Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact has been the game other open-world gacha RPGs get measured against since it launched in 2020, and five years later HoYoverse is still adding whole nations to its map rather than coasting on the ones it already built. If you've only known it as "the anime game with the ads," there's a genuinely huge, well-crafted world underneath the gacha reputation.

Short version: it's one of the best-produced free-to-play open-world RPGs on PC, with real substance in its elemental combat and exploration — but character progression runs through a gacha system, and knowing how that system works before you get attached to a character is worth ten minutes of reading.

Quick verdict: Genshin Impact is worth installing if you want a gorgeous, constantly-expanding open world with combat that's actually fun to engineer around, and you're fine with cosmetic-adjacent character collecting being gated behind a randomized pull system. Skip it if gacha mechanics are a hard no for you regardless of how the rest of the game plays.

Key takeaways:

• A free-to-play open-world action RPG by HoYoverse, set across the fantasy continent of Teyvat
• You play a customizable Traveler searching for a lost twin sibling, picking up a rotating cast of playable characters along the way
• Combat runs on 7 elements (Pyro, Hydro, Electro, Cryo, Anemo, Geo, Dendro) that combine mid-fight into reactions like Vaporize, Overloaded, and Freeze
• Six of the game's seven planned nations have released as of this writing — Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, Sumeru, Fontaine, and Natlan — with Snezhnaya still to come
• New playable characters are earned mainly through the "Wish" gacha system, not simply unlocked through story progress
• Free to install and play, on PC, PlayStation, iOS, and Android, with progress carried across platforms on one account

What Is Genshin Impact?

Genshin Impact is a free-to-play open-world action RPG developed and published by HoYoverse (formerly miHoYo). You play as the Traveler, an outsider who arrives in the world of Teyvat searching for a twin sibling separated from them by a mysterious god at the very start of the game — a search that threads through the main "Archon Quest" story as you move from nation to nation.

It launched in September 2020 on PC, PlayStation, iOS, and Android, and has grown steadily ever since: what started as a single region, Mondstadt, is now a continent with six of its seven planned nations live, each with its own culture, soundtrack, and elemental identity.

What Makes Genshin Impact Interesting?

The thing that separates Genshin from most open-world RPGs is how directly its world design serves its combat system. Every nation in Teyvat is themed around one of seven elements, and traversal tools — gliding with a paraglider, climbing cliff faces, swimming, sailing, and later a surfboard-style Waverider for underwater areas in Fontaine — exist specifically so you can reach the elemental puzzles and enemy encounters scattered across that terrain rather than just to make the map feel big.

It also simply keeps growing. HoYoverse has shipped a new major story chapter roughly every six weeks since 2020, and each new nation — Inazuma, Sumeru, Fontaine, and most recently Natlan — has come with new mechanics layered onto the base game rather than a reset: Sumeru added the Dendro element and a whole second layer of elemental reactions built around it, and Fontaine added underwater exploration entirely. If you like watching a live-service world genuinely expand over years rather than just repeat itself, how live-service seasons work covers the broader pattern this kind of long-tail content model follows.

Gameplay

Day to day, Genshin plays like a real-time action RPG layered over open-world exploration. You control one of up to four active party members directly — normal attacks, a charged attack, an Elemental Skill, and an Elemental Burst once enough energy builds up — and swap between characters mid-fight to chain abilities together. None of it is turn-based or auto-battled; positioning and timing matter the way they do in any action game.

Outside combat, the world itself is the draw: hidden chests, environmental puzzles that use elemental powers as keys, world bosses, and a steady stream of side and world quests that flesh out each nation's culture and politics. Waypoints (Statues of The Seven) mark discovered areas, restore your stamina meter, and double as fast-travel points, so exploration compounds rather than resets every session.

Elemental Reactions and Team-Building

Combat's real depth is in combining elements, not just picking a strong character. Applying two different elements to an enemy triggers a reaction — Pyro plus Hydro Vaporizes for bonus damage, Cryo plus Hydro Freezes enemies in place, Electro plus Hydro chains lightning between targets, and Dendro (added with Sumeru) opens up its own family of reactions like Bloom and Aggravate. Building a 4-character team that covers the right elements, rather than just stacking your highest-rarity characters, is where a lot of the game's strategic depth actually lives.

New playable characters are earned mostly through the "Wish" gacha system: you spend Primogems (earned free through play, or bought with real money) on randomized pulls, with a pity system guaranteeing a 5-star character or weapon within a capped number of pulls. It's not loot-box randomness dressed up as progression — a pulled character is a real, permanently playable unit, not a cosmetic — but it is still a randomized system sitting between you and the character you actually want, and it's worth understanding before you commit money to it.

Who Is Genshin Impact For?

This fits players who want a genuinely large, beautiful open world to get lost in, alongside combat with more mechanical depth than button-mashing — if elemental-reaction theorycrafting sounds appealing rather than tedious, this is built for you. Fans of story-driven RPGs will also find more narrative ambition here than the "gacha game" reputation suggests, especially in the later nations' Archon Quests.

If you want the open-world exploration and RPG combat without any gacha layer at all, PC has plenty of other options worth a look — see more open-world RPGs worth playing for single-player picks with no pull system attached. And if it's the "collect a squad, build a team around elements or roles" hook you're after more than the exploration, Arknights: Endfield scratches a similar itch with a heavier tactical-combat focus.

It's a worse fit if you're not willing to engage with a gacha system at all, or if you'd rather not invest in a game that expects you to keep coming back every six weeks for the next story chapter to stay caught up.

What You Should Know Before Playing

The story genuinely rewards patience — the first nation, Mondstadt, is the weakest story writing in the game by general consensus, and it gets considerably better once you reach Liyue and beyond. Don't judge the whole game by the opening hours.

Be clear-eyed about the gacha system before you spend anything. Character and weapon banners rotate on a schedule, pulls cost Primogems that can be earned free (slowly) or bought, and a 50/50 mechanic means your first 5-star pull on a rate-up banner has even odds of being the character advertised versus a random one instead — the pity system guarantees you won't go empty-handed forever, but it doesn't guarantee the specific character you wanted on your first try. None of this is required to enjoy the story or exploration, which are fully playable for free, but it's the part of the game most likely to cost you money if you're not paying attention.

Pros:

• Huge, genuinely beautiful open world that's kept expanding for five years, not just wide at launch
• Combat has real depth in elemental team-building, not just gear checks
• Strong, improving story writing once you're past the first nation
• Free to install with the full story and exploration playable at no cost
• Cross-platform progress on PC, PlayStation, iOS, and Android under one account

Cons:

• New characters are gated behind a randomized gacha system, not simple unlocks
• The 50/50 pity mechanic means you can lose a banner pull to the "wrong" character even at pity
• Early-game story (Mondstadt) is noticeably weaker than what comes later, which puts off some new players
• Keeping up with new story chapters roughly every six weeks is a real time commitment if you don't want to fall behind
• No Nintendo Switch release despite being announced at launch — still unreleased as of this writing

Is Genshin Impact Worth Playing in 2026?

Yes, and arguably more so now than at launch — six of the game's seven planned nations are live, each with its own fully realized culture, soundtrack, and story arc, so there's a genuinely enormous amount of free content to grow into. The elemental combat system has also only gotten deeper with each new nation's additions, and Fontaine and Natlan represent some of the strongest writing and mechanical design the game has shipped.

The honest caveat is the one every gacha game shares: the character-collecting layer runs on real-money-adjacent randomization, and it's worth deciding up front how much of that you're willing to engage with versus just playing free and taking the characters you're given.

How to Start Playing Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact is available on PC through HoYoverse's official site and HoYoPlay launcher, on PlayStation 4 and 5, and on iOS and Android — there's no Steam release. It's free to install on every platform, and progress carries across all of them on a single HoYoverse account.

FAQ

Is Genshin Impact free to play? Yes. It's free to install and play on PC, PlayStation, iOS, and Android, with optional purchases for the gacha "Wish" system.

Is Genshin Impact available on PC? Yes, through HoYoverse's own HoYoPlay launcher — it isn't on Steam.

Is Genshin Impact pay-to-win? The story and exploration are fully free, but character acquisition runs through a gacha system — spending money can get you specific characters faster, though pity systems eventually guarantee 5-star pulls for free too.

Do I need to spend money to get good characters? No — free-to-play characters can clear all current content, and Primogems (the pull currency) can be earned through play, just more slowly than buying them.

Is Genshin Impact coming to Nintendo Switch? A Switch version was announced at the game's original 2020 reveal but has not been released as of this writing.

Is Genshin Impact good for solo players? Yes — the entire story, exploration, and most combat content is built around solo play, with optional 4-player co-op for open-world exploration and some events.