| Title | Immortals Fenyx Rising is what happens when everything comes together perfectly |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Game reviews |
| When | December 31, 2020 |
I kept waiting. At some point, it was going to do something to disappoint me. There was going to be some misstep or oversight or shortcut, something that wasn't fully developed or that should have been cut. Something that didn't seem to fit..
Can’t wait to play this one. I’ve bought it on Epic, but waiting until I get my 3070. Oddly enough, I’m playing AC Odyssey in the meantime after finishing up with Hades.
Dammit. I hated the Stadia demo for this because the narrator(s) wouldn’t shut up throughout the demo time. I suspect that was a result of it being compressed for the demo.
Now I’m gonna have to get this.
Finished & Platinumed it yesterday. I found the combat a bit basic & tedious even after I’d set difficulty to Hard & leveled up enough to one-shot small enemies, and I felt it was perhaps a touch too long- but that’s probably on me for being a completionist, and the exploration & puzzles (and bickering deities) kept me coming back.
Look forward to the reviews of the DLC in the coming months!
I’m playing on PS5 and it’s really a fun game that I keep coming back to. I did have to bump up the difficulty to Hard after I started into the second of the major areas as I was taking out bosses and elite monsters with zero pushback. Other than that it’s just a well designed game for all the reasons you stated.
Oh and for those that might have been turned off by the Stadia demo - I came away from the demo underwhelmed too, but it’s really not a good sample of the game. It had some bugs and really frustrating spongy boss battle. The full game is a much better experience.
Hades plays it close to the vest because it wants to surprise you. Fenyx lays its card on the table early on because it wants to delight you.
For me, this is definitely a point in Hades’ favor. I’m a bit perplexed at the Immortals love. To me it has all the hallmarks of an archetypical 7/10 game. Certainly there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it, but #1 game of the year? I just don’t see it. Maybe if I play it in 5 years I’ll get what the hype was about.
The exploration and puzzle part of this are top notch. Also, just a great looking game. One of the big surprises of the year.
searching a forest for amber,
Oh yeah, this. I’ve completed the game, with more than 38 hours of gameplay, and I never once chopped down a tree for amber or figured out what those look like. My potions were all pretty basic to the end :)
I also never got armor or helmets to level 4, so never got the second skill unlock for any of them.
Regardless, it was a joy to play this game.
Tom, your review describes exactly how I feel about the game myself. I liked how you pointed out aspects that many reviews glossed over - the affectionate attention to Greek mythology, the sense of humor, the writing, the character arcs. That’s what surprised me the most, in fact. I always knew Ubisoft to be able to build fun games with fun mechanics and good density. But I didn’t expect that the rest of the game would have this much heart.
And yeah, it is one of those very, very rare games that I played with a smile on my face nearly always. I can’t even remember the last time that happened. ;)
BTW, I had a feeling this would be good (glad I was right!) and I bought the Gold Edition or whatever the name of the edition with the Season Pass is. And I can’t wait to see what they’ll do in the DLC, particularly in the second (Chinese mythology) one. I’m hoping it will be as good as the main game.
Great review! I grabbed this for the family for Christmas, and am loving it after 10 hours or so.
Typos:
It’s tone is affectionate and humorous.
And I’m certainly not going to say Immortals Fenix Rising every time.
Wait, what? The what now? I wasn’t aware of any of this!
-Tom
They announced three DLCs. First will be an extension of the main story, with Fenyx. Second will have a new hero in a Chinese Mythology background. And third will go back to Greece, but with another character (Ash, I think?), a different set of Gods and heroes, and Fenyx will be there too in some way.
DLC for this will be the easiest auto-buys for me in a long time. And I’m still not close to finishing the game yet.
Boo! Do not want!
That’s one of the things I was worried about. I don’t know that Ubisoft appreciates what an asset they have in Dunkelman’s voice acting for that character. I mean, thanks to their weird commitment to gender irrelevance, it’s entirely possible to play Fenyx without Dunkelman at all! And I don’t trust Ubisoft to sub in a new main character. I mean, the company that went from Kassandra to Eivor? The company that just plugged any ol’ voice actor into any ol’ character in Watch Dogs: Legion?
As much as I’d love to see Fenyx as a series exploring other mythologies, I’d hate to see it lose its character and her charm.
-Tom
I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Because maybe this game is a lightning rod and lightning will strike the same place twice, right? You never know. ;)
And even if they fail, the main game is still there, and at least one of the 3 DLCs will be focused on Fenyx. So don’t worry, Tom, she’s not going anywhere. ;)
This is nice to hear. But I still find it hard to overcome the impression that the demo left. I just didn’t enjoy anything in the demo. The controls, the combat, the traversal, the incessant gods talking in my ear while I was trying to do the other things. The very least I can do after playing a demo like that is reward them by ignoring their game for a year or two.
Great review! I hope to finally get some real quality time with this over the weekend.
And it is taking every ounce of my resistance to not go dunking on the pre-release nay-saying in the game’s thread here…;)
