Many times when a new release is a mashup of other titles the results are abysmal. The ideas they borrow from more popular games are not implemented well and don’t form a cohesive experience. When they switch between the borrowed elements it can feel like you have changed games in the middle of play.
Immortals Fenyx Rising’s “design by committee” shows through in places. The title is a dead giveaway for the boardroom meetings that inspired the compromises. However, in this case Ubisoft seems to have limited their group decisions to mostly superficial matters.
The game itself is great. The world it takes place in is reminiscent of Breath of the Wild. You climb statues to reveal new sections of the incredibly large map. While you’re up there, a little maneuver reminiscent of Assassins’ Creed has you mark interesting locations on your map. Speaking of interesting locations, you will find Vaults that are similar to BoTW’s shrines, chests of loot, challenge quests, and collectible resources scattered everywhere. So much so, that I can’t imagine anybody but a professional having the time to 100% complete everything.
The combat system reminds me of the God of War series more than anything else. You are armed with a sword for quick strikes, an ax for heavier blows, and a bow for ranged engagements. Dodges and parries are available for defense. The weapons and armors feature unlockable upgrades and powerful combinations that make engaging multiple enemies easier. Eventually you’ll earn a sidekick that will fight along with you and other power ups that greatly enhance your lethality.
The enemies span the full gambit of evil creatures from Greek mythology. Gorgons, Harpies, Minotaur, Cyclops, and zombie soldiers will do their best to stop you from reaching your goals. There are also enraged bears, wild boar, and some crazy chickens thrown in for good measure. The fighting starts out simple and increases in difficulty as you improve your character’s abilities. Boss fights can be very challenging especially if you haven’t mastered all the abilities you have unlocked at the time.
The game is fully voice acted. A large part of its charm comes from the amusing banter of the narrators and NPCs. The story is fairly straight forward. You play Feynx, a lowly shield barer who is the only chance of restoring order to the Golden Isle before Mount Olympus is over run. The character creation system features a choice between male or female along with the usual face shape, hair styles, etc. You will unlock more options as you play. Your character’s look can be edited during play and micro transactions provide custom skins for almost everything.
The game’s graphics fall squarely on the cartoon side of things which keeps the play family friendly. I’m playing the game on a Switch. It runs fine and looks good on the small screen although text can be hard to read. When blown up to a big screen TV the graphics are a little on the blurry side but still playable. The pictures above are of the Switch on my TV. I haven’t noticed any serious lagging so far. I’ve also played the game on a friend’s PC, which of course looks much better. The game is available for Xbox, PlayStation, PC and the Switch. According to Ubisoft, if you sign into their cloud you should be able to transfer your saves between the various platforms, but I personally haven’t tried to yet.
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