The first time I dropped into a ‘Vault of Tartaros’ - the game’s underworld - and was met with a puzzle in which I needed to move several large stone balls utilising my power to magically push and pull things (Herakles’ Strength) I was floored by the mimicry. It’s a strange phenomenon and one I’ve never experienced this forcibly in a video game before.
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Playing Immortals is a bit like playing a direct to video sequel where the movie is the same but all the characters have changed. Almost every element of the game’s structure, its map, its puzzles, and you could even argue its art style are so close to that of another game that, through almost my entire time playing, that’s all I could think about. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, however, unlike other games that have spawned whole genres (think Grand Theft Auto, for example), this one is just far too close to the original source material. Like a bad wig, Immortals’ mediterranean trappings only do so much to hide what has been plainly obvious for some time - Ubisoft wanted to make a game like Breath of the Wild and so they almost literally made Breath of the Wild. If it wasn’t clear already, it soon would be. Yet again the similarity klaxon sounds as the messenger tells me how Typhon has deposed the gods, locking away their essences, and how I must set out to restore them to power if I am to save The Golden Isle and turn its people back from stone. Having battled a few monsters and climbed to a high peak, it falls to Hermes to - ahem - deliver the game’s initial story beats. Upon surviving a shipwreck and receiving a prophecy from a stoner mistaken for an Oracle, who sets the game’s comedic bar low from the beginning, Fenyx ventures out to restore The Golden Isles to their former glory.
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As Fenyx, I set out to free The Golden Isles of the evil that has turned many of its people to stone and borne monsters and mythical beasts unto the world.
The way the game’s godly narrators exchange banter to fill the player in on the world and occasionally spotlight some more trivial tales is really good, but the story itself is nothing to write home about. A lot of the dialogue feels very forced and disjointed, with conversations between our hero and others feeling more like duelling monologues with the odd interjection. I found her voice acting to be better than her male counterpart, but that’s not saying much. Purely a cosmetic choice, the gender of the player character does nothing to affect gameplay, although a femme Fenyx seems to fit best. The back and forth of this odd couple works really well, guiding the titular Fenyx on his or her journey to defeat Typhon - the monster causing chaos from his volcanic lair. Presented in an easily accessible way, this light-hearted lesson in Greek mythology is well narrated by the double act of Prometheus and Zeus. On the surface, all appears well and it is for a while.Īttempting to balance the ‘gameplay first’ approach of a game like Breath of the Wild with a little more structure and narrative, Immortals: Fenyx Rising injects some much needed whimsy into a world that many will already be familiar with. Each area of the sprawling map is vastly different with the vibrant rolling hills contrasted against the dark and ominous volcano in the centre of the map - sound familiar? Each area is packed with landmarks to discover, monsters to slay, and collectables to find Ubisoft seemingly falling back on their tired structure to support what in other ways is a huge shift in design and tone. Its exaggerated, wide-eyed, animated style is a far cry (heyo!) from the more grounded open worlds we’re used to from the developer, but it works really well. Formerly known as Gods and Monsters, Ubisoft’s latest odyssey is bright, colourful and wide open.
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