The new open-world game Immortals Fenyx Rising from Ubisoft feels a bit like the illegitimate child of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But is that good or bad? Well, that’s why we review games, after all, so let’s find out!
While most of you are probably still exploring medieval England in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, we already have the next open-world adventure from Ubisoft in the pipeline with Immortals Fenyx Rising. The game constantly wanders between fresh ideas and familiar old concepts, but after playing the game extensively, we can tell you that this detour to ancient Greece is certainly worthwhile.
Gods & Monsters Becomes Immortals Fenyx Rising
Immortals Fenyx Rising really doesn’t have it easy. Within only about one month, it is the third, huge open-world game from Ubisoft. It’s a multicolored cartoon adventure battling against the giants of Watch Dogs: Legion and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, but can it stand its ground?
It certainly can, because Immortals Fenyx Rising has what many modern Ubisoft games lack: a soul. Especially since the scope is manageable compared to both games mentioned here. About 40 hours of gameplay take you through the adventure of the eponymous heroine Fenyx.
During these 40 hours, however, you won’t be working through the typical side missions that piece together most Ubisoft games. Immortal’s Fenyx Rising stands out from its competitors and comes up with many fresh ideas – even if owners of the Nintendo Switch are reminded almost every minute of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing!
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The Story of Immortals Fenyx Rising
Once we have cobbled together our optional male or female main character in the editor, the adventure can begin! Fenyx is stranded by a shipwreck on the Gold Island from Greek mythology.
Actually, Fenyx is anything but brave. Despite of this, since the villain Typhon robbed all Greek deities of their essences and turned our brother (and all humans) into stone, it’s up to us to stop the son of Gaia and Tartarus.
Luckily, our child’s phase of defiance is not as great as that of Typhon.
While the plot of Immortal’s Fenyx Rising does not cut trees with its complexity, but it is the unique narrative style that makes this action adventure so special. The story is sold through the often-hilarious dialogue between Zeus and Prometheus.
The conversations between the two of the them never fail to put a smile on our faces. This is a pleasant change from the sometimes rather dry dialogue in mythology games. It also fits perfectly with the brightly colored comic look of the game!
Go With the Flow: the Gameplay
Immortals Fenyx Rising also does a lot right from a playful point of view, although not all ideas and concepts work out. The fact that the game, despite parallels to Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, is so very different from the typical Ubisoft open-world formula is something we really appreciate!
In picturesque comic Greece, we don’t just graze a map of the world covered with symbols, we look for our own way through the open world, which is divided into several islands. We interact with our environment, solve small puzzles, collect items to enhance our main character or dare to take on divine challenges.
Thus, Immortals satisfies (and rewards) our thirst for discovery like hardly any other Ubisoft game in recent years. This playful freedom in exploration is the game’s greatest strength because exciting secrets await us around every corner of the world.
Each of the seven regions is guarded by Greek monsters like cyclopes, hellhounds, bears, and wild boars. It goes without saying that we fight them off in action-packed battles.
If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla lately, you’ll immediately find your way around the combat system in Immortals Fenyx Rising. It is similar, but everything is a tad simpler and more beginner-friendly. With blocks, parries and evasive maneuvers (including slowing downtime) the fights offer more than enough depth, though.
This is especially since Fenyx uses three weapons simultaneously and various divine abilities. Pure variety.
Immortals Fenyx: A Breath of the Wild
It’s impossible to talk about Immortals Fenyx Rising without mentioning the ubiquitous parallels to the switch masterpiece The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Link and Ganon’s adventure was obviously a huge inspiration to the developers!
From the graphical style, to the puzzles, to the endurance display when climbing, to flying to the small puzzle dungeons, many things are reminiscent of BotW. But why not take some ideas from one of the best video games ever? After all, since the Switch offshoot in 2017, there hasn’t been anything comparable in the open-world genre.
Although Immortals Fenyx Rising never reaches the level of quality seen in BotW, and is especially disadvantaged by its open-world design, the excursion into this family-friendly cartoon variant of Greek mythology is still worthwhile.
From a playful point of view, Ubisoft dares experiment with its title Experiments. Almost all of these are successful and ultimately culminate in perhaps the most exciting and fun Ubisoft game in recent years. Immortals Fenyx Rising is one of the biggest (positive) game surprises of the year 2020.
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Final Verdict on Immortals Fenyx Rising
Immortals Fenyx Rising is perhaps the biggest surprise of the year for us. The colorful journey into Greek mythology unites, despite many references to other gamers. It introduces many fresh ideas in itself, which together makes an excellent open-world adventure for the whole family.
A really successful game, into which one jumps in time and time again, to solve puzzles, thrash opponents, or simply to explore the beautiful world.
Thanks to picturesque comic graphics, and successful design of the world, even after 20 hours of play it is still a pleasure to fly over the islands and let the mythology take you over.
But there’s something unbelievably positive about Immortals Fenyx Rising, which doesn’t go as deep into the battles, character development or story. There is hardly any other game that offers more smooth and relaxed fun to feel comfortable in an open world.
Immortals Fenyx Rising is available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and Google Stadia since December 3.
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Original Article by EarlyGame's Philipp Briel.