests are just some of things you can miss if you're not careful.

Just like in Breath of the Wild, the game counts how much you've cleared on the map to 100% the game. Completionists can easily sink in more hours even after clearing the story.

Play Time: How Long is Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity?

Play as the Divine Beasts

You can also control each of the Divine Beasts in Divine Beast Battles where you take on armies of monsters and Guardians invading an area. The first Battle will have you defeat a hoarde of Lynels, something practically unheard of in Breath of the Wild. However, these Battles make use of motion controls, of which the Switch does not have the best reputation in terms of performance. Overall, its an awesome thing to have in the game but is very limited by the Switch's hardware.

FPS Drops and Awkward Camera Angles

Unfortunately, the Switch's hardware isn't the best at capturing all the action as it happens. The game will drop FPS if too many things are happening all at once. Although it doesn't last long, you won't get to fully appreciate the animations your attacks make. Divine Beast Battles have it worst because so many attacks and enemies are moving all at once on screen and it doesn't help that the controls for these challenges are way too janky.

Another issue is when you lock into an enemy, the camera can lock into a weird angle or clip into a wall, which obstructs your vision. It's worst when you get on top of a Stone Talus and the camera doesn't show you at all where to aim your attack. We also recommend setting your camera speed to the slowest possible speed, as the graphics can be dizzying at times.

With all that said, the cel shaded characters and locations we've come to love in Breath of the Wild almost make up for those problems. You aren't meant to wander off in Battles but taking the time to apreciate the scenery wouldn't be a bad idea. Outside of the minor annoyances with in-battle graphics, the game's cinematics are nothing short of wonderful.

Age of Calamity Price Product Information

Where to Buy

• Nintendo
• Gamestop
• Amazon
• Bestbuy
• Walmart
• Target

Note: Depending on inventories, the links shown here may or may not be stocked.

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Age of Calamity Top Page

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