Immortals Fenyx Rising Review: Underrated or Overrated?

Immortals Fenyx Rising is a 2020 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. I remember seeing a trailer for it way back and I really wanted to play it but for some unknown damn reason, I forgot about it. Now, four years later, I’ve noticed the game is free to download with a PlayStation membership and I felt like it was the perfect time to play it.

Immortals Fenyx Rising Storyline 

No Spoilers

The Titan Typhon manages to escape his imprisonment after a billion years. He wages a war against Olympian gods and defeats them. In the process, he severs them from their godly essences and strips them of their powers. 

Zeus somehow manages to escape and goes to Prometheus to get his help. That’s where Prometheus makes the bet against Zeus that if a mortal beats Typhon, he will set him free from his punishment for giving fire to humans. 

He agrees and Prometheus proceeds to tell the story of the young shield-bearer named Fenyx who survived a shipwreck and was washed up on the Golden Isle, where he finds out that everyone is turned to stone including his big bro Ligyron. 

His story starts with him collecting a couple of artifacts belonging to legendary Greek heroes. Once he finishes that, he receives a prophecy from an Oracle that he is destined to save everyone. Which also leads to him rescuing a young man who takes him to the Hall of the Gods. 

There, he introduces himself as Hermes and informs him of the threat Typhon poses. Now Fenyx’s main objective is to restore fallen gods to their glory and make them assist him in the upcoming fight against a big threat. Faith of the world rests on his shoulders. Honestly, I found the story of the game very interesting and found myself giggling on more than one occasion.

(With Spoilers)

Immortals Fenyx Rising is narrated by Prometheus to Zeus, of Fenyx. With every human being turned to stone, the main protagonist Fenyx is on a mission to defeat the angry Titan Typhon and bring everyone back, including his older brother. 

In order to do that, he needs help from four gods: Athena, Ares, Hephaistos, and Aphrodite but they’ve already fought Typhon, lost to him, and he stole their essences. So a better portion of the game is spent doing missions that help retrieve essences that are hidden in Typhon’s vaults. 

During the exploration and whole sacred missions, you’ll find out juicy details about the gods, and how all of them suffered from the will of the almighty Zeus who, as it turns out, was responsible for turning people into stone and is the father of Fenyx. 

Anyway, once you manage to bring back the gods to their former glory, you’ll fight Typhon and defeat him. After that, Zeus decides to reverse the stone curse and all live happily ever after. Well not really, because apparently even gods have their issues but they’ll try their best to work on it. 

Immortal Fenyx Rising Gameplay

Immortal Fenyx Rising is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. The character customization is very limited and basic. Once you reach the Hall of the Gods, you can use Aphrodite’s Beauty Chair to make further changes at any point in the game. Although I kind of get what they were trying to do, I couldn’t be bothered to make changes to my character. I just wanted to continue with the story. 

Map Exploration

The game story is set on the Golden Isle, a large open world made of seven distinct regions inspired by Greek mythology. The whole map is open from the start and you are free to explore however you like. There are a couple of locations where you can use instant teleportation but mostly you’ll either go on foot, mount or fly/glide using the wings of Daedalus. The map is filled with various challenges, trials, chests, enemies, and other things that could keep you entertained for days to come. 

Fighting

Since I played on the easier mode, most of my interactions with the enemies went something like this “Pew pew aaaaaand done”. 

In any other situation, it would feel very underwhelming but in this case, it’s just what the doctor prescribed. No shame in it. 

Anyways, there are two basic types of melee attack and one range attack. For the melee, there is the light attack where you’ll be using the sword. For the heavy attacks, you’ll be using the axe. 

As for the range, you’ll be using the bow. All of the attacks burn stamina, so managing properly is an essential skill or so I heard. I wouldn’t know anything about it since you know, the easy mode, no need for that kind of stuff. 

Skills

While you progress deeper into the game you’ll be able to unlock different skills. There are four in total and they can be pretty handy at times. 

I found them most useful for doing puzzles and other challenges and less for actual combat. Once unlocked, a skill can be upgraded further and there are some pretty nifty ones that you should focus on first. One that pops to mind is the Phosphor’s skill upgrade that can create a clone of yourself which can be used as weight in some of the puzzles. 

And trust me, that could save you a lot of time and make said puzzles a lot easier. There are a couple of other skill upgrades that are more useful but not really as important as the one I mentioned.

Graphics and Audio

Besides the lack of customization at the beginning, the game looks great from a graphical standpoint. The map is beautifully designed and the colors of the game are very vibrant. The witty narration of Prometheus and Zeus’ defensiveness combined with the looks of the game, makes it a very interesting experience. 

Issues

For most of the time that I spent playing the game, I had a blast but as I progressed deeper into it, some of the puzzles/challenges became unnecessarily tedious and long. For example, while doing the vaults, in order to proceed deeper into the dungeon you gotta solve various puzzles. Solving one or two is totally understandable but at some point, it just became too much for my liking. Besides that personal quirk, I had no other issues with the game. 

Final thoughts

I have to admit that I enjoyed my time playing the Immortals Fenyx Rising, even though I had some issues with it. I would definitely recommend getting the game and experiencing it for yourself. Once it all settles down and a little time passes, I’ll be playing it again on harder mode for sure. Until then, stay safe and enjoy gaming. 

Games Like Immortals Fenyx Rising

Here are some games that reminded me a lot of Immortals Fenyx Rising. I have to say it also reminded me a lot of Hades, thanks to its humor and focus on Greek mythology. If you want to know more about Hades, here’s my review.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Kena: Bridge of Spirits