Ubisoft’s new IP aims to break away from their traditional Assassin’s Creed games and forge a new path all on its own. I have to say that it mostly succeeds. Immortals Fenyx Rising may not have the best title, but it is certainly an enjoyable game.
A Tale As Old As Time
Immortals Fenyx Rising puts you in the shoes of Fenyx, a warrior who aspires to be as good as his brother (or her brother if you choose to play as a female). Shipwrecked on the Golden Isle, Fenyx discovers that their entire crew has been turned into stone and they set fourth to figure out what’s going on.
Soon after you find Hermes who explains that Typhon has taken control of the Golden Isle and with that, the gods as well. There are four areas of the map that each contain a god in need of Fenyx’s help.
The game is narrated by Zeus and Prometheus, and it is absolutely hysterical. The approach to Greek mythology that this game took is humorous and entertaining. If you know anything about the mythology, you’ll find this to be comical.
I enjoyed this a lot too, because it gives the game a sense of light heartedness. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and with that comes a lot of enjoyment. It was a breath of fresh air from the majority of open-world games I am used to.
As the story progresses, that humor and comedy stays with the game. Each god is hilarious in their own right and kept me laughing throughout the entire story. It didn’t take away from the storytelling either, it was just subtle enough to provide comic relief without overshadowing the story.
I grew to love Fenyx and their fight to save the gods from Typhon’s clutches. It was a fun and original story that I appreciated experiencing. By the end of the game, I was actually pretty impressed with what Ubisoft managed to pull off.
A Truly Open World
The Golden Isle is a giant playground. Granted, not as big as the recent Assassin’s Creed games, but I honestly think that’s a good thing. There are plenty of things to do within the world and you won’t have to travel long to find them either. It is nice to see an open world that is actually filled with things to do rather than just empty space.
The world offers a variety of different activities to do. You’ll be solving puzzles, hunting beasts, completing vaults which are a lot like dungeons, and you’ll have main and side quests to complete as well.
The puzzle solving was easily my favorite open-world activity to do. Each puzzle was fresh and new, keeping me on my toes and forcing me to actually think. I can’t tell you how many times I solved something in a way that the game didn’t intend, but it still worked out in my favor. Like having to find blocks to put on weight switches, but using a cut down tree instead.
I think that level of openness was exactly what made these puzzles so unique and exciting. They didn’t require an exact way to solve, instead you could get creative and solve them however you wanted.
The world activities are repetitive in the sense that there are many to complete, but each one is different enough to keep them from feeling stale and every challenge or puzzle will grant you rewards. Usually these rewards will be in the form of gear, and there are plenty of pieces to collect.
The quest structure is relatively open, as you’ll get to complete whichever ones you choose as they are unlocked. When you get past the short opening parts of the game, you’ll be prompted to go to the four main areas of the map, which will unlock that area’s main quest line. If you want, you can unlock all the quest lines first and then complete them as you see fit.
Personally, I chose to complete each area on its own, but going back and forth has its advantages, too. Each of the four gods you are trying to help will grant you blessings which are permanent buffs to your character. These buffs vary, depending on the gods who grant them, so some may suit your play style better than others. However you decide to play, the Golden Isle will not disappoint in keeping you entertained.
Make Fenyx Your Own
Another great thing about this game is the character customization aspect, and the approach they decided to take with this title. You can play as either male or female and there are a few options in appearance, though not as many as I had hoped for.
What I did enjoy was the way the game allowed you to equip gear for its perks, but different gear for its looks. So, if you wanted certain perks from one set of gear, you could have that without sacrificing the way you wanted Fenyx to look. This gave me a ton of options and I thoroughly enjoyed playing around with Fenyx’s appearance.
There are a ton of gear sets in the game, too. As they are mostly rewards for exploring and completing the world activities, I was determined to find each piece and see what they looked like.
The way Immortals Fenyx Rising handles upgrading gear is really cool too, because you don’t have to do each piece of gear separately. Instead, you upgrade Fenyx’s overall use of armor and weapons, and that will apply to anything you equip. This eliminated the stress of deciding what to upgrade, and allowed me to focus on what gear perks I wanted.
You can upgrade other things as well, like the god powers you have or potion strength. You can increase storage capacity for potions and arrows as well so there really is a lot to do and upgrade.
Gameplay: 8.0
While Immortals Fenyx Rising is extremely fun to play, there isn’t much that’s original about the gameplay. Controlling Fenyx is fun, and combat is intuitive and exciting, but maybe a little too easy. The god powers you acquire and can upgrade add a little depth to combat, but its mostly pretty straightforward. Raising the difficulty is an option, but it really just means you’ll take more damage. It doesn’t really add complexity to combat.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, because some games can bog you down with controls and suck the fun out of things. Here though, I think it is the perfect blend of easy combat and fun, exciting powers to use.
Exploration is great as well. Your wings carry you quite a ways once you get your stamina upgraded and the world begins to open up so much more after that. Not to mention there’s a secret around just about every corner.
Graphics: 9.0
Immortals Fenyx Rising looks gorgeous. I admire the animation style they took, and I really enjoyed how vibrant and colorful the world is. This game is available on every platform, but I played it on my PlayStation 5 and experienced no glitches or hiccups at all.
The draw distance is impressive as well. You can see where you want to go, and head there, all without any loading screens to deal with. I only noticed a few framerate drops when combat got really crazy, but otherwise it was a smooth experience.
Music: 7.0
For me, the music was fantastic while playing the game, but its nothing I would listen to outside of that. It wasn’t anything ground breaking but it complimented the gameplay well. I think it also allowed for more of the sound effects from the environment and enemies to come through.
Zeus and Prometheus’ constant narration also interrupted any music that might have been playing, so it was sometimes difficult to hear. However, it was still quite beautiful and fit the theme of Greek mythology really well.
Story: 7.5
I loved the story of this game. It was humorous, informative and captivating. I think for me the only downside was that at times, it could be difficult to follow. There aren’t too many quests for each god and I kept getting too distracted by the open world to play through each quest line start to finish, so it was easy for me to lose track of what was going on.
I appreciated the freedom that this game provided though, and most of my distraction was self-inflicted. All in all, it is a fun and goofy story that was presented pretty well.
Replay: 8.5
This game has a new game plus option which already adds a ton of replay value. What’s even better is that you can increase the difficulty as well, making the new game plus more challenging and encouraging you to keep upgrading Fenyx.
What’s also cool is that if you complete each upgrade, you can keep collecting things to further increase those upgrades by a small percentage. That means that if you take a fully upgraded Fenyx into new game plus, you’ll still be able to upgrade them and watch that improvement.
I had Fenyx fully upgraded and took them into the hardest difficulty of new game plus and the enemies could almost kill me in one hit. While that was exciting for me to see and motivated me to keep upgrading Fenyx, some may not enjoy that kind of grind. The option is there though, which is nice.
Overall: 8.0
Immortals Fenyx Rising makes for a fresh new game that achieves everything it needs to. Create your own character and set to the skies as you search for better gear and rare enemies. Enjoy every inch of the beautiful Golden Isle and watch as this hilarious story unfolds. If you enjoy action-RPGs, I think you should give this one a try. If you’re skeptical, there is a demo for it available so you can give it a try.
Metacritic rated Immortals Fenyx Rising a 78 on Nintendo Switch.