Game Over: Immortals Fenyx Rising

Recently, I decided to give Immortals Fenyx Rising a try (why not read my initial impressions here?) as I fancied something a bit more light-hearted and colourful. Well, after many hours spent playing the main game and earning the Platinum trophy, it’s time to jot down my thoughts!

Fenyx Rising was a game I had my eye on when it was first released back in 2020. But, like so many others, I had a backlog of titles that I should probably have thinned down a bit before buying another new game. Four years later, I decided this was the next game on my backlog list to play. With this being a Ubisoft title, you all know how the basic formula goes: big, open map with hundreds of collectables, secrets, and side quests scattered about. And whilst that is true for Fenyx Rising, I never grew tired of ignoring the main story thanks to the fun and unique puzzles that many of the collectables are hidden behind.

Ignore the main story I did, however, and at practically every step of the way. See, the tale of Fenyx and her quest to help four Greek gods (Aphrodite, Ares, Athena, and Hephaistos) is full of genuinely funny dialogue and cartoonish takes on the Olympians, but I didn’t really care much about the characters. The narrative felt incredibly rushed in places, and things such as Fenyx reuniting with her brother, who she thought had been turned to stone, were brushed over rather quickly. You barely see him again until the closing section of the game, and it just emphasises the lack of emotion during the storytelling. It’s not bad by any means, though, and the constant bickering of the narrator, Prometheus, and his unenthusiastic audience of one, Zeus, as you play got a smile out of me more often than not.

Each main story section takes place in one of four areas of the island (one for each god) with smaller areas for the opening and closing portions of the story as well. You’re free to explore anywhere you want, but I kept myself in one section at a time until I’d cleared that specific god's quests. Thankfully, the game isn’t overly long, and the map won’t take you weeks to travel across (Assassin's Creed Valhalla, this is not), but it is absolutely littered with puzzles and small side activities known as Myth Challenges that will eat up your time. Providing you actually want to do them, of course!

Many of these small puzzles are simple enough: place a box onto a pressure plate to unlock the path to the reward. There’s a lot of variety to this formula, though, that makes each puzzle unique. Some will have boxes of differing weights, some will have wooden boxes that will break easily, and so on. Then there are the Fresco Challenges, which are sliding block puzzles, Odysseus Challenges, which put your archery skills to the test, Navigation Challenges, which task you with reaching a certain point on the map within a time limit, and that’s not all! You’ll also enter Vaults of Tartaros, which are sort of Zelda-esque mini-dungeons full of rewards that will test both your platforming and combat prowess.

It’s not all exploration and puzzle-solving, however, and Fenyx will often come face-to-face with various creatures and monsters. Combat is fun, fast, and fluid, and whilst it borrows a lot from the newer style of Assassin’s Creed games, it also feels like a sort of simplified Devil May Cry. Fenyx can use melee attacks with both a sword and axe, parrying and dodging the relentless foes. If you want to get a little fancier, Fenyx can always knock enemies off their feet and smack them around in the air before crashing down onto her next victim. Using the bow felt a little underwhelming, though, and was very rarely used, especially after acquiring more Godly Powers. These beefed-up attacks range from raising spears from the ground to having Phosphor the phoenix rain down attacks from above, and are absolutely vital during some of the bosses and optional high-level monsters roaming the world.

Fenyx Rising is a rather beautiful looking game. Its cartoony style combined with the flashy combat effects really do look great in motion. Then there’s the island itself, which you can freely clamber and glide around (providing you don’t run out of stamina!) akin to Tears of the Kingdom means if there’s some place you can see, chances are you’ll be able to get there, and when you do, there’s probably a collectable waiting for you. The draw distance is also very impressive, and standing atop any of the many vistas gives you a view of the entire island, allowing you to scout out any potential secrets and hidden chests.

So with the main story out of the way, and enough collectables hunted down, I was rewarded with the coveted Platinum trophy. It’s a shame that Ubisoft will probably never revisit this game again (although I’m sure there’ll be a “remastered” version in about a year or so) as it really was a fun journey from beginning to end. Sure, it doesn’t really stray from the predictable Ubisoft “open world collect everything” formula, but as someone who really does enjoy the majority of their games, I found this one in particular to be a lot more accessible, a lot more light-hearted, and a great deal of fun! Now, time to buy the DLC?