Immortals: Fenyx Rising – REVIEW

OUR RATING 8.5/10

GAME OVERVIEW
Fenyx, a young shield bearing mortal, had a major accident with the fleet of ships and ended up sinking on the Golden Island – the place where the Greek gods live. Upon arriving there she discovers that her brother, and the crew that survived, were turned to stone, and you must now try to understand what happened to find a way to save them.

Hermes will be your guide for this journey. He explains that the chaos in the island is the work of Typhon, the fearful dethrone of gods and the father of several of the monsters. The villain not only turned several demigods to stone, he also unleashed monsters on the Golden Isle, and cast a curse on the gods Aphrodite, Ares, Athena and Hephaestos to keep them from disrupting his plans. He is looking for revenge, as Zeus trapped him on a mountain.

Typhon now wants not only to destroy Zeus, but also to take the throne of Olympus. You will need to free these gods from the curse so that together you can defeat Typhon and thus free the island from its evil presence. You are the last hope of the gods, and you must set out on this journey to save the world’s destiny.

GAMEPLAY
Fenyx  has two melee weapons, the Sword of Achilles for light attacks, and the Axe of Atalanta for heavy attacks. For ranged attacks, we have the Bow of Odysseus. To complement this set of the gods, our protagonist also has Wings of Daedalus, which besides being important for the movement around the map, is also an element that can be used to create combat strategies. With the exception of the Wings, the set of available weapons closely resembles the configuration of the current games in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and as such the player must pay attention at the right time to attack and use the dodge to successfully exit the battles.

In addition to the weapons, Fenyx can also equip an armor and a helmet, and like the weapons, each piece of equipment has in addition to damage or defense, some passive attributes, which are unlocked or improved as we make improvements on them, using a series of resources found on the map. You should always return to the Hall of the Gods to make these improvements, but don’t worry, as in Assassin’s Creed, you can “sync” certain points on the map, or discover important places of interest, we can be used as quick travel points.

In the sanctuary, you can increase your life according to certain amounts of Ambrosia that you find; you can also increase your stamina bar with Zeus’ Rays; create potions that help you regain health, stamina or improve your damage or defense; unlock challenges for interesting rewards; use the forge to improve equipment and quantities of potions and arrows that you can carry; customize the appearance of your character whenever you want; or even unlock and improve skills with Coins of Charon encountered during exploration or completing mythical challenges on the map. You have a lot to explore if you want to optimize your character’s power. There is no level here, as your success in the challenges and progression of the game is related to how much you explored the possibilities to make Fenyx powerful.

And speaking of skills, there are a lot of options for you to do well in Immortals Fenyx Rising. There are skills to deliver massive strikes in the area, or even a powerful charge, and even guide your arrow to hit an enemy’s weak point. You even have the Eosphorus bird, which helps you in combat, and can be even more useful if you make improvements in his abilities. All of these special abilities can be used using the stamina bar. And to give Fenyx more help on this journey, the gods you are helping grant you Blessings, which add important passive skills to support our squire. Any help is welcome, as enemies are challenging, and you will face mystical creatures like Cyclops, Medusa and more during your journey. 

The customization of Fenyx is extensive, and in addition to creating your protagonist and customizing it with the style you want, it is also possible to change this choice at any time during the gameplay, just go do it a visit to the Hall of the gods. Fenyx can also use mounts, and they can be purchased as the taming system, as some animals can be tamed and added to the inventory as a mount option.

PROs, CONs and OVERALL GAMING EXPERIENCE
You will have a good laugh during the journey, all thanks to two wonderful narrators, who steal the show every time they appear. Prometheus and Zeus emerge to narrate important points in the story, as well as new gameplay mechanics that emerge for Fenyx. On one side we have Prometheus, giving poetic touches and talking about the events, on the other we have a Zeus who’s always giving his point of view mocked of the facts. The relationship between the two is wonderful, giving a unique charm to the narrative, with a dynamic that conveys all the danger that the protagonist is going through to save the world, but always making us laugh with the comments they make, especially with the total lack Zeus’s notion of what’s going on around him. A delicious mixture that leaves Fenyx’s journey light, but without losing sight of the seriousness of events.

The story of Immortals Fenyx Rising found the right tone, managing to give you the feeling of being living an epic adventure through Greek mythology, but offering a new point of view about those gods and their lives. This mix wins over from the start, and holds closer to each new story quest completed or the side quests that come up, which are just as interesting.

The game has many mechanics and possibilities, bringing RPG elements, puzzles, platform sections, navigation challenges and a combat that mixes the tactic with Hack and Slash. You will notice a clear artistic inspiration and the navigation limitations imposed by stamina management as in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but as you get to know more about the project, you will see that there is a lot of the latest Assassin’s Creed in it, especially the Odyssey, which was developed by the same studio. The most incredible part of this whole mix, and yet he manages to bring his personality, letting go of his inspirations and following his own path, offering a light, fun adventure, but also full of challenges and complexities.

The diversity of enemies is good, and the variety of skills makes fighting very interesting. In addition to life, these enemies have a stunning bar, which when filled leaves them to fall for a few precious seconds, which is the crucial time for you to put all of the above elements into action.

Something really enjoyable about Immortals is that the equipment can also be customized, without losing its statistics. That way, you can wear armor that gives some kind of attribute that might be more powerful, but take on the appearance of another style that you like more. No need to sacrifice power to make it more stylish, and for those who play RPGs this is always a life or death choice. You may not admit it, but it is.

The exploration of the Golden Island is full of possibilities, with secrets, and very challenging puzzles that will put players to think, sometimes outside the box. In addition, there are many powerful enemies to find, with legendary animals and creatures offering difficult battles. A system very similar to that of Assassin’s Creed, but with some movement limitations that also resemble Breath Of The Wild and that require more strategy and observation from the player. If in Assassin’s Creed you can go up wherever and whenever you want, as the character doesn’t get tired, here Fenyx has this limitation, and the player needs to carefully analyze where he can climb, or how far he can fly and swim without the stamina bar running out. It is also possible to use potions to fill that bar. 

Exploration is important to collect resources that strengthen Fenyx , in addition to bringing really interesting, fun and challenging activities. A major highlight of these activities are the Tartarus Chambers, which take us to a different dimension, where each one has its own challenges, be they bosses, hordes, puzzles or all of this together. There are also chests that are very well hidden and have good rewards. The map is very nice to explore, with each region bringing its own personality, highlighting the characteristics of each god that rules it. Always with something new to discover.

The backgrounds of Immortals Fenyx Rising are beautiful, and they fill your eyes with their distinctive art style. The game focuses on the graphics focused on the cartoon, and bet on the explosion of colors on the screen. All enriched with beautiful lighting, rich textures, with well-built environments, equipment and characters. The Ubisoft succeeded masterfully, capture all the grandeur and mysticism of Greek mythology, but giving a touch more light to the whole experience. With each new location discovered, our eyes are filled, whether indoors, on the wide open map or in the Tartarus Chambers , you will always be amazed by the diversity of the regions, as well as the quality of everything that exists in them. Another great demonstration of the Anvil, which is Ubisoft’s graphics engine.

The game’s performance was stable throughout, with no dropped frames or crashes. On the Xbox Series X it presents itself beautifully with 4K, 60FPS and HDR, with even brighter scenarios and very fast loadings that don’t break the immersion. On Xbox One X it also performs very well, despite the lengthy loadings. The only problem on Xbox One X are the saves, because several times, the game crashed on this screen, and despite saving your progress, it did not allow returning to gameplay, being necessary to close the game to resume gambling. This save problem is becoming recurrent in the latest Ubisoft games, and it is something that needs to be corrected urgently.

The soundtrack of Immortals Fenyx Rising accompanies the quality of the title, with each theme bringing all that feeling of being inside a great, and epic, mythological adventure. The choice of voices was also brilliant, as the voice actors bring the real personality of those characters, making the story even more interesting to follow. The actors found the right tone for each character, whether in the most serious or funny moments, greatly enriching the narrative. It is possible to play in several languages, and with subtitles, the choice is yours.

Immortals Fenyx Rising brings a delightful point of view to the already widely explored Greek mythology. The title is full of irreverence, with a dynamic and interesting world to explore, challenging enemies, and a graphic presentation that will fill your eyes. The Ubisoft project arrived without much fanfare, but it can consolidate itself as one of the strongest games in the studio’s catalog, in addition to showing the company itself that, sometimes, taking chances for new possibilities is an important step to renew itself.

Fenyx’s journey is super fun and interesting from end to end, offering the player a solid experience that is worth every minute invested in it. Overall, the gameplay is simple, to the point, and very solid. It may not be that super innovative game or that impresses the world, but the game is good, it is interesting and all its mechanics work well, amusing the player, and bringing challenge in the right measure.