Fenyx Reborn.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising has had an interesting development. Its launch trailer didn’t do too much to garner a lot of interest, and once gameplay was finally shown off, people were almost immediately keen to point out the similarities to that of a certain Nintendo blockbuster. Then came a delay that would place it within a month of both Watch Dogs: Legion and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, not to mention a ton of other major holiday releases all duking it out for that top spot. The game then saw a name change from the fantastic “Gods and Monsters” to the less than impressive “Immortals: Fenyx Rising”. Regardless, the game has arrived on both last and current-gen consoles, an enjoyable romp through Greek Mythology, with some fast-paced combat, a pleasing aesthetic, and some amusing dialogue, even if a lot of the jokes fall into the depths of Tartaros.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising tells the story of Fenyx, a character you’ll customize at the start of the game, one living in their brother’s shadow, as his renown is known the land over. As you awake from a shipwreck, you’ll discover that everyone, except for yourself, has been turned to stone. This story is narrated by both Prometheus and Zeus, high atop a mountain as you down below, are then tasked with setting things right and fulfilling a prophecy about saving the day. The prophecy also details the events of Fenyx defeating Typhon, a devastating monster that has broken loose of his imprisonment, and has returned to wreak havoc across the world and get revenge against the Gods, namely that of Zeus.
Now, the story about Fenyx and their journey to become a hero is actually very good but does suffer from some incredibly inconsistent humor from both Zeus and Prometheus. While some of the jokes are fairly enjoyable, their endless chatter can become a bit tiresome more often than not. Fenyx will eventually meet the wonderfully written Hermes, who tells them how Aphrodite, Athena, Ares, and Hephaistos have been stripped of their godly powers and imprisoned in various forms around the island. You’ll then be tasked with freeing them, to then garner the strength of the Gods to take down Typhon himself. It also seems that Typhon has corrupted notable Grecian heroes; Achilles, Atalanta, Herakles, and Odysseus, and has unleashed them upon you, as they will occasionally stalk you, showing up randomly to attempt to put a stop to your heroic deeds.
There is another element to the story that appears about halfway through that is all too predictable and yet, sets the stage for some of the best narrative content in the game. This causes Fenyx to “rise” about the situation and prove that they are every bit the hero they have since become. It even causes Zeus, who is not terribly fond of mortals, to be in their cheering section, eagerly hopeful that Fenyx is victorious. The final act of the game leans more on this, making the story vastly more entertaining as you have the power, and the respect of all the Gods behind you. It’s also here where much of the humor is put on the back burner, and it’s much better for it.
What I like most about Fenyx as a character is that they can actually talk; often having their own say in the story and often laying into the Gods themselves about their behaviors, as well as who they are as flawed people. As you look to free of the Gods from their new forms, and in the case of Hephaistos, having their memories return, you get to know them as people, and that even despite them being Gods, that they have more in common with mortals than they would think. Even Zeus, who is considerably selfish and arrogant, is brought down a peg or two as he listens in on how bad of a father he was and continues to be.
The Gods themselves; Aphrodite, Hermes, Ares, Hephaistos, and Athena, are very interesting characters, and each of their arcs is solid fun. Ares, who has been turned into a crimson red chicken, even pulls a God of War line from Kratos with his “Don’t be sorry, be better.” that was pretty funny to hear. Hephaistos himself has been turned into one of his own creations, a handless robot that has the drive for creation but lacks all his memories of his former self. Athena has been stripped of her age and wisdom, while Aphrodite has been turned into an apple tree, fixed to the land to feed the nearby animals. Now, to return them back to normal, you’ll need their godly essence, which lies in each of their own Vault of Tartaros, an endpoint location that you’ll track down after completing a series of missions. Thankfully, each journey to their Vault is wildly different, making you complete a variety of different tasks instead of the same basic gameplay systems that trivialize most games. These adventures vary from turning on the massive forge for Hephaistos to work to rolling a giant pearl into the ocean for Aphrodite. As you progress through their story, they will bestow blessings upon you, from having your health replenish after battle, your arrows becoming more effective, to having your perfect dodge cause significantly more damage to your foes, these blessings become drastically important to staying in the fight.
Now, a lot has been said about the game’s similarities to Breath of the Wild, and even Genshin Impact had that same discussion around it as well. While Immortals treads the line a bit closer to that of Link’s latest main series title than Genshin Impact did, it doesn’t discount the fun the game offers. Exploring in Immortals is also a very different experience as you can use Far Sight to track down collectibles and certain locations around the map. Now, this is purely optional but is a nice addition for those that want to know where everything is. Again, apart from some of the crude grown-up humor, this can often feel perfect for kids, allowing anyone of any age to be able to track down something that they don’t know was actually just 10 feet from them. Each location will have a giant statue to climb, to get the lay of the land as you remove the fog that hovers over it on the map. While you can use Far Sight anywhere in the game, these are ideally the best places to use it as you get maximum coverage for looking around this bright and colorful world. In fact, tracking down everything sort of reminded me of the mining mini-game in Mass Effect 2, and I mean that as a compliment.
Now, climbing these statues and getting around is where the game borrows a lot of what Breath of the Wild offered. Stamina based climbing is here, with the ability to upgrade and level it up, but you can also use a pair of wings to glide around or a horse, should you want to. These wings consume stamina as well and offer a powerful boost to push you along faster. I would often climb to the tallest peak and just fly, consuming some stamina potions or fruit to keep the ride going, only stopping to track down a weapon or armor chest, or one of the fun puzzles that litter the world. Another thing that would catch my eye to stop during a flight is when I’d track down a new horse to tame, increasing my stable of mythical mounts, including a rainbow pegasus I found when I accidentally missed a jump and fell down to a field below. You also get a bird named Phosphor, who can learn attacks, such as freezing enemies for 5 seconds, giving you ample time to wage war against them unopposed.
Exploring the world itself is incredibly engaging, as you’ll often encounter a variety of puzzles that require you to discover their solution to earn a chest of resources or some fancy new gear. The puzzles that you’ll encounter vary from those outside the Vaults, and those inside. Outside, as you explore, you’ll find those that have you firing an arrow through a series of axes, lighting out of reach firepits, solving sliding puzzles, finding orbs to mimic a pattern on a nearby wall, to finding switches to lower force fields so that you can move objects around to other switches that further along the puzzle. These puzzles are rather quick and to the point, and never outstay their welcome. There is a nice solid variety of them where you never feel like you’re doing the same puzzle too often.
Inside the Vaults are another story and feature a few puzzles that feel like they drag on just a bit too long. They can often be creative, but as you have a lot of freedom in how you solve many of them, it’s easy enough to find the solution the long way instead. Now, there are two types of Vaults; story-based, and the more generic vaults that are simply there for you to earn your Zeus bolt to increase your overall stamina. The story-based vaults have far more intricate puzzles, sometimes multiple ones that can be rather lengthy in nature. These have you changing the wind to push wooden crates around, rolling a ball to its goal, to some of the more entertaining ones where you use wind currents to chuck metal balls at a combustible wall. One mechanic of a few puzzles sees you needing to hit a block to cause it to float, and you can use your ability to make objects float to move them around in the air. The game doesn’t really do a good job at showing you the proper way to use this mechanic, so I would often have to find my own way around them, and while that may seem like a bad thing, I found it pretty liberating that the game gave me this freedom. There was a puzzle involving these blocks where I ended up accidentally slingshotting myself far into the air, allowing me to then float directly to the goal, bypassing almost the entire puzzle. Now, as for any complaints I have with the Vaults, I feel that the game should reset you a lot quicker during a fall as Fenyx falling into the pits below just takes a drastically longer time to load me back up than I’d like.
Apart from puzzles, you’re going to be getting into a lot of battles, both on land, and flying about you. As you work your way through an upgrade system, using Charon’s coins as a currency, you’ll start to pad out your options. Fenyx will have a bow, a sword, and an axe at the ready, with more options as you push through the standard upgrades as well as your godly powers bestowed upon you. Each weapon type can see upgrades to make them stronger, as opposed to building up each weapon individually, allowing you to get the most out of every weapon, even if you just picked it up. You’ll also find a vast assortment of new weapons and armor, each loaded with a variety of different stats, such as those that boost your health, stamina, or enhancing your combo meter. All these options make combat fast, ferocious, and exciting as I would actively seek out enemies to try out my new skills, combo attacks, various abilities like using Hephaistos’s hammer to slam foes into the ground, or the strength of Herakles to slingshot to enemies in the air, cleaving them in two.
Improving Fenyx and their capabilities is through a series of currencies and resources you’ll find. While I do feel there are far too many types of currencies, they are all easy to collect and are found pretty much everywhere you’ll go. You’ll use Ambrosia to boost your available health allotment, Zeus’s bolts for your stamina, Charon’s coins for your abilities, and a ton of other resources to improve your weapon and armor stats. The Hall of Gods features a wealth of stations to sink those currencies and resources into, each coming with fun animations as you use them, such as Hermes and yourself flexing it out at the station to boost your Stamina. You can also take on basic challenges that grant you resources, or timed ones that grant you a special currency that Hermes accepts for some fancier items. You also have a Ubisoft store that has yet another currency for even more flashier items. You can also change up Fenyx’s look at any point you want, not to mention the vast array of armor sets that you’ll be swapping to, or simply using their looks while benefitting from another item’s stats. Honestly, one of my favorite parts about this game is just how many options there are for armor and weapons, as you’re constantly unlocking new items or new looks all the time, giving you an almost endless supply of item skins and stylish weapons.
Despite not being developed exclusively for next-gen consoles, the game does run remarkably smooth on the Series X. As was the case with Watch Dogs: Legion and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, the PS5 does edge out the Series X version visually, but not by much, and it’s likely due to the team having far more time optimizing it for the platform. The PS5 runs the game natively at 4K at 30fps, whereas the Series X version struggles to remain at 4K through much of the experience, offering what is referred to as Dynamic 4k instead. There is a performance mode that trades resolution for framerate, pushing the game to 60fps, and the PS5 does outperform the Series X version there as well. Again, this isn’t a statement on hardware, as Ubisoft simply had more time to work on the PS5 version and we’re likely to see patches down the road that mitigate those differences. In fact, we are already seeing that with Valhalla.
With a massive map that offers some gorgeous vistas to explore, Immortals is a very pretty game with a wonderful aesthetic. The lush environments, the temples, and ruins, all look incredibly stunning for what this game is trying to achieve. Yes, there are a few bland textures here and there, and the occasional bit of pop in as you’re flying above, but it’s considerably less so than I’ve seen in some more recent open-world games. The enemies, characters, and the world itself are wonderfully animated, with hilarious animations of yeeting bears or other enemies far into the sky when you get in a solid stealth kick. I still think Fenyx themselves looked stylistically better in the earlier gameplay videos, but with a decent offering of hairstyles and facial features to choose from, you can find a good balance to make your own hero. Load times on the game vary from impressive to not quite great, as while some aspects of the game are super instant, there are still some loads that feel far too long, especially after playing through Miles Morales, which is visually more impressive and it loads in the blink of an eye. It’s not horrible by any stretch of the means, but could certainly see some patchwork done to get rid of them altogether. I’ll also add that I’ve had the game freeze a total of 4 times, but thankfully, the game has a very generous autosave system that put me right back where I was after a quick reboot.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising is a charming romp through Greek Mythology that is often more impressive than it isn’t. Exploring the world at your leisure is very satisfying, as are the puzzles you’ll encounter nearly everywhere. The combat is fast-paced and engaging, with a variety of weapons and abilities that you’ll work towards through a pretty in-depth progression system. Clocking in at around 25-30 hours, the game is digestible enough while not feeling like a monumental task as was the case with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. While it doesn’t aim to do anything terribly original, it is more than a sum of its parts and is still a downright charming experience nonetheless.
Developer - Ubisoft Quebec Publisher - Ubisoft Released - December 3rd, 2020 Available On - Xbox One, Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Windows, Stadia, Luna Rated - (T) Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.