Immortals Fenyx Rising Review (Xbox One)

by Jim Smale · December 10, 2020

Play as Fenyx on a quest to save the Greek gods from a dark curse. Take on mythological beasts, master the legendary powers of the gods, and defeat Typhon, the deadliest Titan in Greek mythology, in an epic fight for the ages.

Pros:

Gorgeous graphics.
24.9GB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
HDR support.
Colorblind support.
Ubisoft Connect rewards and challenges.
Online save support.
Five difficulties-Story, easy, normal, hard, and nightmare. These change health regen, enemy difficulties, fall damage, and assistance levels.
In-game cutscenes and animated art scenes.
Excellent voice work in particular the two-man narration team as they tell jokes, relive tales and give the story life.
Can skip cutscenes.
Character creator-male/female, body type, skin color, hairstyle, hair color, facial hair, facial hair color, eyebrows, eyebrows color, facial features, and voice.
Humour sprinkled in.
Tutorial support as you play.
3rd person action-adventure gameplay.
Uses the Greek Mythos.
Stamina bar for running, swimming, and climbing.
Combat is very hack and slash.
Tutorial menu to brush up.
Save when you want via hard or quicksave.
A robust climbing model that apes the Assassin’s Creed in its use and fluidity.
Scout point-like the synchronization points in Assassin’s Creed you go here to fill in the map by using far sight and revealing icons, the controller will vibrate when discovered.
Play how you want.
Open world.
Has a cartoon feel to it all, a very family-friendly type vibe.
The compass at the top of the screen shows icons, markers, and missions including the distance.
Combo counter.
Can break down shrubbery, smash pots, and the like for the chance of materials.
Ambrosia-find them in the world to enhance your health bar.
Set your own markers.
Mount-tame animals so you can ride them and travel the world faster.
Fast travel points.
Hall of Gods- main hub area.
Forge of Hephaistos-trade your gems for upgrades to stats of gear and carrying capacity.
River Styx Cistern-use collected Coins of Charon to buy new skills and Godly powers.
Cauldron of Circe-use collected materials to make/craft potions and upgrade their effects.
Aphrodite’s beauty chair-access the character creator and edit your character.
Kylix of Athens-spend collected Ambrosia to increase your health.
The bench of Zeus-collect Zeus lightening to upgrade your maximum stamina.
Hermes Heroic tasks board-take on quests for rewards, there are Heroic tasks that change as you do them and live tasks which are on a timer.
Cosmetics-you can buy/earn/use real money on visual cosmetics for all your gear.
A lot of puzzles laid out in the world in their own little events.
Apollos arrow-with these you can control them.
Has a cool feature that will immediately tell you if you do not have the necessary skills/abilities to do an activity.
Many activity types from self-contained puzzles to mini-boss style encounters.
You can just stumble across secrets, missions, and the such.
Stealth mechanics for stealth and avoidance. Stealth kills will do much more damage.
Rifts-self contained dungeon/puzzle areas you can enter that carry great rewards.
On loading screens between the rifts, you can move around get materials.
Legendary bosses- self-contained and grant a reward, these are like mini-boss encounters.

Immortals Fenyx Rising Review (Xbox One)

Cons:

When in far sight it takes ages to reveal everything and you have no idea on progress.
The slowdown happens a fair bit.
Stamina system seems to be a cheap way to extend simple tasks and travels.
Compass is very busy.
Possible to get stuck or climb something and kind of bug out and not move.
The opening half-hour is kinda rough.
Can feel a bit grindey with the many materials to collect.
Having materials on a loading screen kinda sucks as the loading times are short depending on your hard drive type.
Rubbish Ubisoft rewards.
Fast travel points not always clear and quite rare.
Can get overwhelming with so many quests on the go and so many that pop.
Even when unveiling icons and markers the map of the area won’t unlock until you scout.
Cutscene after every use of a station at the hub is tedious.

Immortals Fenyx Rising Review (Xbox One)

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
8/10

Sound - 8/10
7/10

Accessibility - 7/10
7/10

Length - 7/10
8/10

Fun Factor - 8/10

7.6/10

Summary

Immortal Fenyx Rising is a game I like to describe as “if Pixar did an Assassin’s Creed”. This is because the game is clearly cribbing a lot of mechanics and characteristics of an Assassin’s Creed game but sprinkles a lot of humor and Cutesy charm to it all. The two narrators are brilliant and very reminiscent of the narration in Muppets Christmas Carol, it’s so well implemented, and to be honest, I only ever pushed the story forward so I could listen to more of them with their bickering and mumbling it’s just a nice change. Back to the game and like I say it’s like a smaller take ON assassin’s Creed with a bit of Breath of the Wild mixed in. You can go anywhere, do anything and stand on high points and scan the land for objectives to fill in your map. Taking in the Greek mythology you will encounter all the names of the gods and take on their powers like flight, fast running, and so forth. The map is a big colorful affair and so many objectives inhabit it that you will never not have anything to do. Immortal Fenyx Rising does love puzzles mind, nearly every objective is a puzzle of some kind, climbing high points is a puzzle in its self especially as the game insists on having a stamina system that dictates how much climbing, swimming, and flying you can do. I found the stamina to be a pain in the ass much like the rain in Breath Of the Wild it is designed to just slow you down and add unnecessary pressure and nuisance. The combat is good with a solid lock-on system, you can attack, roll, and time a dodge to enter slow downtime, I enjoyed the combat. Boss fights are in the story and you have mini-boss encounters on the map called legendary battles and these give higher tier rewards. Leveling up your character is different and is a mixed bag, you don’t earn exp per se and instead, you collect materials from the world and use it to upgrade your stats, doing the self-contained dungeons give you Zeus lightning which does your stamina for example. All materials are in the world and can be seen from a distance and discovered under Breakable pots and cutting down bushes. Abilities wise and it takes inspiration from Breath of the Wild, you can use powers to pick up rocks and trees and use as a weapon, arrows you can aim and control. I found the game to be a lot of fun but after a dozen or so hours I started to flag, way too many objectives on the map, I didn’t like I balanced the compass was and how it wouldn’t always show up the smaller objectives like chests and Ambrosia (crafting material). Puzzles are so common it would just drop the progress speed to a Crawl and it outstays its welcome constantly. It’s almost like when Ubisoft first improved Assassin’s Creed where they sorted the combat and added loads of content but never managed to balance it. I can’t be too harsh as I do still enjoy playing the game but less about doing the story and more about exploring the world, I just wish it would tidy up the little niggles, even the map is messy with no icons showing clearly like fast travel, dropping pins is not a good idea in a game like this. Right let’s wrap this up I’m waffling, immortal Fenyx Rising is a game that is a lot of fun but gets dragged down by objective choice paralysis and uses the Assassin’s Creed model but keeps all the old annoyances.