There’s a lot to be said about Immortals Fenyx Rising. That it’s a close of Breath of the Wild. That it’s far too childish. Or that it’s essentially Assassin’s Creed, but reskinned. In an age where games have aimed for photorealism and developers have been adamant about using a colour palette that has basically amounted to shades of brown, Immortals Fenyx Rising is a breath of fresh air. The sharp contrasts of yellow, purple, blue and green make the world vibrant and a wonder to behold as they pop out of the screen. Even the art style is a reminder of decades long past when mascots dominated the scene. 

I, for one, find it much better than the deluge of similar character models we’ve encountered for several long years of video games. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

While the title of this post is a reference to the epic poem written by Dante Alighieri, which I haven’t quite finished (and in all likelihood, it might take years before I actually bother with Paradisio and catch up with Dante’s yearning for Beatrice), I thought it quite an apt descriptor for the narrative of Immortals Fenyx Rising. Why, you may ask – as the epic poem describes Dante’s descent into the nine circles of Christian Hell before he journeys to purgatory and on to paradise? 

Simple. Because while the plot of the Divine Comedy doesn’t have many (if any) parallels with the game itself, I thought it was a great way to draw attention that Immortals Fenyx Rising is a story told within a story. And who should tell it but our favourite titan chained to a rock, where his liver is ripped out by an eagle every day, as well as the Father of the Gods, Zeus himself.

While the internal timeline takes a bit of time to adjust to, I liked having Prometheus and Zeus commenting about the actions Fenyx was undertaking. It was amusing to listen to them argue, provide commentary (mostly Zeus’s opinions of his many children and his exploits) as well as edits to the ongoing narrative to add a little challenge.

But while the telling of the story was exciting, the actual tale was one as old as time. There was nothing original about finding the Gods, collecting their Essences and tackling Typhon once Fenyx was decked out with upgraded gear and had unlocked all the abilities at their disposal. As a purveyor of video games, I’ve encountered the same loop many times and was a little deflated by the time I had defeated Typhon. Even the plot twist near the end failed to serve up much in the way of surprises. 

Typhon, himself, was a little too hammy. While a serviceable villain for a children’s game, there was far too little depth when it came to his interactions with Fenyx. So, if one was hoping for an epic tale, I would advise to look elsewhere. 

Still, given my love for Greek mythology, I liked the retelling of many of the Greek myths and seeing Immortals Fenyx Rising’s rendition of some of my favourite Gods. Though most were not explored in depth, mentioned only in passing, I liked the references made to the Trojan War, the many ways Athena turned young maidens into cursed monsters or animals/ insects, and the numerous Greek heroes that have since found their way into the mainstream.

What I liked most was that Atalanta was given a piece of the spotlight alongside Herakles, Odysseus and Achilles. Even the animated show Class of the Titans stumbled somewhat with the title screen – declaring Atlanta a descendant of Artemis (which is impossible because the Goddess of the Hunt was prided for her virginal status). 

The characterisation of the Gods was also quite nice. Given Zeus’s proclivities, it made sense that his children hated him. Hephaistos soared in the role of tortured artist and Aphrodite’s transformation into a tree, along with her more selfless attitude in that form were all great to witness. Ares, of course, probably had the most fun quoting God of War (2018) with his: “do not be sorry. Be better.”

When it came to the controls, I felt that they were a little too floaty – particularly when it came to running and jumping. Given the aesthetic, however, I was relieved that it was not as pixel perfect as other games. Combat is serviceable and revolves around the use of sword, axe and bow. After levelling up my weapons and armour, and equipping those that would complement my play style, I was nigh unstoppable as I tore around the Golden Isles on my noble steed.

The one major gripe I had about Immortals Fenyx Rising were the puzzles. There are far too many. Almost every collectible or myth challenge involved moving weighted boxes around, hitting targets with arrows or racing a countdown timer. While most are quite easy, some of the Tartaros vaults could be downright devilish with how precise the timing is. I hope that future iterations would allow for separate difficulties for combat and puzzles/ dungeons because I still have nightmares about a few of them. It just seemed that wherever Fenyx went, they were dogged by contraptions that needed solving and this sucked out quite a bit of the fun from exploring and taking a look at the next question mark on the map.

Immortals Fenyx Rising is different from many games that have come from triple-A studios. While there are many similarities to Nintendo’s Breath of the Wild, the colourful nature of the land of gods and monsters is a far cry from what Ubisoft had primarily been churning out on a regular basis. And that’s a good thing. Shaking up the formula, even a little bit, by making things look a little more cartoony or using colours that pop out of the screen is a great way to reengage with players that might be suffering from first-person shooter fatigue. And while I don’t mind exploring the English countryside as a Vikingr, it is nice to be able to freely customise my avatar and make them wear goofy outfits rather than watching them grimace realistically for the sixtieth game in a row.

Also, it featured a credits scene. Albeit, a fake one that was meant to throw the players off. But, at least there kind of was one?