Game: Immortals: Fenyx Rising
Genre: Action, Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch (on all formats except mobile)
Developers | Publishers: Ubisoft Quebec | Ubisoft
Age Rating: EU 12+ | USA Teen
Price: EU €59,99 | USD $59.99 | UK £49.99. (Season Pack and DLC available)
Release Date: December 3rd, 2020
No review code used, I purchased the game myself.
When Nintendo showed off the Immortals: Fenyx Rising announcement trailer in their Showcase Direct, one couldn’t help but notice the similarities in Ubisoft Quebec’s open-world adventure to the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Meet Fenyx
Immortals: Fenyx Rising tells the story of Fenyx, her brother Ligeryon, and their fellow Greeks who have been shipwrecked on the Golden Isle. Fenyx was knocked unconscious, but when she wakes up and catches up with her crew she finds them all turned to stone. Even her much loved brother. Now she must appeal to the Gods to try to turn them back, but the Gods aren’t answering!
You see, when Zeus had banished the evil titan Typhon to Tartaros, a chasm of torture and suffering, he thought that would be the end of it. But Typhon has escaped, stripping the gods who imprisoned him of their powers and wreaking havoc on their home, the Golden Isle.
You help Fenyx to embark on a quest to save the world from the clutches of the devastating Titan Typhon. And most importantly, restore your stony crewmates, heroic brother, and all other humans from their stony curse.
Narrators Zeus and Prometheus
Your narrators throughout your journey on the Golden Isles are none other than Greek Gods, Zeus and Prometheus. Zeus is like a petulant child while Prometheus is the more serious of the two and a little jaded by the world. Both of them together make an appealing double act that I enjoy listening to while they banter back and forth.
The story of Immortals: Fenyx Rising isn’t played like a Greek tragedy. It’s more of a comedy, taking elements of Greek mythology and giving them a light-hearted, comic spin. The dialogue pokes fun at the legends, repaints familiar characters in amusing ways, and throws in pop culture references. It’s charming and often funny and it will certainly make you smile or even have the odd chuckle while you’re playing Immortals.
Customise Your Hero
At the start of the game, you get to customise your hero to be male or female, or non-binary if you so wish. Hair colour, their voice, facial hair, and tattoos can all be chosen before you head out on your adventure.
Fenyx begins the game in an isolated area, you’re introduced to all of the crucial exploration tools and game mechanics. Fenyx can climb, glide long distances, levitate objects and fast travel to places previously visited on the map. Does that sound familiar? Once you have completed the starting area you’re pretty much free to roam where ever you want on the map.
Golden Isle
The Golden Isle is just packed with puzzles and numerous challenges to find and complete. The Vaults of Tartaros are Immortals: Fenyx Rising’s dungeons, where you complete a puzzle and gain Zeus’ lighting to increase stamina. Ambrosia is used to upgrade your health. Figs, mushrooms, nectar, and pomegranates, which you find scattered around the world, can be brewed into potions that grant you handy buffs, including increasing your defence and boosting your attacks.
If you get lost or you need a particular item, you can climb up somewhere high and enable far-sight by pressing the R stick. This mode lets you scan the horizon and tag things, which then appear on your map. Though the downside of that is that it isn’t long until your map becomes crowded with icons.
Tons of Treasure to Discover
There are tons of treasures to discover, including unique weapons, armour, various cosmetics on your gear and various gems that are used as currency to upgrade your strengths or defences.
Most of the puzzles in Immortals: Fenyx Rising are of the moving stuff around kind. Such as dropping boxes on pressure plates, a common occurrence, and firing arrows through braziers to set things on fire and rolling giant balls around. Vaults are made up of multiple sections, linked by checkpoints, and the game is good at increasing the challenge.
Combat is Fast and Fun
Combat is fast and fun, Fenyx has a sword, which is quick and produces light attacks, a bow for ranged attacks, and a big axe that swings slowly but gradually stuns your enemies until they fall over with comedy stars orbiting their heads. That’s your cue to let loose on them with your weapon while they are down and stunned.
Dodging or stopping blows with perfect timing also slows downtime so you can get in extra hits or do whatever else you want with those free seconds. The monsters come in all shapes and sizes, from hogs that run wild to mystical beats, Cyclops, Minotaurs, monster Gladiators, Chimaeras, to name a few.
Different Modes of Travel
Exploring the Golden Isle is very enjoyable, Fenyx has a few different ways to travel the world. Fenyx can glide on wings, floating around above the landscape is fun and epic the first few times you do it.
Eventually though, you realise that the world is pretty big and it doesn’t have that many fast travel points. You can catch a horse and use it to travel the map. By holding the X button your trusty steed magically appears beneath you, and there’s no need for any explanation other than there obviously magic god horses!
While the RPG aspects of Immortals: Fenyx Rising can feel a little lacking there is plenty of exploring to be done and lots of puzzles and quests to break it all up.
Visuals and Controls
Visually, Immortals: Fenyx Rising on the Nintendo Switch does suffer a drop in graphics compared to on other platforms, with foggier draw distances and less environmental detail. It is still a great looking game even if there is the odd frame rate stutter now and then. To be completely honest it doesn’t bother me in the slightest, I’m playing the game because I enjoy the freedom the exploration offers. I’m not playing it to compare it with the latest new-gen console, which might be more powerful, but it doesn’t allow me to play the game in handheld!
You’ll travel from lush forests with blue lakes to lands covered in dirt, ironworks, and fire, there are so many great looking places that they become a joy to explore. The mythological backbone of the game is present everywhere you look. Giant sculptures and monuments, castles with majestic architecture, and mountains that reach the heavens.
Fully Voice Acted
The game is fully voice acted and for the most part it is fine, some of the accents are a little corny, they more laughable than anything else. Music is another epic thing. At one time it’s soft and quiet and when it needs to be it is immense and powerful.
Controls can feel a little floaty at times, especially when Fenyx is jumping but it’s something I got used to quickly. The game controls are fairly complex and I do find myself pressing the wrong button at the wrong time, but that’s me and not the game’s fault.
Pick your Setting
Difficulty settings can also be changed at any time. They can be tuned so that you can tailor your experience to your skill level. For example, you can make combat easier and puzzles harder if you’re finding one more challenging than the other.
You can also connect to Ubisoft Connect and receive some bonus armour and equipment for free. Or you have to choose to spend some in-game coins that you collect on items of your choice.
Conclusion
Immortals: Fenyx Rising is an excellent adventure offering lots of challenges and many puzzles to complete. It has a unique take on the RPG adventure genre, with enough style and humour to set it apart from any other take on Greek mythology with a fun retelling of classic mythology.
I’ve roped Yvonne in to play the game as well promising her an epic adventure and lots of exploring. It’s no secret she is no ace at fighting, but you can play Immortals: Fenyx Rising on different difficulty levels, so that doesn’t have to be a problem!
It’s obvious Ubisoft Quebec had a ton of fun making up the puzzles and situations in the game and it’s clear that they drew a lot of inspiration from the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
If you like the open world, adventure genre then Immortals: Fenyx Rising could be just the game for you I’m off to do some more exploring!
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up
How does this play in handheld mode? Looks really good but like it would gulp battery life in a big way.
Yes it is really good, I’m still playing it. I play in handheld mode all the time, it doesn’t seem to eat the battery.
Glad to hear it because it’s on sale and I just picked up my copy!
Cool, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!