I finished Immortals Fenyx Rising a few days ago, and I honestly enjoyed myself more than I expected to. Now, I knew I’d love the game. Ubisoft can keep trapping me with open-world games all they want, I adore them. However this title soared passed my expectations and ended up being an instant hit with me.
As this is a Ubisoft title, you can play this game on literally any platform. Personally, I chose to grab the PlayStation 5 version, as there still aren’t too many games for the new console yet. I almost got it for my Switch, but I decided that I wanted to get the best performance possible. I do have a friend who has it on Switch though, and she says it looks and performs just fine.
You play as Fenyx, an aspiring warrior who is trying to save everyone who was turned to stone by the legendary Titan, Typhon. Set in a Greek mythology world, you work together with the gods to get their essences back and take on Typhon. Along the way you’ll acquire powers from the gods, wings to glide with and numerous amounts of gear.
Honestly, just exploring the world was an amazing experience. It is an open-world game, but the map isn’t as daunting as some other Ubisoft titles like the recent Assassin’s Creed games. Instead, everything here is more condensed and you will always find something to do. Nothing is on your map until you discover it which can be jarring at first, but it’s ultimately the best way to play this game. Just get out there and explore this colorful, lush world.
The world is full of monsters to fight, varying puzzles to solve and of course, loot. There are potion ingredients to collect which allow you to make health and stamina replenishment potions as well as defense and attack potions. There are also many chests in this game. Some have new gear like weapons or armor and some have crafting materials used to upgrade that gear.
What I love about the amount of gear in this game is that you get plenty of options to find what suits your playstyle. If you like the look of one piece of gear but the traits of another, you can customize it to look however you want as long as you have that item unlocked. It’s a great concept that doesn’t limit character customization to gear perks. I changed my look constantly because I just wanted to try new things as I unlocked them.
Speaking of character customization, you can play as a male or female and you can change it whenever you want. You have complete freedom to change as many times as you want to. Now, there aren’t too many options as far as customization features go, but the amount of differing gear and visuals you can find more than make up for that. I had a blast switching things up every once in awhile, playing half the game as a male and half as a female.
On top of exploration, gameplay is also fantastic. Combat is fast-paced and exciting. You have a sword and axe and numerous god powers to equip. Your axe and the majority of the god powers inflict stun damage which eventually adds up and stuns your enemies. Once they’re stunned, they take more damage and can’t attack for a while. Not a new approach to combat honestly, but the god powers really help everything feel fresh.
You’ve got Athena’s Dash which charges forward with a shield attack, Ares’ Wrath which is an area of effect attack that shoots spears up through the ground around you and Hephaistos’ Hammer which is also an area of effect move which slams down a huge hammer. You also have a bird companion Phosphor, who you find pretty early on, that you can summon to dive bomb enemies.
All of these powers can be upgraded with Coins of Charon that you find in the world by solving puzzles and completing challenges. After a few upgrades you can really start to feel powerful here, but the enemies will get stronger with you do so it never feels too easy. With the way this game is open, you can easily get a lot of upgrades before committing to any story missions.
That freedom applies to the health and stamina upgrades as well. Vaults of Tartaros will grant you Zeus’ Lighting which you can use to upgrade stamina and ambrosia is found throughout the world which can be used to upgrade health. Don’t worry about having to complete everything to fully upgrade stuff. There are plenty of resources in the world and once you do max out something, you can keep feeding into overall perks. Once your health is fully upgraded, you can add ambrosia to increase your general defense.
That same concept applies to anything that is upgradable. Your god powers, armor, weapons, potion upgrades, health and stamina all keep getting added upon if you reach the max. Even your potions can be improved, maxed and built upon. This adds weight to anything that you do, because you will constantly be improving Fenyx’s skills. I absolutely loved to see that implemented here, and it makes what’s offered at the end of the game that much more enticing.
When you beat the game, you are given the option of a new game plus. If you’re like me and completed everything, there’s still replayability here because you can crank that difficulty up. I finished the game on the normal difficulty, but started my new game plus on nightmare mode. I instantly felt small and weak, immediately making feel like I needed more resources to keep adding to my skills.
I’m happy to say that I was able to get the platinum trophy from this game, and I still enjoy playing it. There’s just something exciting about this game that I can’t quite explain, and feeling like there’s no cap to Fenyx’s potential makes me want to see nightmare mode become tolerable. I want to feel that level progression again and work towards being even more powerful. I think that’s a genius concept that will keep players coming back to the game and ultimately, the future DLC.
For me it’s more than that though. The puzzles are challenging and rewarding to solve, each vault is unique and the story here is hilarious and entertaining. If you know anything about Greek mythology, the narration from Zeus and Prometheus will have you laughing constantly. And each god you help in the world has their own personality and humor to match. It was honestly an all together wonderful experience.
I am pleased with this new IP from Ubisoft and I am excited to see what the future holds for it. There are many avenues they could take with it, but if they stay true to what they’ve created I have no doubt it’ll turn out to be a wonderful franchise.
