Breath of the Wild with a sense of direction. Whether that's good or bad comes down to personal preference but I liked it. If you're pit off by the humour and narration I began cringing but found myself really warming up to it and even laughing aloud at points.
Also if you get the Limited Edition on Amazon it comes with Pride rainbow wings so I got to make the gayest little dude ever and I love him ❤
Also if you get the Limited Edition on Amazon it comes with Pride rainbow wings so I got to make the gayest little dude ever and I love him ❤
Rented this one from Gamefly thinking I would just mess around with it a bit and send it back. Ended up buying it because it is actually a really good game.
The setting is neat, I'm all for Greek mythology, and I really like that the story is presented in a humorous way, which is something I didn't realize before I started playing. I expected something super serious and I was pleasantly surprised. The humor is a little off at times, but it kind of reminded me of Fable, or at least what I remember of Fable (it has been quite a while since I've played those games).
It is, of course, similar to Breath of the Wild, and as a fan of botw, I think I prefer this one. It felt like there was more to do in Fenyx Rising, and that could be because the map was a little smaller and the activities were less spread out. Everywhere I looked, there was something to do. The puzzles and vaults of tartaros (which are the equivalent of botw's shrines) were fun and satisfying to complete. The collectibles were fun to... collect. I liked the combat which was made more fun through upgrades which also made me feel more powerful. There are a decent amount of weapons and armor to find and upgrade.
The story ended up being interesting. The platinum was fun to earn. I'm looking forward to playing a NG+ on a harder difficulty.
The setting is neat, I'm all for Greek mythology, and I really like that the story is presented in a humorous way, which is something I didn't realize before I started playing. I expected something super serious and I was pleasantly surprised. The humor is a little off at times, but it kind of reminded me of Fable, or at least what I remember of Fable (it has been quite a while since I've played those games).
It is, of course, similar to Breath of the Wild, and as a fan of botw, I think I prefer this one. It felt like there was more to do in Fenyx Rising, and that could be because the map was a little smaller and the activities were less spread out. Everywhere I looked, there was something to do. The puzzles and vaults of tartaros (which are the equivalent of botw's shrines) were fun and satisfying to complete. The collectibles were fun to... collect. I liked the combat which was made more fun through upgrades which also made me feel more powerful. There are a decent amount of weapons and armor to find and upgrade.
The story ended up being interesting. The platinum was fun to earn. I'm looking forward to playing a NG+ on a harder difficulty.
I had way too much fun with this game. Ubisoft really distilled the essence of what originally made their map-marker driven open worlds fun into a compact, immensely satisfying game. Sure, you may not be organically exploring the world like in Breath of The Wild, but there is no fluff when it comes to those map markers. Everything in the world is a useful reward, so it never feels like you're wasting your time. I absolutely loved having your statistical armour and damage properties leveled separately from the equipment itself. I cannot stand in other games when I get a cool new piece of equipment that I end up having to trade out for another that looks worse, just because the stats are better. Having each piece of equipment all have the same stats, but different perks, was a much needed breath of fresh air. This game just did a lot for me, and it really took me back to why I enjoyed open world games in the first place.
This review contains spoilers
The 2nd game based on Greek God mythology released in 2020 that I gave a 10/10 to. Hmm.
Funnily enough when I first started the game and saw how weak the customisation options were I was ready for a rather lacklustre game. But like Hades this one plays on the things I love about games so well. The constant feeling of progression and improvements from upgrades, fun and fast gameplay, great environments to explore. And speaking of customisation, while the overall starting hair/face/eyes etc options are limited, the game does the thing where you can equip one type of equipment for the stats and bonuses, but use another type for the aesthetic. I love when games do that. You can even do it for your phoenix friend. So it meant that if you found a great looking piece of armour that had terrible abilities, you can just use it for the look but wear something better for the bonuses. My main complaint about that is that you can’t save preset costumes, so you’re constantly switching based on the context of what challenge you’re facing, and late game you can have so much equipment that scrolling through it becomes a pain.
The story is maybe its weakest part, while I do think the overall story is fine, if a bit simple, the narration angle they went for definitely felt overplayed. Zeus and Prometheus do bounce off each other well, but Zeus in particular can be such a failed attempt at comedy at times that the sheer amount of him becomes overbearing. Not that the game can’t be funny, there were plenty of moments I laughed at, it’s just not consistent at all. Other characters felt enjoyable though even when their attempts at comedy weren’t great, because their personalities were just fun. I particularly loved how Ares as a chicken bonded with a random bear. The plot twist at the end was fine. It’s not super unexpected or mind-blowing, but it’s not like it felt forced, it just kinda felt like a natural part of the story.
I adore the combat in this game. Even when the game starts it’s enjoyable and rewarding with the parry and dodge, but I could see it getting old quite fast. However thanks to the many, many upgrades you end up with so many ways to engage with combat. You can just do standard close combat (which itself is broken up into many different kinds, like focusing on stunning, parrying or dodging – you get different bonuses depending on the equipment you pick), or you can do ranged combat with both a bow, or objects that can be thrown for huge damage. Or you can use the environment to your advantage and use skills to knock enemies off ledges. Multiple God powers, multiple upgrades to standard attacks all make combat so rich and satisfying.
Vaults all provide a unique challenge that test your multitude of abilities to their limit. And then there’s just some vaults that play with the games physicals, like one of them is a giant pinball game; it’s great. Outside of vaults the challenges can get a little repetitive. Things like the constellation myths just kinda throw lots of mini puzzles at you at once, many of which are similar to what you’ve done many times. Others like the navigation, lyre and arrow challenges are technically unique but all use the exact same basic skills to complete (not that they’re not fun, especially the navigation ones which will really test your movement skills). But the jigsaw challenges were really pointless. Once you’ve figured out the pattern to clear a single one you can do all of them effortlessly since they all use the exact same set-up and amount of pieces and just use a new skin for the puzzle itself. Overall though the puzzle aspect to this game felt great to solve and was a welcome break between combat encounters.
Finding solutions to epic chests can occasionally do some really creative things too. My favourite was when the game made you play tic-tac-toe with the Ai by using the fire lighting mechanics. So clever and fun.
I like how the game makes use of being open world. Since you can go to any area first (after clearing the little tutorial island) it means every area has beginner dungeons. Those dungeons can be cheesed super easily if you go to them later on with the upgraded abilities you get from grinding through the other areas first. Obviously there's a ton of vaults in every area that require full, or at least near full, upgrades to complete, but it is fun to go to clear the last area and find a dungeon that was placed for the hypothetical newbie and just skip all the puzzles because your movement options allow you to bypass the gaps that the puzzles are supposed to create paths for you.
Speaking of movement options though, I do wish the game had a faster glide and climbing upgrades somewhere along the line. Especially climbing.
The obvious Breath of the Wild comparisons come up in this game, and I don't think there's a single review that hasn't mentioned them. I have BOTW a 9, so if I'm giving this a 10 it means I think it's a better game? It's hard to say and is part of the lack of nuance with star ratings. I think BOTW peaks so much higher than this game, but I lowered BOTW's rating by half a star because it has much bigger flaws too. This game may not be as good at Breath of the Wild at its best, but after I had quickly fallen in love with it, it didn't do anything to lessen my experience. So while I might not say this game is definitely better than it's obvious inspiration, I do think it's more consistent at being good.
So yeah, really enjoyed this game. Whether I was combating, solving puzzles, climbing mountains or just generally exploring the land with its varied locales, it kept me fully immersed all the way into platinuming it.
Funnily enough when I first started the game and saw how weak the customisation options were I was ready for a rather lacklustre game. But like Hades this one plays on the things I love about games so well. The constant feeling of progression and improvements from upgrades, fun and fast gameplay, great environments to explore. And speaking of customisation, while the overall starting hair/face/eyes etc options are limited, the game does the thing where you can equip one type of equipment for the stats and bonuses, but use another type for the aesthetic. I love when games do that. You can even do it for your phoenix friend. So it meant that if you found a great looking piece of armour that had terrible abilities, you can just use it for the look but wear something better for the bonuses. My main complaint about that is that you can’t save preset costumes, so you’re constantly switching based on the context of what challenge you’re facing, and late game you can have so much equipment that scrolling through it becomes a pain.
The story is maybe its weakest part, while I do think the overall story is fine, if a bit simple, the narration angle they went for definitely felt overplayed. Zeus and Prometheus do bounce off each other well, but Zeus in particular can be such a failed attempt at comedy at times that the sheer amount of him becomes overbearing. Not that the game can’t be funny, there were plenty of moments I laughed at, it’s just not consistent at all. Other characters felt enjoyable though even when their attempts at comedy weren’t great, because their personalities were just fun. I particularly loved how Ares as a chicken bonded with a random bear. The plot twist at the end was fine. It’s not super unexpected or mind-blowing, but it’s not like it felt forced, it just kinda felt like a natural part of the story.
I adore the combat in this game. Even when the game starts it’s enjoyable and rewarding with the parry and dodge, but I could see it getting old quite fast. However thanks to the many, many upgrades you end up with so many ways to engage with combat. You can just do standard close combat (which itself is broken up into many different kinds, like focusing on stunning, parrying or dodging – you get different bonuses depending on the equipment you pick), or you can do ranged combat with both a bow, or objects that can be thrown for huge damage. Or you can use the environment to your advantage and use skills to knock enemies off ledges. Multiple God powers, multiple upgrades to standard attacks all make combat so rich and satisfying.
Vaults all provide a unique challenge that test your multitude of abilities to their limit. And then there’s just some vaults that play with the games physicals, like one of them is a giant pinball game; it’s great. Outside of vaults the challenges can get a little repetitive. Things like the constellation myths just kinda throw lots of mini puzzles at you at once, many of which are similar to what you’ve done many times. Others like the navigation, lyre and arrow challenges are technically unique but all use the exact same basic skills to complete (not that they’re not fun, especially the navigation ones which will really test your movement skills). But the jigsaw challenges were really pointless. Once you’ve figured out the pattern to clear a single one you can do all of them effortlessly since they all use the exact same set-up and amount of pieces and just use a new skin for the puzzle itself. Overall though the puzzle aspect to this game felt great to solve and was a welcome break between combat encounters.
Finding solutions to epic chests can occasionally do some really creative things too. My favourite was when the game made you play tic-tac-toe with the Ai by using the fire lighting mechanics. So clever and fun.
I like how the game makes use of being open world. Since you can go to any area first (after clearing the little tutorial island) it means every area has beginner dungeons. Those dungeons can be cheesed super easily if you go to them later on with the upgraded abilities you get from grinding through the other areas first. Obviously there's a ton of vaults in every area that require full, or at least near full, upgrades to complete, but it is fun to go to clear the last area and find a dungeon that was placed for the hypothetical newbie and just skip all the puzzles because your movement options allow you to bypass the gaps that the puzzles are supposed to create paths for you.
Speaking of movement options though, I do wish the game had a faster glide and climbing upgrades somewhere along the line. Especially climbing.
The obvious Breath of the Wild comparisons come up in this game, and I don't think there's a single review that hasn't mentioned them. I have BOTW a 9, so if I'm giving this a 10 it means I think it's a better game? It's hard to say and is part of the lack of nuance with star ratings. I think BOTW peaks so much higher than this game, but I lowered BOTW's rating by half a star because it has much bigger flaws too. This game may not be as good at Breath of the Wild at its best, but after I had quickly fallen in love with it, it didn't do anything to lessen my experience. So while I might not say this game is definitely better than it's obvious inspiration, I do think it's more consistent at being good.
So yeah, really enjoyed this game. Whether I was combating, solving puzzles, climbing mountains or just generally exploring the land with its varied locales, it kept me fully immersed all the way into platinuming it.
Really great game that isn't afraid to have fun with gameplay and story and give the player a lot of freedom, it wears it's inspirations on its sleeves (to say the least), but it's honestly one of the best games of 2020, though it does feel odd calling both AC Valhalla and this some of the best of 2020 when they're so simmilar.
This game is heavily inspired by Breath of the Wild, and it's very blatant about it. But where Breath of the Wild hits a home run, Immortals strikes out. It fails to grasp a lot of what made Breath of the Wild so excellent, and ends up feeling somewhat dull and repetitive as a result.
But with that said, it's still kinda fun. Combat isn't terrible and expanding the skill trees is pretty interesting. Exploration is good because the world is pretty and there are some cool secrets to uncover.
All in all, this game is a bizarre crossover between Breath of the Wild, Kid Icarus, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. At least the microtransactions are fair (just cosmetic stuff).
I haven't seen anybody mention this yet but the default control scheme in this game is downright atrocious. You pretty much have to remap buttons, but I haven't found a way to optimize it, since buttons almost always seem to overlap. Seriously, this game has to have the single worst default control scheme in a video game. I abandoned this because the controls are just that bad.
But with that said, it's still kinda fun. Combat isn't terrible and expanding the skill trees is pretty interesting. Exploration is good because the world is pretty and there are some cool secrets to uncover.
All in all, this game is a bizarre crossover between Breath of the Wild, Kid Icarus, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. At least the microtransactions are fair (just cosmetic stuff).
I haven't seen anybody mention this yet but the default control scheme in this game is downright atrocious. You pretty much have to remap buttons, but I haven't found a way to optimize it, since buttons almost always seem to overlap. Seriously, this game has to have the single worst default control scheme in a video game. I abandoned this because the controls are just that bad.
Fun combat and exploration, pretty terrible writing and lack of enemy variety.
I feel mean for having judged this game so harshly based on what was probably less than two hours of gameplay, but honestly it was so unengaging that I stopped playing and returned it to Gamefly the next morning. Felt so generic, derivative and soulless from the onset that I just had no interest.
I played one hour and I knew this was gonna be shit, so I'm just gonna stop there before it gets worse for my sake.
Sin ser nada espectacular, me lo he pasado guay, un juego muy majete.
No busca ocultar que es la versión Ubisoft de Breath of the Wild, pero tampoco lo hace de forma tan descarada como esperaba. Sabe tomar prestadas buenas cosas de ese juego y poner su toque propio sin dar la sensación de estar jugando exactamente a lo mismo.
Es un juego muy agradable de jugar, con un mapa que empuja a ir encadenando pequeños objetivos de forma muy natural. Los puzzles son sin duda lo mejor, y hay algunos muy bien diseñados, aunque al cabo de un rato uno acaba sintiendo que ya ha visto todo lo que tenían que ofrecer y que solo quedan derivados demasiado similares a los ya jugados. Con el combate pasa un poco lo mismo, muy divertido inicialmente y se va volviendo cada vez más repetitivo al cabo de un cierto punto, en parte debido a una variedad bastante escasa de enemigos.
La historia en sí es flojita, pero está contada con un tono muy destentido que si bien nunca me ha resultado especialmente hilarante, sí que ayuda a hacerlo todo muy llevadero.
Un juego ideal para estos tiempos de salidas bastantes espaciadas y para tener algo que ir jugando en la PS5. No le cambiará la vida a nadie, pero se nota que está hecho con ilusión y se acomoda muy bien al esfuerzo que quiera poner cada jugador (en mi caso, 30h habiendome tomado mi tiempo las primeras 20 y luego ya ido más a piñón).
No busca ocultar que es la versión Ubisoft de Breath of the Wild, pero tampoco lo hace de forma tan descarada como esperaba. Sabe tomar prestadas buenas cosas de ese juego y poner su toque propio sin dar la sensación de estar jugando exactamente a lo mismo.
Es un juego muy agradable de jugar, con un mapa que empuja a ir encadenando pequeños objetivos de forma muy natural. Los puzzles son sin duda lo mejor, y hay algunos muy bien diseñados, aunque al cabo de un rato uno acaba sintiendo que ya ha visto todo lo que tenían que ofrecer y que solo quedan derivados demasiado similares a los ya jugados. Con el combate pasa un poco lo mismo, muy divertido inicialmente y se va volviendo cada vez más repetitivo al cabo de un cierto punto, en parte debido a una variedad bastante escasa de enemigos.
La historia en sí es flojita, pero está contada con un tono muy destentido que si bien nunca me ha resultado especialmente hilarante, sí que ayuda a hacerlo todo muy llevadero.
Un juego ideal para estos tiempos de salidas bastantes espaciadas y para tener algo que ir jugando en la PS5. No le cambiará la vida a nadie, pero se nota que está hecho con ilusión y se acomoda muy bien al esfuerzo que quiera poner cada jugador (en mi caso, 30h habiendome tomado mi tiempo las primeras 20 y luego ya ido más a piñón).
This review contains spoilers
English/German below
It took me 20 hours and got 510 gamerscore. It was played on the Series X.
story
Charming story about the Greek gods and the final boss Typhon. You play Fenyx, a great character who is chosen to be a heroine. In the course of the story you have to deal with various Greek gods (Aphrodite, Athena, Ares etc.) and have to get back their essences to hunt Typhon, as this is almost all people etc. also the crew around Fenyx (you are on Shipwrecked at the beginning) petrified.
The whole thing is told by Prometheus and Zeus, who are sometimes more, sometimes less wrong with their humor. Some dialogues were really hard at the limit or even over it. Often I could just roll my eyes. At this point it should be said that the game's clientele is also intended for younger people, even if Aphrodite in particular often makes clear allusions. Has also been classified from the age of 12.
The story is lovingly told and has been okay so far, but is by no means pulling out any trees. The whole end of the game (final battle, sequences afterwards) was really great again.
Graphics / glitches
The whole thing is kept in a comic graphic style and is often pretty to look at. The open world is at least as lovingly designed and also very, very colorful. The characters look excellent, as do many of the different weapon, mount, and armor skins.
I haven't had any glitches or anything negative. Everything went smoothly and without any technical problems.
Gameplay
I played on the hard difficulty level and basically never had any real problems. The game is kept very simple in its gameplay and, especially in combat, does not have a lot of depth. But I enjoyed fighting the most, by far the most. I combined skills with each other, threw opponents into the air and tried again and again to push the combo numbers up. That got me in the mood.
The boss fights and individual elite opponents were also very nice from the style of play, but I have to say that the opponent's variance in particular left a lot to be desired. That was just not enough for me. Also, some boss opponents (or most of them?) Didn't drop a loot, which was kind of a shame in the game.
I enjoyed using many of the abilities, including phosphorus and its healing spell, which is basically indispensable.
But now it comes: The game has unfortunately robbed me of a lot of motivation and fun due to the other game mechanics. Most of the puzzles were very simple but incredibly boring. Often very monotonous shifting of things, which sometimes didn't work so well in terms of control technology and was very frustrating (e.g. the Athena vault, my goodness that was terrible).
The vaults would have been a lot more fun for me personally as battle arenas (not all but at least half of them, by far not all of them, but until then found a pure action vault, except for these intermediate bosses (they were very cool)). These are of course personal preferences, of course. This gathering of resources was also extremely demotivating. I would have preferred a classic experience system or a combination of both. Because all these many stations, typical of Ubisoft, on the open world map could not motivate me in any way, which is why I no longer paid attention to numerous dungeons, health bars, resources, etc. It just wasn't fun unfortunately.
It was also a shame that a rather long vault was pushed open in front of the final boss. That got me out of the momentum to finish now against this villain
The biggest drawback for me is the ENDURANCE GAME PLAY! I don't know how many times I've cursed this. I had the normal bars + 3 or 4 additional ones, because then I hardly made any more vaults and it still cost me so much nerves. None of this was a problem in combat, but as soon as I started climbing, jumping, sliding, etc., I was literally bubbling inside. From my point of view, that could have been left out completely, except in combat. Especially the ascent to the mountain top in the snow area was cruel. That really took away a lot of fun from the game.
But to end with a conciliatory word: The different areas were well chosen and resulted in a nice overall picture in the open world.
Conclusion
Probably a great introduction to this action-adventure open world and the Ubisoft formula, especially for younger people. For me personally, the game just didn't work in some places and is still in the good range due to its charm with 3/5 wings (it didn't stop me either).
-----------------------------german----------------------------
Ich habe 20 Stunden gebraucht und 510 Gamerscore erreicht. Gespielt wurde auf der Series X.
Story
Charmante Erzählung rund um die griechischen Götter und den Endgegner Typhon. Man spielt Fenyx, einen tollen Charakter, die auserkoren ist eine Heldin zu sein. Im Laufe der Story hat man es mit den verschiedensten griechischen Göttern zu tun (Aphrodite, Athena, Ares usw.) und muss deren Essenzen zurückerlangen um Typhon zu jagen, da dieser fast alle Menschen usw. auch die Crew rund um Fenyx (man ist am Anfang schiffbrüchig geworden) versteinerte.
Das ganze wird begleitend von Prometheus und Zeus erzählt, die mal mehr mal weniger mit ihrem Humor daneben liegen. Manche Dialoge waren echt hart an der Grenze oder sogar drüber. Da konnte ich oft nur die Augen verdrehen. An der Stelle sei aber schon gesagt, dass das Klientel des Spiel durchaus auch für Jüngere gedacht ist, auch wenn gerade Aphrodite öfter eindeutige Anspielungen macht. Ist auch ab 12 Jahren eingestuft worden.
Die Geschichte wird liebevoll erzählt und ist soweit auch in Ordnung gewesen, reißt jetzt aber mitnichten irgendwelche Bäume aus. Der ganze Abschluss des Games (Endkampf, Sequenzen danach) fand ich nochmal richtig toll.
Grafik/Glitches
Das ganze ist im Comic-Grafikstil gehalten und immer wieder sehr oft hübsch anzusehen. Die open World ist mindestens genauso liebevoll gestaltet und auch sehr sehr bunt. Die Charaktere sehen ausgezeichnet aus, ebenso viele der verschiedenen Skins für Waffen, Reittiere und Rüstungen.
Irgendwelche Glitches oder sonst etwas negatives habe ich nicht gehabt. Alles lief butterweich und ohne technische Probleme ab.
Gameplay
Ich habe auf dem Schwierigkeitsgrad "Schwer" gespielt und im Grunde zu keiner Zeit wirkliche Probleme gehabt. Das Spiel ist sehr simpel gehalten in seinem Gameplay und gerade im Kampf nicht mit sonderlich viel Tiefe ausgestattet. Aber mir hat das Kämpfen am meisten, mit Abstand am meisten Spaß gemacht. Ich habe Fähigkeiten untereinander kombiniert, Gegner in die Luft geschleudert und versucht immer wieder die Kombozahlen hochzupushen. Das hat mir Laune gemacht.
Auch die Bosskämpfe und einzelnen Elite-Geger waren sehr schön vom Spielstil, jedoch muss ich sagen, dass gerade die Gegnervarianz sehr zu Wünschen übrig ließ. Das war mir einfach zu wenig. Auch haben manche Bossgegner (oder die meisten?) keinen Loot gedroppt, das empfand ich irgendwie schade in dem Spiel.
Viele der Fähigkeiten habe ich gerne benutzt, unter anderem ist Phosphor und sein Heilungszauber im Grunde unverzichtbar.
Jetzt kommt es aber: Das Spiel hat mir leider durch die anderen Spielmechaniken sehr viel Motivation und Spaß geraubt. Die Rätsel waren meistens sehr einfach aber unglaublich langweilig. Oft sehr eintöniges Verschieben von Sachen, das steuerungstechnisch manchmal auch gar nicht so toll geklappt hat und sehr frustrierend war (z.b. das Athena Gewölbe, meine Güte war das schrecklich).
Die Gewölbe hätten mir persönlich als Kampfarenen (nicht alle aber mindestens die Hälfte, habe bei weitem nicht alle erkundet, aber bis dahin auch kein reines Action-Gewölbe gefunden, außer diese Zwischenbosse (die waren sehr cool)) viel mehr Spaß gemacht. Das sind natürlich persönliche Präferenzen, klar. Auch dieses Ressourcensammeln war extrem demotivierend. Ich hätte lieber ein klassisches Erfahrungssystem gehabt bzw. eine Kombination aus beidem. Denn all diese vielen Stationen ,ubisofttypisch, auf der open World Map haben mich in keinster Weise motivieren können, weswegen ich zahlreiche Dungeons, Gesundheitsbalken, Ressourcen usw. gar nicht mehr beachtet habe. Es hat einfach keinen Spaß gemacht leider.
Spoiler: Negativer Moment vorm Endboss
Auch war es sehr schade, dass vor dem Endboss noch einmal ein recht langes Gewölbe aufgedrückt wird. Das hat mich aus der Dynamik gebracht es nun gegen diesen Schurken zu Ende zu bringen
Das für mich wohl größte Manko ist das AUSDAUERGAMEPLAY! Ich weiß nicht wie oft ich dieses verflucht habe. Ich hatte die normalen Balken + 3 oder 4 zusätzliche, denn ich hab ja dann kaum mehr Gewölbe gemacht und es hat mich trotzdem so viele Nerven gekostet. Im Kampf war das alles kein Problem, aber sobald es an das Klettern, Springen, Gleiten usw. ging, hat es förmlich in mir gebrodelt. Von mir aus hätte das außer im Kampf einfach komplett weggelassen werden können. Gerade der Aufstieg auf den Berggipfel im Schneegebiet war grausam. Das hat mir wirklich sehr viel Spaß am Spiel genommen.
Um aber noch mit einem versöhnlichen Wort zu enden: Die verschiedenen Gebiete waren gut gewählt und ergaben ein schönes Gesamtbild in der open World.
Fazit
Gerade auch für Jüngere wahrscheinlich ein sehr toller Einstieg in diese Action-Adventure Open World Welt und die Ubisoftformel. Für mich persönlich hat das Spiel an einigen Stellen einfach nicht funktioniert und ist wegen seinem Charme mit 3/5 Flügeln noch im guten Bereich (es hat mich ja auch nicht zum Abbrechen gebracht).
It took me 20 hours and got 510 gamerscore. It was played on the Series X.
story
Charming story about the Greek gods and the final boss Typhon. You play Fenyx, a great character who is chosen to be a heroine. In the course of the story you have to deal with various Greek gods (Aphrodite, Athena, Ares etc.) and have to get back their essences to hunt Typhon, as this is almost all people etc. also the crew around Fenyx (you are on Shipwrecked at the beginning) petrified.
The whole thing is told by Prometheus and Zeus, who are sometimes more, sometimes less wrong with their humor. Some dialogues were really hard at the limit or even over it. Often I could just roll my eyes. At this point it should be said that the game's clientele is also intended for younger people, even if Aphrodite in particular often makes clear allusions. Has also been classified from the age of 12.
The story is lovingly told and has been okay so far, but is by no means pulling out any trees. The whole end of the game (final battle, sequences afterwards) was really great again.
Graphics / glitches
The whole thing is kept in a comic graphic style and is often pretty to look at. The open world is at least as lovingly designed and also very, very colorful. The characters look excellent, as do many of the different weapon, mount, and armor skins.
I haven't had any glitches or anything negative. Everything went smoothly and without any technical problems.
Gameplay
I played on the hard difficulty level and basically never had any real problems. The game is kept very simple in its gameplay and, especially in combat, does not have a lot of depth. But I enjoyed fighting the most, by far the most. I combined skills with each other, threw opponents into the air and tried again and again to push the combo numbers up. That got me in the mood.
The boss fights and individual elite opponents were also very nice from the style of play, but I have to say that the opponent's variance in particular left a lot to be desired. That was just not enough for me. Also, some boss opponents (or most of them?) Didn't drop a loot, which was kind of a shame in the game.
I enjoyed using many of the abilities, including phosphorus and its healing spell, which is basically indispensable.
But now it comes: The game has unfortunately robbed me of a lot of motivation and fun due to the other game mechanics. Most of the puzzles were very simple but incredibly boring. Often very monotonous shifting of things, which sometimes didn't work so well in terms of control technology and was very frustrating (e.g. the Athena vault, my goodness that was terrible).
The vaults would have been a lot more fun for me personally as battle arenas (not all but at least half of them, by far not all of them, but until then found a pure action vault, except for these intermediate bosses (they were very cool)). These are of course personal preferences, of course. This gathering of resources was also extremely demotivating. I would have preferred a classic experience system or a combination of both. Because all these many stations, typical of Ubisoft, on the open world map could not motivate me in any way, which is why I no longer paid attention to numerous dungeons, health bars, resources, etc. It just wasn't fun unfortunately.
It was also a shame that a rather long vault was pushed open in front of the final boss. That got me out of the momentum to finish now against this villain
The biggest drawback for me is the ENDURANCE GAME PLAY! I don't know how many times I've cursed this. I had the normal bars + 3 or 4 additional ones, because then I hardly made any more vaults and it still cost me so much nerves. None of this was a problem in combat, but as soon as I started climbing, jumping, sliding, etc., I was literally bubbling inside. From my point of view, that could have been left out completely, except in combat. Especially the ascent to the mountain top in the snow area was cruel. That really took away a lot of fun from the game.
But to end with a conciliatory word: The different areas were well chosen and resulted in a nice overall picture in the open world.
Conclusion
Probably a great introduction to this action-adventure open world and the Ubisoft formula, especially for younger people. For me personally, the game just didn't work in some places and is still in the good range due to its charm with 3/5 wings (it didn't stop me either).
-----------------------------german----------------------------
Ich habe 20 Stunden gebraucht und 510 Gamerscore erreicht. Gespielt wurde auf der Series X.
Story
Charmante Erzählung rund um die griechischen Götter und den Endgegner Typhon. Man spielt Fenyx, einen tollen Charakter, die auserkoren ist eine Heldin zu sein. Im Laufe der Story hat man es mit den verschiedensten griechischen Göttern zu tun (Aphrodite, Athena, Ares usw.) und muss deren Essenzen zurückerlangen um Typhon zu jagen, da dieser fast alle Menschen usw. auch die Crew rund um Fenyx (man ist am Anfang schiffbrüchig geworden) versteinerte.
Das ganze wird begleitend von Prometheus und Zeus erzählt, die mal mehr mal weniger mit ihrem Humor daneben liegen. Manche Dialoge waren echt hart an der Grenze oder sogar drüber. Da konnte ich oft nur die Augen verdrehen. An der Stelle sei aber schon gesagt, dass das Klientel des Spiel durchaus auch für Jüngere gedacht ist, auch wenn gerade Aphrodite öfter eindeutige Anspielungen macht. Ist auch ab 12 Jahren eingestuft worden.
Die Geschichte wird liebevoll erzählt und ist soweit auch in Ordnung gewesen, reißt jetzt aber mitnichten irgendwelche Bäume aus. Der ganze Abschluss des Games (Endkampf, Sequenzen danach) fand ich nochmal richtig toll.
Grafik/Glitches
Das ganze ist im Comic-Grafikstil gehalten und immer wieder sehr oft hübsch anzusehen. Die open World ist mindestens genauso liebevoll gestaltet und auch sehr sehr bunt. Die Charaktere sehen ausgezeichnet aus, ebenso viele der verschiedenen Skins für Waffen, Reittiere und Rüstungen.
Irgendwelche Glitches oder sonst etwas negatives habe ich nicht gehabt. Alles lief butterweich und ohne technische Probleme ab.
Gameplay
Ich habe auf dem Schwierigkeitsgrad "Schwer" gespielt und im Grunde zu keiner Zeit wirkliche Probleme gehabt. Das Spiel ist sehr simpel gehalten in seinem Gameplay und gerade im Kampf nicht mit sonderlich viel Tiefe ausgestattet. Aber mir hat das Kämpfen am meisten, mit Abstand am meisten Spaß gemacht. Ich habe Fähigkeiten untereinander kombiniert, Gegner in die Luft geschleudert und versucht immer wieder die Kombozahlen hochzupushen. Das hat mir Laune gemacht.
Auch die Bosskämpfe und einzelnen Elite-Geger waren sehr schön vom Spielstil, jedoch muss ich sagen, dass gerade die Gegnervarianz sehr zu Wünschen übrig ließ. Das war mir einfach zu wenig. Auch haben manche Bossgegner (oder die meisten?) keinen Loot gedroppt, das empfand ich irgendwie schade in dem Spiel.
Viele der Fähigkeiten habe ich gerne benutzt, unter anderem ist Phosphor und sein Heilungszauber im Grunde unverzichtbar.
Jetzt kommt es aber: Das Spiel hat mir leider durch die anderen Spielmechaniken sehr viel Motivation und Spaß geraubt. Die Rätsel waren meistens sehr einfach aber unglaublich langweilig. Oft sehr eintöniges Verschieben von Sachen, das steuerungstechnisch manchmal auch gar nicht so toll geklappt hat und sehr frustrierend war (z.b. das Athena Gewölbe, meine Güte war das schrecklich).
Die Gewölbe hätten mir persönlich als Kampfarenen (nicht alle aber mindestens die Hälfte, habe bei weitem nicht alle erkundet, aber bis dahin auch kein reines Action-Gewölbe gefunden, außer diese Zwischenbosse (die waren sehr cool)) viel mehr Spaß gemacht. Das sind natürlich persönliche Präferenzen, klar. Auch dieses Ressourcensammeln war extrem demotivierend. Ich hätte lieber ein klassisches Erfahrungssystem gehabt bzw. eine Kombination aus beidem. Denn all diese vielen Stationen ,ubisofttypisch, auf der open World Map haben mich in keinster Weise motivieren können, weswegen ich zahlreiche Dungeons, Gesundheitsbalken, Ressourcen usw. gar nicht mehr beachtet habe. Es hat einfach keinen Spaß gemacht leider.
Spoiler: Negativer Moment vorm Endboss
Auch war es sehr schade, dass vor dem Endboss noch einmal ein recht langes Gewölbe aufgedrückt wird. Das hat mich aus der Dynamik gebracht es nun gegen diesen Schurken zu Ende zu bringen
Das für mich wohl größte Manko ist das AUSDAUERGAMEPLAY! Ich weiß nicht wie oft ich dieses verflucht habe. Ich hatte die normalen Balken + 3 oder 4 zusätzliche, denn ich hab ja dann kaum mehr Gewölbe gemacht und es hat mich trotzdem so viele Nerven gekostet. Im Kampf war das alles kein Problem, aber sobald es an das Klettern, Springen, Gleiten usw. ging, hat es förmlich in mir gebrodelt. Von mir aus hätte das außer im Kampf einfach komplett weggelassen werden können. Gerade der Aufstieg auf den Berggipfel im Schneegebiet war grausam. Das hat mir wirklich sehr viel Spaß am Spiel genommen.
Um aber noch mit einem versöhnlichen Wort zu enden: Die verschiedenen Gebiete waren gut gewählt und ergaben ein schönes Gesamtbild in der open World.
Fazit
Gerade auch für Jüngere wahrscheinlich ein sehr toller Einstieg in diese Action-Adventure Open World Welt und die Ubisoftformel. Für mich persönlich hat das Spiel an einigen Stellen einfach nicht funktioniert und ist wegen seinem Charme mit 3/5 Flügeln noch im guten Bereich (es hat mich ja auch nicht zum Abbrechen gebracht).
After playing few hours bored to death. Its like bad versions of ac odyssey, botw and dos2.
The mighty Ubisoft Gods have molded a fragile world that's just as puzzling as the Collyer Brothers' labyrinthian apartment.
The moment I lost hope for Fenyx: Rising Immortails was during the first real boss fight: Achilles the Corrupted Hero. Okay so like, you know how Achilles Heel is a thing? Well, one of Fenyx's Achilles Heels is the combat. If you exploit Dark Achilles obvious weakness you don't stun him or deal massive damage (His HP is insane btw). No, what happens is you do maybe 10 points more damage, and he kinda stumbles for half a second before attacking again. The combat system is so reliant on it's tedious stamina mechanic that even boss fights feel copy-paste. Simple concepts such as dealing extra damage for headshots are locked behind a skill tree which makes the beginning of the game a slog. All of the skills feel like a gamechanger but it's an artificial feeling because all they do is curtail the epic fun you have button-mashing to death OC do not Steal Jaba the Hutt, and cute lil' boars high on bath salts. One of the few skills you unlock that feels like a legitimate skill is slowing down time when using a bow mid-air. Cool. Cool. Cool.
Let's double back on epic Achilles battle again. I personally finished the fight by shooting his foot (it's literally bandaged) and then went in with heavy attacks when he finally gets stunned; this took me roughly 25 minutes. The faster solution is to ignore the famous weakness and just parry his first move and hit him with some heavy axe attacks, rinse and repeat (It feels bad... like exploiting AI bad). Wanna know the real kicker? When you stun him with the axe: he falls down and gestures towards his foot and grabs it. This fucking caned animation doesn't make even make sense in context. What kind of game punishes you for exploiting a bosses weakness?
Beyond my issues with the combat there's a lot of cool looking armor and weapons to find in chests and finding them is the best part of the game, however there's another "but" here. I didn't feel any of the benefits of the equipment. During the Achilles fight I was wearing a hood that gave the bow extra damage if I was at full health, but like it still took me 25 minutes slay Achilles. There's many concepts they utilized that originated from Breath of the Wild (which I have no issues with), but they decided to not implement the actually interesting subtleties like having equipment have a more important role with the world itself. I don't get any cool moments like being struck by lightning during a storm, or changing to more appropriate clothing for hot or cold climates, nope, we just get static buffs that don't make much of a difference.
There's a lot of other problems here too. The map is refreshingly more compact than Ubisoft's previous titles, however it's so cluttered with cliffs (The map is 80% mountains man!) god statues, useless broken bridges, and the usual copy-paste temples/houses/statues. Navigating the map is a nightmare, you spent half the game slowly climbing up endless cliffs. You can't utilize your mount because the map has zero flow to it. Remember how all the Korok puzzles subtly blended in with the environment aiding the atmosphere? Ubisoft thinks you're a fucking idiot because all of the puzzles are marked with red. You can't walk 30 seconds without spotting these blights upon the land. It clashes with the mood they're trying to set (not to mention red wall blocks are archaic at this point). The camera is too zoomed out and left me feeling detached from the world and it's characters. I want to see the details of the art but I can only do that with the camera feature, not naturally. I think this is the worst world Ubisoft has crafted. The surreal style I think they tried to accomplish just ends up looking like some glitched auto-generated terrain from Sim City.
Puzzles range from pushing boxes onto pads, pushing balls into holes, throwing rocks at damaged walls, and platforming; there's no innovation here. You get the feeling you've seen all the puzzles Fenyix has to offer puzzle within the first few shrines. The ball puzzles are infuriating because the physics are wonky; the shrine where I fought Achilles starts with you pulling a lever to spawn a ball which moves across upward wind tunnels, and you have to speed-platform (movement feels sluggish) to catch the ball before it falls off the other side of the platform it's headed towards. My first three attempts the physics failed and caused the ball fall into the abyss before it even reached it's destination. It's random if this lever works as intended. You could say GTFO OR GET GUD at platforming and catch the ball before it falls but the controls are baffling and unintuitive. Like why is square crouch? Why does pushing the analog sticks do nothing useful? Why are the R1/R2 the attack buttons? It's impressive how this game manages to feel sluggish even outside of the game. You can change the controls but honestly I didn't feel like playing the text-based version of sliding block puzzle that is fixing the controls, I'm already sick of finishing the actual fucking sliding block puzzles in the game itself. No thanks.
I'm going to finish off this review with a video I took showcasing how passionless this game is.
https://twitter.com/chadhacheydev/status/1413024881265029120?s=20
The moment I lost hope for Fenyx: Rising Immortails was during the first real boss fight: Achilles the Corrupted Hero. Okay so like, you know how Achilles Heel is a thing? Well, one of Fenyx's Achilles Heels is the combat. If you exploit Dark Achilles obvious weakness you don't stun him or deal massive damage (His HP is insane btw). No, what happens is you do maybe 10 points more damage, and he kinda stumbles for half a second before attacking again. The combat system is so reliant on it's tedious stamina mechanic that even boss fights feel copy-paste. Simple concepts such as dealing extra damage for headshots are locked behind a skill tree which makes the beginning of the game a slog. All of the skills feel like a gamechanger but it's an artificial feeling because all they do is curtail the epic fun you have button-mashing to death OC do not Steal Jaba the Hutt, and cute lil' boars high on bath salts. One of the few skills you unlock that feels like a legitimate skill is slowing down time when using a bow mid-air. Cool. Cool. Cool.
Let's double back on epic Achilles battle again. I personally finished the fight by shooting his foot (it's literally bandaged) and then went in with heavy attacks when he finally gets stunned; this took me roughly 25 minutes. The faster solution is to ignore the famous weakness and just parry his first move and hit him with some heavy axe attacks, rinse and repeat (It feels bad... like exploiting AI bad). Wanna know the real kicker? When you stun him with the axe: he falls down and gestures towards his foot and grabs it. This fucking caned animation doesn't make even make sense in context. What kind of game punishes you for exploiting a bosses weakness?
Beyond my issues with the combat there's a lot of cool looking armor and weapons to find in chests and finding them is the best part of the game, however there's another "but" here. I didn't feel any of the benefits of the equipment. During the Achilles fight I was wearing a hood that gave the bow extra damage if I was at full health, but like it still took me 25 minutes slay Achilles. There's many concepts they utilized that originated from Breath of the Wild (which I have no issues with), but they decided to not implement the actually interesting subtleties like having equipment have a more important role with the world itself. I don't get any cool moments like being struck by lightning during a storm, or changing to more appropriate clothing for hot or cold climates, nope, we just get static buffs that don't make much of a difference.
There's a lot of other problems here too. The map is refreshingly more compact than Ubisoft's previous titles, however it's so cluttered with cliffs (The map is 80% mountains man!) god statues, useless broken bridges, and the usual copy-paste temples/houses/statues. Navigating the map is a nightmare, you spent half the game slowly climbing up endless cliffs. You can't utilize your mount because the map has zero flow to it. Remember how all the Korok puzzles subtly blended in with the environment aiding the atmosphere? Ubisoft thinks you're a fucking idiot because all of the puzzles are marked with red. You can't walk 30 seconds without spotting these blights upon the land. It clashes with the mood they're trying to set (not to mention red wall blocks are archaic at this point). The camera is too zoomed out and left me feeling detached from the world and it's characters. I want to see the details of the art but I can only do that with the camera feature, not naturally. I think this is the worst world Ubisoft has crafted. The surreal style I think they tried to accomplish just ends up looking like some glitched auto-generated terrain from Sim City.
Puzzles range from pushing boxes onto pads, pushing balls into holes, throwing rocks at damaged walls, and platforming; there's no innovation here. You get the feeling you've seen all the puzzles Fenyix has to offer puzzle within the first few shrines. The ball puzzles are infuriating because the physics are wonky; the shrine where I fought Achilles starts with you pulling a lever to spawn a ball which moves across upward wind tunnels, and you have to speed-platform (movement feels sluggish) to catch the ball before it falls off the other side of the platform it's headed towards. My first three attempts the physics failed and caused the ball fall into the abyss before it even reached it's destination. It's random if this lever works as intended. You could say GTFO OR GET GUD at platforming and catch the ball before it falls but the controls are baffling and unintuitive. Like why is square crouch? Why does pushing the analog sticks do nothing useful? Why are the R1/R2 the attack buttons? It's impressive how this game manages to feel sluggish even outside of the game. You can change the controls but honestly I didn't feel like playing the text-based version of sliding block puzzle that is fixing the controls, I'm already sick of finishing the actual fucking sliding block puzzles in the game itself. No thanks.
I'm going to finish off this review with a video I took showcasing how passionless this game is.
https://twitter.com/chadhacheydev/status/1413024881265029120?s=20
what if breath of the wild sucked: the game
At least looks pretty.
At least looks pretty.
Fenyx Rising should be the poster child for player agency and sequence breaking in open-world video games
Voy a quitarme de en medio lo más importante primero: ¿es este juego un clon de Breath of the Wild? No. En absoluto. ¿Está muy influenciado por él? Sí, desde luego, pero de la mejor forma posible.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising es una aventura fantástica que junta las mejores piezas de distintos juegos con muchísimo gusto y demostrando que Ubisoft es capaz de hacer algo que se sale de "lo de siempre".
El mapa es otro ejemplo más de lo buena que es esta gente diseñando mundos. Cada rincón sirve para algo, ya sea para un combate, un puzle, un coleccionable o una referencia a algún mito o leyenda griega, pero a la vez consigue no dar la sensación de estar abarrotado.
Moverse por el mapa es una gozada. Fenyx tiene un montón de habilidades a su disposición para ello y no se hace tedioso ni aburrido en ningún momento. Lo mismo con los puzles, que, aunque utilizan un surtido limitado de ingredientes, consiguen mantenerse originales y son todos bastante distintos entre sí.
Los combates también funcionan muy bien, aunque al estar limitado a solo tres armas (espada, hacha y arco) y cinco habilidades, hacen que, a la larga, sean todos un poco iguales. La escasa variedad de enemigos tampoco ayuda a esto, aunque al menos los arquetipos que hay son bastante distintos entre sí.
La historia es muy divertida, los personajes son muy buenos y no solo no interrumpe el flujo de juego normal de ir explorando a tu gusto, sino que en muchos casos te incita a ello, llevándote a explorar zonas que quizá hubieras pasado por alto. Además, Fenyx es una protagonista fantástica.
Me ha gustado mucho y lo recomiendo encarecidamente si os gustó Breath of the Wild. Es una idea muy similar, pero una ejecución lo suficientemente distinta para que valga la pena probarlo.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm gonna address the elephant in the room first: is this game a Breath of the Wild clone? No. Not at all. Is it heavily influenced by it? Yes, absolutely, but in the best possible way.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising is a fantastic adventure that takes parts from different games and mixes them up with a lot of taste and proving Ubisoft is capable of doing something outside of "the usual".
The map is yet another example of how good these people are at designing worlds. Every corner hides something, whether it's a fight, a puzzle, a collectable or a reference to a Greek myth or legend, and at the same time manages not to feel too crowded.
Moving around is very satisfying. Fenyx has a lot of abilities at her disposal to do so and it never becomes tedious or boring. Same thing with puzzles, which, despite using a limited array of ingredients, they manage to stay unique and all of them are pretty different from each other.
Fights are also quite good, although being limited to just three weapons (sword, axe, and bow) and five abilities makes it so they end up being a bit same-y near the end. The lack of enemy variety doesn't help this either, although the archetypes they have are pretty different from each other.
The story is fun, the characters are very good and not only it doesn't interrupt the normal gameplay flow of exploring at your own leisure, but it encourages you to do so, taking you to areas you may have overlooked. On top of it, Fenyx is a fantastic protagonist.
I enjoyed it a lot and I strongly recommend it if you enjoyed Breath of the Wild. It's a very similar idea, but the execution is different enough to make it worth a try.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising es una aventura fantástica que junta las mejores piezas de distintos juegos con muchísimo gusto y demostrando que Ubisoft es capaz de hacer algo que se sale de "lo de siempre".
El mapa es otro ejemplo más de lo buena que es esta gente diseñando mundos. Cada rincón sirve para algo, ya sea para un combate, un puzle, un coleccionable o una referencia a algún mito o leyenda griega, pero a la vez consigue no dar la sensación de estar abarrotado.
Moverse por el mapa es una gozada. Fenyx tiene un montón de habilidades a su disposición para ello y no se hace tedioso ni aburrido en ningún momento. Lo mismo con los puzles, que, aunque utilizan un surtido limitado de ingredientes, consiguen mantenerse originales y son todos bastante distintos entre sí.
Los combates también funcionan muy bien, aunque al estar limitado a solo tres armas (espada, hacha y arco) y cinco habilidades, hacen que, a la larga, sean todos un poco iguales. La escasa variedad de enemigos tampoco ayuda a esto, aunque al menos los arquetipos que hay son bastante distintos entre sí.
La historia es muy divertida, los personajes son muy buenos y no solo no interrumpe el flujo de juego normal de ir explorando a tu gusto, sino que en muchos casos te incita a ello, llevándote a explorar zonas que quizá hubieras pasado por alto. Además, Fenyx es una protagonista fantástica.
Me ha gustado mucho y lo recomiendo encarecidamente si os gustó Breath of the Wild. Es una idea muy similar, pero una ejecución lo suficientemente distinta para que valga la pena probarlo.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm gonna address the elephant in the room first: is this game a Breath of the Wild clone? No. Not at all. Is it heavily influenced by it? Yes, absolutely, but in the best possible way.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising is a fantastic adventure that takes parts from different games and mixes them up with a lot of taste and proving Ubisoft is capable of doing something outside of "the usual".
The map is yet another example of how good these people are at designing worlds. Every corner hides something, whether it's a fight, a puzzle, a collectable or a reference to a Greek myth or legend, and at the same time manages not to feel too crowded.
Moving around is very satisfying. Fenyx has a lot of abilities at her disposal to do so and it never becomes tedious or boring. Same thing with puzzles, which, despite using a limited array of ingredients, they manage to stay unique and all of them are pretty different from each other.
Fights are also quite good, although being limited to just three weapons (sword, axe, and bow) and five abilities makes it so they end up being a bit same-y near the end. The lack of enemy variety doesn't help this either, although the archetypes they have are pretty different from each other.
The story is fun, the characters are very good and not only it doesn't interrupt the normal gameplay flow of exploring at your own leisure, but it encourages you to do so, taking you to areas you may have overlooked. On top of it, Fenyx is a fantastic protagonist.
I enjoyed it a lot and I strongly recommend it if you enjoyed Breath of the Wild. It's a very similar idea, but the execution is different enough to make it worth a try.
im surprised that i liked it. made me rekindle my interests in greek mythos
It's refreshing to play a more than decent Ubisoft open world that I really enjoyed playing
Definitely what I would call a, "Very nice surprise!" Admittedly with a rather weak prologue and ending, its the journey that is the quality meat of this sandwich. The metaphor is fine! World is fun to explore, the enemy-scaling and weapon upgrade systems seem very well balanced. In fact, while I do like deeper skill trees, sometimes you appreciate something relatively simple. If I can say one big indictment against it is that, now that I've beaten it, I'm not sure I feel the need to come back for a New Game+ or the DLC, but as I've already said, enjoyed my time with the game overall.
This game left me so devoid of feeling it made me feel like a corpse.
This has to be one of the most boring, repetitive, and soul-crushing games I've played in some time.
It takes so many points from Zelda BOTW but never understood what made BOTW great; so everything feels super disingenuous and bland.
The combat is just Assassins Creed Odyssey's combat that being it's repetitious and barely adds any challenge.
The game tries to be funny in the same way Borderlands try to be funny "Annoying/Self-Awareness + Self-Deprecation = COMEDY GOLD". I thought it was really unfunny but what we find funny is super subjective so this isn't really a point against the game but more like something I wanted to rant about.
At the end of the day, I found the game so boring I didn't even finish it, and don't give me the whole "You can't review a game unless you've actually played it".
I put nearly 19 hours into this game and the whole time I was bored out of my mind, I don't care if it gets really good by the 45-hour mark if your game can't Interest me in less than 10 hours then you've failed in my opinion.
This has to be one of the most boring, repetitive, and soul-crushing games I've played in some time.
It takes so many points from Zelda BOTW but never understood what made BOTW great; so everything feels super disingenuous and bland.
The combat is just Assassins Creed Odyssey's combat that being it's repetitious and barely adds any challenge.
The game tries to be funny in the same way Borderlands try to be funny "Annoying/Self-Awareness + Self-Deprecation = COMEDY GOLD". I thought it was really unfunny but what we find funny is super subjective so this isn't really a point against the game but more like something I wanted to rant about.
At the end of the day, I found the game so boring I didn't even finish it, and don't give me the whole "You can't review a game unless you've actually played it".
I put nearly 19 hours into this game and the whole time I was bored out of my mind, I don't care if it gets really good by the 45-hour mark if your game can't Interest me in less than 10 hours then you've failed in my opinion.
There's a point near the very beginning of the game where you climb on top of a high up vantage point to mark points of interest onto the map. Suffice to say that Immortals' colour palette is beige at worst and orange at best; those said points of interest are only made noticeable by their video gamey red glowing aura - wisely chosen to pierce through the duststorm and not be swallowed by the monotony of its visual design. You then spend the next few minutes cataloguing these red lights one-by-one as new UI waypoints are revealed. Every single one of them is made immediately apparent to be different flavours of collectable. The title card quite literally hasn't even dropped yet, and you're surveying the land with the same adventurous spirit of a warehouse worker doing a stock check. It's an Ubisoft game, by the way.
Just kind of a pathetic game, honestly. Breath of the Wild coattail rider with all of the charm and creativity you should really expect from the French videogame machine with a clot of coal where its heart should be. Between this and Genshin Impact, it's sad to grow so weary so quickly of the type of open-world Breath of the Wild vitalised. It may not have gatcha, but it boils the wonder of exploration into a skinner box of chests, collectables and distractions strewn scattershot around an environment in a way that feels completely dispassionate and built only to addict. This awful dialogue is such a waste of good greek accents.
Just kind of a pathetic game, honestly. Breath of the Wild coattail rider with all of the charm and creativity you should really expect from the French videogame machine with a clot of coal where its heart should be. Between this and Genshin Impact, it's sad to grow so weary so quickly of the type of open-world Breath of the Wild vitalised. It may not have gatcha, but it boils the wonder of exploration into a skinner box of chests, collectables and distractions strewn scattershot around an environment in a way that feels completely dispassionate and built only to addict. This awful dialogue is such a waste of good greek accents.
Better than I was expecting
You’ve already played this game
Story was just fine but also idiotic and had awful twists. I like that when you upgrade items such as your armour or your sword, you upgrade all items within that category so you don’t get any anxious over what specific sword you want to upgrade. Transmog is a really good edition if you like to edit your style however you like without taking away your best armour.
If you don't like Breath of the Wild, this is your game. But if you don't like Breath of the Wild, what's wrong with you?
I can't play BOTW so this will have to do
The Ubisoft open world game, it’s practically a genre of its own at this point. You know the formula, find a large tower or high point to reveal a portion of the map which in turn populates the map with loads of icons representing a myriad of activities to do, often time way way too many activities. Zelda BOTW was praised for shaking up the formula a bit with a more organic way to explore the world and allowing total freedom with free climbing, Immortals is Ubisoft’s attempt a more puzzle oriented BOTW style game and it shakes up the formula enough to shine as a new potential Ubisoft franchise.
You play as Fenyx a regular soldier (can be male or female, I chose female) who gets entangled in a Greek god struggle between Typhon and the gods of Olympus. It’s the classic hero’s tale, small beginning leading to heroic deeds that save the world, the twist is the entire game is a story narrated by Prometheus who is telling the story to Zeus, they have witty banter and make fun of a lot of the absurdities of Greek mythology. The ongoing commentary seems to have rubbed some people the wrong way, yeah sometimes they talk a lot but I enjoyed the jokes and the actual insightful look at Greek mythology unfiltered, some of the stories are nuts. You will have Zeus confront his murderous and incestuous side, he realizes what a shitty father and person he is. I haven’t seen a Greek god story told in this way so it was refreshing.
The gameplay is a mix of Ubi open world, BOTW puzzles and basic hack and slash action. Let’s get the combat out of the way as it’s the weakest link, you have basic quick strikes which fill your stamina bar and strong attacks which drain it. Strong attacks lower the enemies stamina bar which when emptied they enter a stunned state where you can attack freely. There is a parry system to counter enemy regular attacks and a basic dash dodge to avoid the enemies in lockable strong attacks. To top it off there a multitude of upgrades to the skills which allow longer combo strings and more maneuverability. Fenyx can learn new godly powers as you play which act like super attacks, there are only five of them so you will be abusing them as nauseam, these take a big chunk of stamina so the game becomes about mixing in light strikes to get stamina back up in order to use more god powers. There is also a lift and throw mechanic which lets you throw rocks at enemies, it’s a viable strategy at the start but quickly becomes obsolete. There is a bow and arrow that is practically useless in battle as well.
Combat works well enough, it’s fast paced, it has the combo building of a really simplistic DMC style game. Enemies are a threat for a good chunk of the beginning of the game until you upgrade. This is the bane of all open world games, horrible balance if you try to find all upgrades, at some point I became a god, even the most toughest enemies became trivial fights. Boss battles were over in less than a minute. Games should get more skill based as you play not get easier and this is where the whole combat system fails. There just isn’t enough depth to sustain it past a certain point. Enemies do come in many different forms but the strategy to fight all of them is exactly the same. Bosses are usually just bigger versions of regular enemies so don’t expect many memorable battles. As a comparison many say BOTW combat system is very basic but I always felt BOTW was dangerous even at high levels and allowed for far more improvisation and freedom on how to tackle enemies, so while the actual feel of the move set feels better in Immortals I think BOTWs combat is more interesting.
Where Immortals succeeds is it’s incredible collection of puzzles scattered all over the world and the many many vaults that serve as a take on BOTWs shrine system. This is an Ubisoft open world where basically all the activities are puzzles and holy shit are there a ton of them. Treasure chests litter the landscape, most holding some upgrade materials and new gear (that give stat bonuses); where most games would just have these chests as a reward for a fight this game hides them behind light walls that can only be taken down by solving some kind of puzzle. These puzzles usually come in the form of moving blocks on switches, lighting unlit torches, guiding weighted objects to a panel and so on. It’s usually puzzles involving being observant of your environment, is there a cracked wall hiding a switch I need? If I need a heavy object for this floor panel where can I find it and so on. These puzzles range from pretty basic to surprisingly elaborate. It reminded me of Batman Arkham riddler trophies on a larger scale. I loved the riddler trophies because it gave the player something to think about and solve for every reward, you didn’t just mindlessly find it and grab it. Immortals is similar, every object is earned by thinking or doing a fun activity that makes use of your skills.
The vaults are where the really interesting puzzles lie. They all take place in the same looking vault realm, much like how all Zelda shrines share the same aesthetic, and here is where you will go through an obstacle course of lasers, moving platforms and puzzle solving. Again many involve the use of moving objects to switches but all kinds of obstacles will get in the way. In some you need to block lasers to get a breakable box to a switch. In some you are moving a large rolling ball around while being able to change the direction of the wind to have it launch off ramps. On some you are on a moving platform trying to hit targets with your arrow that are also moving while you are avoiding lasers. They keep finding new ways to use the same objects , it’s all quite brilliant. Unlike BOTW there are very few basic one note vaults, most have three steps, first one shows how the puzzle will work, the second elaborates on it and the third step takes that puzzle to an advanced state. Yes there are a collection of combat vaults which are basically arena fights versus enemies but I didn’t find them as numerous as the ones in BOTW. At the end of the missions of each region of the map you access a god vault which is a more elaborate large “dungeon” like level, these are the best of the vaults and all were well done. I kind of feel that here Immortals beat BOTW at it’s own game, this game does the bite sized puzzle rooms better.
Now if you don’t like switch based puzzles where you are many times moving boxes or large spheres around then this game won’t be for you. It’s almost a throw back to the late 90s when box puzzles were all the rage but this one does it with way more creativity. Also the skills Fenyx has don’t really come into play that much and that’s where it hits its limit to puzzle solving, BOTW has multiple gameplay systems at play that are used in puzzle solving often times allowing the player to improvise, there is almost none of that here. There is usually one way to solve a puzzle, you do what the devs designed and that is it. So I love the creativity and content of these kinds of puzzles but I wished there were more systems at play like how BOTW has.
Immortals game world is a beautiful colorful world that is mostly a joy to explore. The graphics art style fits the world extremely well, a sort of cartoony look that emphasizes bright contrasting colors. I love the look of the lush green fields of Athena’s grove and that contrasts greatly with the red desolate look of Ares battlefields. There are large temples to explore, massive statues to climb and jump off of to glide around the world looking for the next activity. Now the world isn’t too interactive, again I’ll use BOTW as the comparison point, you aren’t manipulating world systems here, you can’t start a fire and push it while manipulating the wind so to say. It’s all very static and that doesn’t allow any emergent gameplay, luckily I found the plethora of activities to keep me entertained for the many many hours it takes to see everything.
Immortals is great first attempt at a more thought provoking take on the Ubisoft formula, it borrowing from BOTW is no coincidence as it actually manages to do some aspects better but clearly is lacking in others. They nailed the pacing with the puzzles, I never felt bored, I never felt like I was wandering aimlessly looking for something new to do. If you love puzzles and a ton of small mini game like activities this is a massive game full of them, so it’s almost perfect for me. I just wished the combat was not so basic and that more elaborate mechanics get added that can open up further puzzle possibilities. Still this is a great game that shakes up the normal Ubisoft formula.
Score: 8.4
You play as Fenyx a regular soldier (can be male or female, I chose female) who gets entangled in a Greek god struggle between Typhon and the gods of Olympus. It’s the classic hero’s tale, small beginning leading to heroic deeds that save the world, the twist is the entire game is a story narrated by Prometheus who is telling the story to Zeus, they have witty banter and make fun of a lot of the absurdities of Greek mythology. The ongoing commentary seems to have rubbed some people the wrong way, yeah sometimes they talk a lot but I enjoyed the jokes and the actual insightful look at Greek mythology unfiltered, some of the stories are nuts. You will have Zeus confront his murderous and incestuous side, he realizes what a shitty father and person he is. I haven’t seen a Greek god story told in this way so it was refreshing.
The gameplay is a mix of Ubi open world, BOTW puzzles and basic hack and slash action. Let’s get the combat out of the way as it’s the weakest link, you have basic quick strikes which fill your stamina bar and strong attacks which drain it. Strong attacks lower the enemies stamina bar which when emptied they enter a stunned state where you can attack freely. There is a parry system to counter enemy regular attacks and a basic dash dodge to avoid the enemies in lockable strong attacks. To top it off there a multitude of upgrades to the skills which allow longer combo strings and more maneuverability. Fenyx can learn new godly powers as you play which act like super attacks, there are only five of them so you will be abusing them as nauseam, these take a big chunk of stamina so the game becomes about mixing in light strikes to get stamina back up in order to use more god powers. There is also a lift and throw mechanic which lets you throw rocks at enemies, it’s a viable strategy at the start but quickly becomes obsolete. There is a bow and arrow that is practically useless in battle as well.
Combat works well enough, it’s fast paced, it has the combo building of a really simplistic DMC style game. Enemies are a threat for a good chunk of the beginning of the game until you upgrade. This is the bane of all open world games, horrible balance if you try to find all upgrades, at some point I became a god, even the most toughest enemies became trivial fights. Boss battles were over in less than a minute. Games should get more skill based as you play not get easier and this is where the whole combat system fails. There just isn’t enough depth to sustain it past a certain point. Enemies do come in many different forms but the strategy to fight all of them is exactly the same. Bosses are usually just bigger versions of regular enemies so don’t expect many memorable battles. As a comparison many say BOTW combat system is very basic but I always felt BOTW was dangerous even at high levels and allowed for far more improvisation and freedom on how to tackle enemies, so while the actual feel of the move set feels better in Immortals I think BOTWs combat is more interesting.
Where Immortals succeeds is it’s incredible collection of puzzles scattered all over the world and the many many vaults that serve as a take on BOTWs shrine system. This is an Ubisoft open world where basically all the activities are puzzles and holy shit are there a ton of them. Treasure chests litter the landscape, most holding some upgrade materials and new gear (that give stat bonuses); where most games would just have these chests as a reward for a fight this game hides them behind light walls that can only be taken down by solving some kind of puzzle. These puzzles usually come in the form of moving blocks on switches, lighting unlit torches, guiding weighted objects to a panel and so on. It’s usually puzzles involving being observant of your environment, is there a cracked wall hiding a switch I need? If I need a heavy object for this floor panel where can I find it and so on. These puzzles range from pretty basic to surprisingly elaborate. It reminded me of Batman Arkham riddler trophies on a larger scale. I loved the riddler trophies because it gave the player something to think about and solve for every reward, you didn’t just mindlessly find it and grab it. Immortals is similar, every object is earned by thinking or doing a fun activity that makes use of your skills.
The vaults are where the really interesting puzzles lie. They all take place in the same looking vault realm, much like how all Zelda shrines share the same aesthetic, and here is where you will go through an obstacle course of lasers, moving platforms and puzzle solving. Again many involve the use of moving objects to switches but all kinds of obstacles will get in the way. In some you need to block lasers to get a breakable box to a switch. In some you are moving a large rolling ball around while being able to change the direction of the wind to have it launch off ramps. On some you are on a moving platform trying to hit targets with your arrow that are also moving while you are avoiding lasers. They keep finding new ways to use the same objects , it’s all quite brilliant. Unlike BOTW there are very few basic one note vaults, most have three steps, first one shows how the puzzle will work, the second elaborates on it and the third step takes that puzzle to an advanced state. Yes there are a collection of combat vaults which are basically arena fights versus enemies but I didn’t find them as numerous as the ones in BOTW. At the end of the missions of each region of the map you access a god vault which is a more elaborate large “dungeon” like level, these are the best of the vaults and all were well done. I kind of feel that here Immortals beat BOTW at it’s own game, this game does the bite sized puzzle rooms better.
Now if you don’t like switch based puzzles where you are many times moving boxes or large spheres around then this game won’t be for you. It’s almost a throw back to the late 90s when box puzzles were all the rage but this one does it with way more creativity. Also the skills Fenyx has don’t really come into play that much and that’s where it hits its limit to puzzle solving, BOTW has multiple gameplay systems at play that are used in puzzle solving often times allowing the player to improvise, there is almost none of that here. There is usually one way to solve a puzzle, you do what the devs designed and that is it. So I love the creativity and content of these kinds of puzzles but I wished there were more systems at play like how BOTW has.
Immortals game world is a beautiful colorful world that is mostly a joy to explore. The graphics art style fits the world extremely well, a sort of cartoony look that emphasizes bright contrasting colors. I love the look of the lush green fields of Athena’s grove and that contrasts greatly with the red desolate look of Ares battlefields. There are large temples to explore, massive statues to climb and jump off of to glide around the world looking for the next activity. Now the world isn’t too interactive, again I’ll use BOTW as the comparison point, you aren’t manipulating world systems here, you can’t start a fire and push it while manipulating the wind so to say. It’s all very static and that doesn’t allow any emergent gameplay, luckily I found the plethora of activities to keep me entertained for the many many hours it takes to see everything.
Immortals is great first attempt at a more thought provoking take on the Ubisoft formula, it borrowing from BOTW is no coincidence as it actually manages to do some aspects better but clearly is lacking in others. They nailed the pacing with the puzzles, I never felt bored, I never felt like I was wandering aimlessly looking for something new to do. If you love puzzles and a ton of small mini game like activities this is a massive game full of them, so it’s almost perfect for me. I just wished the combat was not so basic and that more elaborate mechanics get added that can open up further puzzle possibilities. Still this is a great game that shakes up the normal Ubisoft formula.
Score: 8.4
I really like what they tried to do here, but it needs refinement. The boss fights were repetitive and the story was lacking. I actually liked the Zeus/Prometheus banter, it added a nice wrinkle to the game. But overall it felt like it was too ambitious for what it set out to do.
Enjoyed what I played. Finished 3 of the 4 main areas and a decent amount of side stuff. Played about 30 hours or so. Eventually, the open world nature of Ubisoft games got me to get tired of playing.
After playing this I understand why Skull & Crossbones is in such a state of development hell. Its clear that whoever was in charge here changed their minds about five times on what they wanted for the game based off what was sorta-popular at the time.
I mean its very basic Ubisoft but nothing ever works. The graphics are very pretty but theres nothing you'll remember fondly outside of a 'Oh thats nice'. The story is full of twists and turns but most you can see a mile off and the rest feel half-baked and frustrating with characters you just cant wait to get away from.
Gameplay wise the map is vast but dull, the crafting mechanics and light rpg-skill tree stuff are here but you'll never actually be worried about any of it thanks to how plentiful material is. Theres also the usual hide-in-bushes stealth mechanics that barely gets used and a combat system that never rises above dynasty warriors style spamming.
Finally theres a LOT of random collectables, sidequests and challenges that exist just to waste your time. None of them feel fun or interesting and feel like an exercise in box ticking.
Overall its a game that does play ok but the sheer amount of half-baked mechanics and filler just turns something that could have been a fun little aside into a swamp of 'meh'.
I mean its very basic Ubisoft but nothing ever works. The graphics are very pretty but theres nothing you'll remember fondly outside of a 'Oh thats nice'. The story is full of twists and turns but most you can see a mile off and the rest feel half-baked and frustrating with characters you just cant wait to get away from.
Gameplay wise the map is vast but dull, the crafting mechanics and light rpg-skill tree stuff are here but you'll never actually be worried about any of it thanks to how plentiful material is. Theres also the usual hide-in-bushes stealth mechanics that barely gets used and a combat system that never rises above dynasty warriors style spamming.
Finally theres a LOT of random collectables, sidequests and challenges that exist just to waste your time. None of them feel fun or interesting and feel like an exercise in box ticking.
Overall its a game that does play ok but the sheer amount of half-baked mechanics and filler just turns something that could have been a fun little aside into a swamp of 'meh'.