"Immortals Fenyx Rising brings together the best and worst Ubisoft games with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild."
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Beautiful design
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Excellent fight and puzzles
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Great script
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Funny characters
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Identical in structure to Breath of the Wild
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Tiring marking system
Immortal Fenyx Rising may not be a perfect fit with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild organic exploration, but it more than makes up for its shortcomings with beautiful design, a witty script, and an excellent fight.
This is Ubisoft's third major open world game in two months. It's the only thing that isn't part of an established franchise, but it doesn't mean it's worth less of your time.
Its structure is all breath of the wild
Earlier this year, a gacha game (which employs a mechanic for capsule toy machines) developed by miHoYo came onto the stage. Called Genshin Impact, it was instantly compared to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which it mimics very closely. Immortal Fenyx Rising is even more of a clone of this popular game than Genshin Impact.
You play as Fenyx, a customizable ancient Greek soldier who wakes up after being shipwrecked on a small island. You won't be able to access the rest of the map until you've completed a few goals that will ultimately give you a tool for sliding off the peninsula. Once you get to the mainland, you will have to visit four powerful deities to gain their power and defeat the enemy in the center of the map. That enemy is Thypon, whom you can face from the moment you arrive if you wish.
Immortal Fenyx Rising more than makes up for its shortcomings with beautiful design, witty script, and excellent combat.
If you swap Link for Fenyx and Ganon for Tyhpon, it's a nearly identical structure to Breath of the Wild. All over the world there are hidden puzzles to be solved that you traverse with your glider. You also have the option of climbing anything – as long as you have the stamina. There are resources to collect, new armor and weapons to wield, and numerous vaults to explore that contain even more puzzles that will reward you with an item that can be used to improve Fenyx's skills.
The world will have to get used to games that borrow the formula for Breath of the Wild. It's the new Metroidvania, and much like these games, its design is too appealing to just leave behind. The good news is that immortals capture almost the same magic, except for one glaring flaw.
The exploration is more based on checklists
Breath of the Wild had an incredibly natural discovery. As a link, players made their way from one divine animal to the next and were pulled away from their unique path when their shrine sensor beeped or a certain topography was detected.
It meant that you always felt like you were pushing forward, even as you naturally doubled back. Immortals don't have that.
In the classic Ubisoft way, Fenyx can mark certain elements on the map, similar to what the player could do in Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. This was one of my least favorite aspects of these games, and I was so grateful when they removed it in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
You can be in place for minutes marking endless puzzles or resources and you will never get done. Granted, you could do without this ability at all, which I ended up doing, and you're going to run into something interesting anyway. But Immortals is much more focused on improving Fenyx and improving their skills. The more I refused to use the tagging system, the more I realized that the game was explicitly designed for that.
Hence, it rarely feels like you're pushing your search forward, and more like flipping from one marker to the next, even when you refuse to dig into the system.
While Link acquires all of his skills within the first few hours, Fenyx gradually acquires them as the game progresses. Just climb a cliff? You have to unlock it, and the traverse feels incredibly disjointed without some of these key elements. This can be remedied by obtaining resources fast enough to upgrade Fenyx. However, this is just another barrier to organic discovery.
It's a difference from Breath of the Wild, which feels small on the surface, but changes the feel of the game a lot from moment to moment. Thankfully, the game's map is much smaller than other Ubisoft open-world titles, and the list of activities doesn't feel nearly as bloated.
Here's what immortals do differently
I'm happy to report that the rest of the variations from Breath of the Wild are fantastic, and that starts with writing. While Link & # 39; s adventure can feel a little empty and dry, Immortals is bursting with character and humor.
The game is narrated by Zeus and Prometheus, two godbrothers who play off each other with jokes and jokes that kept me laughing throughout the game. Mixed in with their comedy is a refreshing glimpse into the stories of Greek mythology.
It creates a healthy balance that extends to the nature of the jokes themselves. Writing feels a lot like classic episodes from The Simpsons which were fun when I was a kid, but I only appreciated the full scope as an adult. A lot of elements of the story feel that way, with a really dark and smoky humor that is masterfully masked by snappy innuendos.
Normally I would toss a podcast to the background when exploring an endless open world game like this, but the interjections of Zeus and Prometheus were so entertaining as Fenyx was moving around the map that I ultimately passed up on doing so do to pay attention to their narration. Additional characters, like the gods you encounter along the way, including Hermes, who is often by your side, also add to the brevity and texture of the world.
While Link & # 39; s adventure can feel a little empty and dry, Immortals is bursting with character and humor.
One aspect that Immortals enhance through Breath of the Wild is combat. Link wasn't a sucker in his game, but Fenyx is on another level with their weapons and skills. With a sword for light attacks, an ax for heavy attacks and a bow for ranged attacks, it is always fun to face the various mythological creatures, especially as you develop your skills and become more powerful. Monsters that prove difficult early on can be easily pushed aside later in the game, with new beasts taking their place at the top of the food chain.
One of the key elements of Breath of the Wild was its shrines, and while the discovery of the vaults in immortals isn't as robust, the puzzles and combat challenges contained therein are.
You can also find yourself on a scale unmatched by anything in Breath of the Wild, especially those that revolve around main quests that have multiple levels and objectives and that give the player a reason to even after receiving the bolt from a vault to return Zeus' lightning at the end.
The various mythical creatures are always fun to face, especially as you develop your skills and become more powerful.
The need to unlock skills can be annoying as I sometimes wonder if a hidden chest is only available when Fenyx gains a new power, or if I haven't solved the puzzle yet. This problem subsides as the game progresses as you may have all the tools at your disposal but you may have a bit of a bad taste in your mouth for the first few hours.
Our opinion
Immortal Fenyx Rising brings both the best and the worst aspects of Ubisoft open world games into the DNA of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While the flaws can occasionally interfere with enjoyment, the game is so extensive and colorful that the more I played, the more forgiving of these flaws the more I played. Ubisoft has a fantastic new franchise in their hands that feels sonically unique and will undoubtedly get better with future installments.
Is there a better alternative?
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild still has one of the best-realized open worlds, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla has a more refined battle.
How long it will take?
Simply following the story content results in around 30 hours of playtime, with playtime doubling to around 60 hours if a healthy portion of the side content is included and even more balloons are created for completers.
Should you buy it?
Yes. It's a colorful, charming open-world game, although players who have already grabbed Watch Dogs: Legion and Assassin's Creed Valhalla could understandably be burned out on the formula by this point.
Editor's recommendations