Unless you have been living under a rock for the last three years, you’ve probably heard about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Launching in 2017, the latest entry in the Zelda series stole the hearts of millions, instantly becoming one of the greatest games of all time.
Now, almost four years after BOTW’s release, it finally has a successor, though not exactly in the form many were expecting.
Immortals Fenyx Rising is the latest release from AAA publisher/developer Ubisoft. The game was first revealed a few years ago under the name “Gods and Monsters,” Immortals developed by Ubisoft Quebec, the same team behind Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
Apparently, the idea for the game came during the development of Odyssey (set in a much more realistic ancient Greece) when all of the game’s NPCs accidentally became cyclopes.
The game follows Fenyx, a young (fully customizable) Greek warrior without much experience under their belt. After washing up on a mysterious mythical island, Fenyx discovers that all mortals have been turned to stone and almost all of the gods are missing. Armed with goldy equipment that they find along their journey, they must defeat Typhon, a titan with deadly plans for the world.
Though most open-world Ubisoft titles never fair all that well narratively, Immortals is one of their weakest to date. The whole game has a light-hearted comedic tone, which, if done well, would have been refreshing in a world full of overly dark plots. Sadly, the “24/7 jokes” approach taken here misses more than it hits.
The entire game is narrated by Prometheus and Zeus, who constantly pop in to make one liners or references to Greek mythology while players are exploring the island. Though some of these jokes might make players crack a smile or may please lovers of Greek mythology, their intrusions happened far too often and were frequently too corny to feel worthwhile.
Similarly, Fenyx’s actual story is nothing special either. It follows the fairly generic “chosen one saves the world” outline, with no characters really sticking out enough to make any kind of impression on the player. Luckily, the whole thing is easily skippable, so it isn’t that much of a hurdle to those that don’t enjoy it.
Graphically, Immortals struggles a bit. On one hand, Ubisoft was clearly trying to go for a stylized, cartoony look akin to games such as Fortnite, so realistic next-gen graphics were never really on the table. Plus, the game is literally on just about every system imaginable, including the Nintendo Switch, so it is no surprise that it looks a bit lacking on the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X.
Immortals Fenyx Rising plays incredibly similarly to Breath of the Wild, with the inspirations so evident that it doesn’t even seem like they are trying to hide it. Immortals’ art style, gliding mechanic, stamina system, dungeons and open world are basically ripped right out of Nintendo’s hands.
Luckily, however, Ubisoft Quebec manages to replicate all of these things so well that it is hard to complain about it. If you enjoyed Breath of the Wild, chances are you’ll at least have some fun with Immortals.
Ubisoft Quebec not only took inspiration from Nintendo while developing Immortals, but they also took inspiration from their past game. The combat in Immortals Fenyx Rising feels almost identical to that of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Taking the fast, fluid combat from Odyssey and combining it with many mechanics from Breath of the wild lead to a game that isn’t necessarily unique but can still be a ton of fun.
Players will likely be taken aback by the sheer amount of collectables scattered around Immortals’ open world. Most of these are the same four or five activities repeated over and over again, but, seeing as how most of them are actually enjoyable, this isn’t that big of an issue.
The most involved of these optional side-activities are the rifts scattered throughout the world. These rifts are essentially mini dungeons, each with different puzzles or combat trials that are always a joy to complete. Doing so is almost always worth your while, rewarding players with bolts of Zeus’ lightning that can be used to upgrade stamina.
While Immortals Fenyx Rising is clearly a good game, it isn’t a special one. Nothing about it particularly impresses, with all of its best parts coming directly from better games. Though one might have a good time with Immortals, it is hard to strongly recommend.
If you happen to have been waiting patiently for a game that fuses your love of Breath of the Wild, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Greek mythology all together, Immortals Fenyx Rising is the game for you. Seeing as how this very specific scenario is probably unlikely, it may be best to wait for a bit of a price drop before picking Immortals up.
Game reviewed on a PlayStation 5. Review code provided by Ubisoft.
3/5 Torches
