2020 has been the year of many different games becoming very popular; Animal Crossing, Among Us, and many more. They’ve brought people together and torn them apart, as games usually do. However, Genshin Impact was named game of the year by Apple and Google Play after only being out for three months. So, what’s the deal?

Genshin Impact is an open-world (similar to Zelda: Breath of the Wild) action role-playing game that was released by miHoYo, a Chinese gaming company. This game offers a variety of characters you can play with, different perks and elements to choose from, and lots of exploration and questing required to level up your profile. There is also a limited co-op mode which allows you to play with up to four participants. The real cherry on top? It’s all free. You can play this game 100% free; it’s been done countless times.

Now, of course, miHoYo has to make money. Genshin Impact encourages you to spend your money on banners, which allows you to roll for certain characters to make your character party more stacked. These banners reset every month or so when new characters are released. This is known as a gacha game, which basically means you receive a random item by putting money into those said banners. Many people collect these characters like trophies until they have all of them, but Genshin Impact makes the game simple enough to the point where you are able to play and win without spending a dime. 

What makes Genshin Impact so different from other mobile gacha games is that it makes you actually want to spend your money. The environment is very immersive and entertaining and it’s easy to get lost in playing for hours and hours; this is why miHoYo’s gacha system is seriously working, and why the CEO of miHoYo has brought in an astonishing amount of money. While some of the other games released this year have been good (I’ve played many of them), Genshin Impact is seriously one of the best games to have during quarantine. Not only does it suck you in, but you can also play with your friends and keep yourself (and others) safe during quarantine.