It’s hard to say why mortals are so attracted to gods, seeing as it rarely ends well. “Please bless these crops with a bountiful harvest” seems reasonable enough right up until a random deity (Zeus!) decides to get his freak on as a swan. Which results in Leda giving birth to Helen and then the whole Trojan War kicks off years later. Gods personify aspects of the world, many of which people need to survive, but there’s a price for their attention far beyond a tithe to the local temple. Myths and legends tell an endless tale of people who met a horrible fates after encountering their gods, with the only comfort being the few times the fate was justified.
The titan Typhon, born from a Gaia angry at the gods' eradication of the giants (or maybe Hera; myths are twisty little things) has broken free of the prison Zeus caged him in and this time has mostly succeeded at his goals. The problem is that while the gods are defeated the world is actually worse under his vicious reign and it needs someone to put things back as they were. Fenyx may not be the warrior her brother was before being turned to stone, but as it turns out that’s OK. Warriors are useful but Fenyx has the makings of a hero, as capable with weapons as she is with her mind and with a good-hearted nature to boot. Hopefully that’s enough to defeat Typhon, because there’s a giant open island of adventure in Immortals: Fenyx Rising desperately in need of heroic intervention.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising is an open-world action-adventure featuring an upbeat hero striding boldly into the affairs of the Greek gods. On returning home from a journey Fenyx’s ship breaks up in the harsh seas, stranding what I’ll refer to as “her” despite being able to choose gender (and other facial features) at adventure’s start on the rocky shores. A little exploring reveals her brother, who she regards as the properly capable one, has been turned to stone along with the rest of the surviving crew. Fenyx’s brother was the soldier who could do anything, while Fenyx is well-trained but completely untested, aside from her storytelling abilities and deep knowledge of the legends that shaped her world. For someone so green she gets very capable very quickly, only slightly aided by finding top-notch weaponry before the fighting begins.
The first island where Fenyx washes up is a large tutorial, covering the basics of exploration, puzzle-solving and combat. All three are equally important to progress and Fenyx has a strong range of abilities that come in handy for all of it. The first major task is climbing a statue of Hermes, which clears away the fog on the map of the first area. It’s still possible to click the right stick to look around in first-person view even before then, of course, but having a map with the points of interest you’ve scouted out pinpointed on it makes tracking things down much easier. Chests, puzzle areas in multiple types and the ambrosia pickup are all scattered throughout the island, each offering its own challenge to complete.
Chests are generally guarded by Typhon’s minions and monsters, but more often than not clearing them out frees up the area for some environmental puzzling. The constellation challenges, for example, have a number of star-filled spheres locked away and you not only have to find where they are but also solve the puzzle to free them. Finding weights to hold down a trigger-plate that unlocks a switch or shooting a series of targets before the timer runs out and freezes them again are common, but Fenyx has a wide variety of skills that all get put to the test. This is especially true in the Vaults of Tartaros, which are mini-levels separate from the open-world area. Each vault is a glowing red pit in the earth and once inside there’s a primary goal plus bonus chest to chase after. Some vaults have jumping puzzles, others are combat focused and in one particularly memorable area Fenyx had to run between two switches to trigger flippers on a giant pinball machine. The combat is fast and a huge amount of fun but the variety of puzzles and challenges is not only well done throughout, but also frequently designed to reveal subtleties to Fenyx’s abilities that might not be readily apparent.
The second vault is a good example of this. It rewards Fenyx with the bow, which is nice enough for shooting monsters but also an incredible tool in its own right. You can choose to fire a regular arrow, which requires the usual judgement on its arc of travel as gravity takes hold, or shoot a guided arrow that can fly as long as Fenyx’s stamina holds out. The first target is sitting right there but the second one is on a moving pillar and much easier to hit when guided by hand through the curves and turns that arrows generally aren’t known to be capable of. Arrows also light on fire, and more than a few puzzles involve figuring out how to get an arrow through flames and into an unlit brazier.
The rewards for all the puzzle solving tend toward combat enhancements, which not only include new types of weapons and armor, but also the resources necessary to upgrade them. At first Fenyx has a sword for quick, light attacks, an axe for heavier slow strikes that also break an enemy’s guard, plus the bow for mid-combat sniping. She can also do a quick block, flashing gold for acceptable and blue for perfect, plus a dodge that negates all damage plus sets the world into a brief moment of slow motion if timed right. Every swing uses up a bit of stamina but a successful hit with the sword restores some, so effective combat is a balance between multiple types of strike and then the godly powers kick in.
Once off the first island Fenyx needs to make her way to the Hall of the Gods, and while it’s easy to get sidetracked on the way there, it may be best to make a beeline towards it. The Hall of the Gods is where you’re able to upgrade Fenyx with all the collected resources, whether that be topping off the potion supply, spending ambrosia on health and Zeus' lightning on stamina, using the shards earned from beating up monsters on weapon upgrades, plus several other options such as changing appearance or taking on errands for Hermes. The one that changes up combat the most, though, is spending the coins earned from solving puzzles on new abilities and godly powers.
There are four godly powers to play with, all of which are fueled by the stamina gauge. Ares Wrath shoots up a load of spikes around Fenyx, damaging all enemies and shooting everyone including Fenyx into the air. It’s a great way to start an air-juggle on an enemy, especially once you’ve upgrade the axe to have its midair spin-smash attack. Athena’s Shield, on the other hand, is a ground-dash, inflicting multiple hits on its target plus having a nice final attack once it’s been upgraded more. A few story sections in and Fenyx even finds a bird companion, which has a useful attack that strikes multiple times for an area effect. Once you learn to link these together, spending stamina on the godly powers and replenishing it with sword strikes, entire battles can be fought barely touching the ground. Not that all enemies are best handled charging in, of course, because the block move gets a strong workout in almost every encounter, but there’s a rhythm to combat that, once found, makes even the large boss encounters a lightning-fast series of attacks, counters, blocks, dodges and major strikes. It takes a bit to level everything up to that point, but once you’ve got a few abilities plus the experience to use them well, each new group of enemies can be its own mega-combo playground.
All of this action takes place in a large and beautiful island divided into seven zones, each overseen by its own god. The first one, Hermes' Clashing Rocks, is small, but it still takes a good bit of searching and several hours of play to find everything, including the areas that need more abilities from later in the game. After that it’s on to Aphrodite’s green land of rolling hills and rocky cliffs, and then its player’s choice. Athena’s zone isn’t quite so green as Aphrodite’s but has many large buildings to explore, while Ares and Hephaistos' areas are notably browner. Everywhere, though, is great fun to investigate, with the chance to run across secrets or encounters often enough to be refreshing without overwhelming the map. Scaling cliffs, soaring through the skies on Daedalos' wings or galloping over the landscape on the back of a pegasus all feel good to do because of strong art design that makes every area worth taking a moment to see. Assuming you’re able to get where you’re going rather than be distracted by a stray treasure chest along the way.
Closing Comments:
Immortals: Fenyx Rising doesn’t have any right to be as good as it turned out to be. It sounds like a mid-tier PS2 game and in a lot of ways it is, except it takes all the weirdness and creativity and “what on Earth is this supposed to be”-ness of that era and applies full AAA-caliber production values to every aspect of it. The story, for example, is set up as a tale being told by Prometheus to Zeus, who chimes in regularly with quips and remarks, but instead being a cheap one-note character Zeus also drives home the callousness of the gods towards mortals while getting in a few serious lines as well. The ancient Greek setting could easily have been little more than a light coat of paint for an action-adventure, but there are large amounts of references and in-jokes that require a strong working knowledge of Greek mythology to get, with more than a few obscure ones to look up later. There’s a huge amount of attention just about anywhere you look, from the combat system to the biomes to the fantastic variety of puzzle challenges, and it all pays off as each new area opens up and the fights get bigger and more epic. Immortals: Fenyx Rising is an incredible open-world adventure and one of the nicest gaming surprises of the year.
