Immortals Fenyx Rising First Impressions
Immortals Fenyx Rising is a new open-world adventure RPG from Ubisoft. First revealed at E3 2019, this is inspired by Breath of the Wild and is a cartoony adventure through ancient Greece. There’s a free demo available right now on Google Stadia and you can check out the first hour or so of the game. The following are my Immortals Fenyx Rising First Impressions.
Originally Immortals Fenyx Rising was announced as Gods and Monsters, a much better title in my opinion. This is an open-world, action-adventure played from the third-person perspective. The world you explore is bright and vibrant and appears to take some of the best element from Assassin’s Creed and Breath of the Wild.
In the demo, available on Google Stadia to check out now for free, you are free to explore a small section of the game which includes a tutorial on fighting, exploring and climbing. There’s a small puzzle to solve as well as a nice boss battle with a Cyclops towards the end. It’s a rounded demo, giving you the freedom to explore and you get to experience the main gameplay loops in the game. I definitely recommend checking it out and it’s available until October 29th.
There are clear similarities between this and Breath of the Wild for sure. Fenyx can climb and glide, much like Link, but there are some deeper systems at play here including levelling up weapons and armour. Puzzles and battles are around every corner as well as collectable items so Fenyx can whip up a potion or two to help out with health, stamina, attack and defence.
While the game may look similar to the latest Legend of Zelda game, the underlying systems and controls are very Assassin’s Creed. Combat is satisfying with an attack, dodges and parrying. When you defeat enemies you can pick up new themed armour, which can have their own stats and abilities. There’s a skill tree too, which is going to provide you with the ability to spec into different play styles in the full game. For the purposes of the demo, some of this skill tree has been filled out for you so you get a good feel for the different skills and abilities Fenyx will have.
Complimenting your regular quick and heavy attacks are special attacks, where you can summon powers of the gods. I had an ability where multiple spears would thrust up from the ground, and I could use a big hammer on command as well as my lift ability. This was one thing that was VERY Breath of the Wild. Sometimes it doesn’t do the game service to constantly compare to Zelda, however, these abilities for lifting object felt almost lifted from the game. There are even stealth options too where you can sneak through the grass and surprise a group of enemies with a sneak attack.
The feel for the game is definitely striking. Opening of chests gives me that burst of colour and music and when you finish off an enemy there’s a big dramatic crescendo of music and they either explode in smoke or fly off into the distance. There’s an underlying satisfaction here, which I think is hook many players whether they’ve played similar games or they are fresh into a Ubisoft series.
Immortals Fenyx Rising is put together in a narrative package set in Ancient Greece with our adventure being narrated by Zeus and Prometheus. These gods are attempting to tell ancient legends and they’re constantly going back and forth arguing with each other providing some comic relief as the game goes on. It was funny in the demo, however, I don’t know if this is going to last into the main game and whether it’s going to become annoying over time.
The graphics are bright and vibrant. Sometimes I feel like I am playing Fortnite and it can feel a little too cartoony, but that may just be the character models. Environments and mystical characters like Minotaurs, Cerberus and cyclops look fantastic. My character model sometimes looks a little unfinished, but that may be down to the character creation that’s going to be in the finished title.
I was interested in the game before I played the demo, but now I am very excited for the full release. If you like the Assassin’s Creed later entries like Odyssey or Origins and of course Breath of the Wild, this could end up scratching that itch for action, adventure and puzzles. Immortals Fenyx Rising comes out on December 3rd 2020 for pretty much everything – PS4/5, Xbox One/Series S/X, Switch, PC and Stadia and the demo is free to play now until October 29th on Google Stadia, so go and check it out!
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