It's Good.
Can I just write "Sword Beams" 50 times? They're back, and they're better than ever.
It's probably the best depiction of a post apocalyptic world in recent years. Hyrule Castle Town is a fucking desolate wasteland but the far reaches of the kingdom are not only still alive but continue to grow. Every character feels like a living person and every town feels alive in its own way. Weapon Degradation sucks ass if it's meaningless busywork but it's a way to penalize meaningless combat in this game and adds a layer of tension to every fight. It's hard not to draw comparisons to the later games in the Fallout series in a lot of ways but this is by far the biggest way in which the core idea, having to manage your resources carefully to penalize careless play, falls so flat in the Bethesda-developed fallouts but other games have captured nearly perfectly. Even at the end of the game, when you're carrying an arsenal of stuff, running across one tough enemy that can chew through your shields or burns through a couple swords makes the fight feel tense, and makes running away an option to actually consider rather than just slamming more guns onto your gun to fix it.
This game manages to handle tension in a way which I haven't really felt from any other game. You're never truly safe in this game, and even when you can take down guardians reliably, it never feels comfortable. Whether you have 3 hearts or 30 you're always going to piss a bit when you see a laser pointed at you. The music is fucking fantastic and really sets the scene for whatever you're doing. When you first slip into Hyrule Castle and it kicks on, you're both excited and terrified by it, and it sets the perfect mood, especially if you're sneaking in the back log before you feel like you should.
A lot of the past Zelda games have been lacking a real sense of openness and this is quite frankly the most open game I've ever played. Your options in every aspect are completely open, and aside from a couple forced stealth and combat sections, you can pretty much find a way to get out of or completely avoid every fight. The world feels empty where it needs to and alive where it should be.
Christ this is a good game. The soundtrack is great, too.