Genshin Impact Review: The Free Open-World Epic

The bottom line: Genshin Impact is a gorgeous, generous open-world RPG that runs on a phone and asks nothing to start, with a gacha character system as the only real asterisk on an otherwise stunning free game.

Genshin Impact still surprises me every time I open it on my phone, because a game this large and this good has no business being free. HoYoverse built a sprawling anime-styled world you can climb, glide and swim across, filled it with a proper story, voice acting and years of expanding regions, and then handed it out at no cost. It has become the reference point for what a free-to-play open world can be, and reviewing it in 2026, after several new regions have landed, I am still impressed by how much is here before you are ever asked for a cent.

How it plays

You explore an enormous open world as a party of characters, switching between them mid-fight to chain their abilities together. The heart of combat is elemental reactions: hit a soaked enemy with lightning and it electro-charges, freeze them, ignite them, and so on. Building a team that combos elements well is the real puzzle, and it turns fights into a fast little dance of swapping characters at the right moment. Outside combat you are climbing mountains, solving light environmental puzzles, gliding across valleys and following a genuinely lengthy questline. Stamina governs how far you can climb and swim, which shapes exploration in a way that feels natural rather than restrictive.

Is it free, and how it makes money

Genshin Impact is free to download and the entire main story, every region and all the exploration are free. The money side is the gacha: new and powerful characters and their signature weapons come from limited-time "wish" banners you pull using premium currency, and that currency can be bought. There is a pity system that guarantees a featured character after a set number of pulls, so it is not pure chance, but chasing a specific five-star character can get expensive if you are impatient. Crucially, the free four-star characters are strong enough to clear the vast majority of content, so you can experience the whole game without spending. The gacha buys you the flashiest units and speeds up your roster, not access to the adventure.

What works

The scale and polish are the headline. This is a console-quality open world you can carry in a pocket, with beautiful art, a swelling orchestral score and a world that keeps growing with each major update. The elemental combat is genuinely deep once you understand reactions, and building teams is a hobby in itself. Exploration is a joy, full of hidden chests, puzzles and views that make you stop and look. And the generosity of the free content cannot be overstated: dozens of hours of story and a whole map to uncover, all before any paywall. Cross-save between phone, PC and PlayStation means you can pick it up anywhere.

What does not

The gacha is the sticking point, and it is a real one. If you fixate on collecting specific characters, the pull rates and the wait between the premium currency you earn for free can be frustrating, and the temptation to spend is deliberate. Endgame is also thin in places: once you finish the current story, the daily routine of resin-gated resource farming can feel like a chore rather than a joy, and grinding artifacts for perfect stats is a notorious time sink governed by luck. It is a phenomenal game, but the free-to-play scaffolding does show at the edges.

Platforms and performance

Genshin Impact runs on iOS, Android, PC and PlayStation with shared progress, which is a huge plus. On a strong modern phone it looks and runs beautifully, though it is a demanding game that can heat up and drain battery on older devices, and you may need to dial the graphics down. It is a landscape, two-thumb experience that benefits from a larger screen, and it is one of the few mobile games where playing on a tablet or with a controller genuinely elevates it.

Who it is for

Genshin Impact is for anyone who wants a real, sprawling adventure without paying up front, and especially for players who love exploration, collecting characters and a combat system they can dig into over hundreds of hours. If you enjoy console-style RPGs but mostly game on a phone, this is the closest thing to that experience on the platform. It rewards patience: free players who play the daily loop steadily will build a strong roster over time. The people who should think twice are anyone prone to chasing every new gacha character, since that is where the spending pressure and frustration live, and players on older phones who may struggle with the performance demands. Treat the gacha as optional and it is one of the best free games there is.

My verdict

Genshin Impact is one of the most impressive free games you can put on a phone, a full open-world RPG with real depth, beauty and years of content behind it. The gacha and the grindy endgame keep it just short of perfect, but for anyone who wants a proper adventure at no cost, it is essential. If you like HoYoverse's style, my Honkai Star Rail review covers their turn-based sister game, and for a very different flavor of big free game try my Subway Surfers review. When you want something quick and instant instead, our games library is packed with free browser games, and there are plenty more scored picks in the reviews hub. HoYoverse posts version details and story updates on the official Genshin Impact site.