Immortals Fenyx Rising, formerly known as Gods and Monsters, is the latest out of lead Assassin’s Creed Odyssey developer Ubisoft Quebec. Despite sharing the same mythology as the Greek AC game, it’s markedly different in tone. Indeed, perhaps the one thing players will realize if they hadn’t been keeping up with it before is that Immortals Fenyx Rising is, first and foremost, a satirical game.
This applies to everything from the Greek pantheon of Gods to Ubisoft itself, with the story being told from a narrative framed in a discussion between Zeus and Prometheus. What this means for players is that Zeus laughs about everything, at least for the most part, and there are “dad jokes” aplenty. Tales are retold in ludicrous and hilarious ways, but it’s not just this Greek storytelling in Immortals Fenyx Rising that is used for laughs.
Immortals Fenyx Rising is a game that wears its inspirations on its sleeves and it’s no surprise that it comes from the same studio that made Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. There are mockings of Ubisoft as a company, of the Assassin’s Creed franchise’s leap of faith, and even of the bird companions that join Assassin’s Creed‘s most recent protagonists in action. Players may even notice that the UI of the Immortals Fenyx Rising is similar to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and players will spend a lot of time climbing large statues as if this were an AC game. There is an undeniable quality that links the two, even if the games are drastically different.
Underneath the satirical moments, however, is what all good satire accomplishes: a potent message. Immortals Fenyx Rising may seem like a game focused on bawdy, toilet humor—and it is—but it manages to tell a compelling story about families, strained parent-child relationships, self-growth, self-acceptance, and all the tiny imperfections that make someone unique. These moments, which are scattered and serve as a slow burn in terms of storytelling, help ultimately define what the game is about, and that’s a seemingly ordinary person rising to greatness. There are moments where the line between the serious and the satirical become muddied and moments where one directly undercuts the other, but there is no denying that there is a great story beneath the surface.
For the most part, players can expect the typical Ubisoft formula in terms of gameplay. The world of Immortals Fenyx Rising (aka the Golden Isles) is littered with collectibles, quests, enemies, and more that players can take on at their leisure as they cross from area to area. Another game that Immortals Fenyx Rising has been compared to is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and indeed, it seems that game has been crossed over into the typical Ubisoft formula. Players must manage stamina as they engage in combat and exploration, players have wings with which to glide around the world, and more that really combine the two’s DNA.
There is the question of how well Immortals Fenyx Rising utilizes this DNA, though, as the stamina doesn’t really limit or control a player’s ability to engage in combat or explore the world. At times, the stamina gauge feels like an arbitrary addition whose limitations feel more binary. In combat, running out of stamina doesn’t do much more than limit the use of abilities until it is restored, and ultimately, any comparison made to Breath of the Wild is only skin deep.
Speaking of, the combat is rather run-of-the-mill. Players simply need to hit enemies until they die, complete with a standard light attack, heavy attack, parry, and dodge set-up. Immortals Fenyx Rising players can unlock new abilities as the game progresses, but soon enough, they find that one tactic tends to work for most enemies, particularly those that are not boss encounters. Notably, while players are able to engage various Greek monsters across the setting, ranging from Lions (due to the Nemean Lion) to Cyclopes, these encounters become repetitive quickly. This is worsened by the fact that the most common enemy is one of Typhon’s army of the dead soldiers, who are mostly fodder and come off as uninteresting. Still, combat is used to break the monotony of Immortals Fenyx Rising‘s puzzle and platforming gameplay well enough.
Throughout Immortals Fenyx Rising, players will be tasked with completing puzzles and platforming exercises that, for the most part, are rather fun. When coming across Myth Challenges or Navigation Challenges around the Golden Isle, there is a level of mystery and investigation involved. Much like the combat, though, it becomes more of the same quickly, as players will spend most of their time rolling balls, moving boxes, or completing the standard video game array of puzzles. Two activities where this is improved but also worsened are the Rifts and Vaults of Tartaros.
One of the main tools of delivery for the aforementioned puzzle and platforming challenges are Rifts, which are scattered around the game as optional dives into the underworld but also required during various story moments. Unfortunately, all of these Rifts share the same dark blue aesthetic as all the others, and if Immortals Fenyx Rising players have done one, they’ve effectively done them all. One notable exception is the God Vaults, which share a similar environment but offer puzzles that are more unique.
Ultimately, Immortals Fenyx Rising may not take itself too seriously but it ends up offering an emotional story of family drama with some genuinely funny moments. There is a lot of familiarity both in the game’s DNA and the core gameplay loops, but it is still a fun experience nonetheless. Immortals Fenyx Rising, as with all new IP, may have been a risky jump for Ubisoft, but it was a leap worth taking.
Immortals Fenyx Rising releases December 3, 2020, for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant was provided an Xbox Series X code for the purposes of this review.
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