Prometheus’ chains bind him to the peak of a treacherous precipice. Bitten by the frost and starved to the point of exhaustion, he impatiently waits for the eagle to arrive and eat his freshly regrown liver, just to get the pain over with until tomorrow. To his surprise, something - or someone - else emerges from the rift in front of him: Zeus, king of Mount Olympus and the tyrannical ruler responsible for doling out Prometheus’ perpetual punishment.

“Go on,” says Prometheus. “Blast me.” Fortunately, Zeus is not here to make Prometheus’ life miserable - in fact, he is in desperate need of the Titan’s help. It seems that Typhon, the ferocious monster Zeus had previously confined to the depths of Tartaros, has risen again, and he’s not particularly happy with his captor. Prometheus insightfully points out that if Zeus didn’t sentence people to eternities of torture and misery, maybe he wouldn’t be in such a prickly situation.

“I need to stop drinking,” says Zeus.

immortals fenyx rising review

This perfectly captures Immortals Fenyx Rising’s greatest strength - it is legitimately hilarious at approximately all times. Later in the game, Prometheus notes that Typhon was defeated before, to which a newly enthusiastic Zeus responds, “Damn straight he was!” The sheer enthusiasm and charisma imbued in every single line elicits genuine laughter, as opposed to the slight nostril exhalation you involuntarily do when other games try too hard to be funny.

This is true right from the get-go, too. Zeus and Prometheus actually narrate the character creation section. I spent ages flicking through all of the different customization options - when I gave my version of Fenyx yellowy eyes, Zeus said, “Ah, the color of unripe grapefruits!” White eyes were described as “the color of an empty room,” while green hair apparently resembles “the color of Poseidon’s vomit.” That last one might seem a bit juvenile, but the delivery is exceptional.

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I don’t mean to bang on about the writing for too long - there are so many different aspects of what can constitute a good game - but the jokes keep flowing like the wine in Dionysus’ cup. Athena calls the Hydra of Lerna a “snakey-faced jerk,” while hilarious homages to Greek mythology are cleverly threaded throughout the entire experience. Zeus talks about turning his wife into a fly and eating her. Typhon tells Fenyx that answering “who goes there?” with “no one” won’t work on anyone but a stupid cyclops. When speaking about Aphrodite’s birth, Zeus discusses Cronus cutting off… The thought trails off into the distance, as Zeus and Prometheus share a chuckle. You’ll probably have a little giggle too, if you know what it was that Kronos cut off (spoiler: it was Uranus’ willy, which then had sex with the sea).

immortals fenyx rising

Obviously most of this stuff is flavor text. The majority of Immortals’ story revolves around Fenyx, a poet who gets stranded on the Golden Isle while sailing with his soldier brother’s mates. Unfortunately, Fenyx’s brother and the rest of the lads on board get turned to stone, which is ultimately what prompts Fenyx to become the hero of Prometheus’ tale - a tale that Zeus keeps interrupting, changing details in order to make the game far more difficult. You’ve finished a Vault and are on the way out? Nah, Zeus reckons that boring. Whack in a big cyclops boss fight, just for kicks.

immortals fenyx rising

There are two things worth expanding on from that paragraph: Vaults and combat. Vaults of Tartaros are the main puzzle sections of the game - while there are tons of environmental puzzles dotted across Immortals’ open world, most of the real nuance in design is tied to the more complex arrangements of Vaults. They’re not unlike Breath of the Wild’s shrines, although I’m wary of comparing Immortals to Breath of the Wild - I think both games are influenced by Ghibli, as opposed to Immortals being derivative of Zelda. It has a stamina bar, and a glider, and a physics-based puzzle ability that is cheekily similar to Magnesis, but aside from that the main comparison lies in the fact that both games actually attach weight to art direction. It’s fair to say that both games look like they studied Princess Mononoke, but they’re totally confident and independent in terms of their own visual identities. Immortals may be pretty, but it is its own distinct entity atmospherically, contextually, and narratively. The cuts, pans, and camera angles are nothing like Breath of the Wild, nor are the character models they centre on. I’d argue that’s enough for it to be considered an original effort.

immortals fenyx rising

The puzzles in each Vault are brilliantly varied - one second you’ll lob burning coals into the bottom of a roaring forge, the next you’ll need to carefully carry delicate crates through treacherous lasers and massive, lurching snakeheads. Also, the systems introduced in each new puzzle are never arbitrary - once you understand the basic principles of each structure, cracking the solution is only a matter of time. That being said, the platforming in Vaults is not as precise as it needs to be, especially if you’re playing with mouse and keyboard. I often fell to my death because of an overly persnickety jump that should have been something you do without thinking about. The sections in which you need a glider to clear a gap are particularly unforgiving in this regard - it’s irritating to do all of the hard work required to solve a puzzle just to fall off the map because you can’t properly see where you’re about to land. It feels like you’re still being punished for Icarus flying too close to the sun.

I also feel like it’s worth pointing out that I experienced multiple crashes, often at highly inopportune moments. At one point I left the game running while I had a bite to eat and when I came back it had metamorphosed into a PowerPoint presentation. These are issues that I hope will be smoothed out at or slightly after launch, although I couldn’t in good conscience go without mentioning them given the sheer frustration I felt as I had to reboot the game mid-boss fight… twice. Sisyphus has it easy, I reckon.

immortals fenyx rising

That being said, combat - when you aren’t rebooting the game - is surprisingly strong. At the beginning of Immortals I was quite unphased by it - it seemed like a solid but straightforward hack-and-slash. However, it really begins to open up once you begin to invest in your abilities. Immortals isn’t comparable to the massive Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s skill trees, but it excels in what it does offer - enormous whirlwinds of Ares’ spears, immense and unwieldy Hephaistos hammers, and arrows that summon blistering thunderstorms. It’s also got a solid parry system and a slow-mo perfect dodge animation that rewards precision - this is particularly strong in boss fights, which are honestly a bit of a drag unless you’ve put time into mastering the tools at your disposal.

I also quite like that Medusa the Imperious is a big scary boss, but when you land that final hit she soars about 700 light years away like a rapidly deflating balloon.

From stoner oracles to gods who have been turned into trees, to the sheer batshittiness of its entire cast of gods and monsters, Immortals Fenyx Rising is a genuine joy to play, and a real treat for Greek mythology lovers. It’s got personality to burn, and both puzzle and combat design capable of mechanically backing it up. It’s a shame that the platforming can be so unforgiving, and that crashes happen far more than you’d like them to, but these are both problems that can be rectified in future updates. Once that happens, Immortals could easily - and surprisingly - go down as one of the best games of the year.

immortals fenyx rising review

Version tested: PC. A review code was provided by Ubisoft.

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