Immortals Fenyx Rising

Immortals Fenyx Rising (originally known as Gods and Monsters) is an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. The game was released for Amazon Luna, Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S on December 3, 2020.

Immortals Fenyx Rising
Developer(s)Ubisoft Quebec
Publisher(s)Ubisoft
Director(s)Scott Phillips
Writer(s)Jeffrey Yohalem
Composer(s)Gareth Coker
EngineUbisoft Anvil
Platform(s)
ReleaseDecember 3, 2020
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay

Immortals is an action-adventure video game played from a third-person perspective. At the beginning of the game, players can customize the gender, voice, and the appearances of Fenyx using Aphrodite’s Beauty Chair.[1] At any point in the game, they can return to the beauty chair and customize Fenyx. The game is set in a large open world, consisting of seven distinct regions inspired by the Greek gods. The player character is accompanied by a companion bird named Phosphor, which can identify locations of interest on the map. Fenyx can traverse the world quickly through climbing cliffs, riding on a mount, and flying using the wings of Daedalus.[2] The full open world will be accessible from the start of the game.[3] As players explore the world, they would encounter rifts which would teleport them to the Vaults of Tartaros, which are a series of platforming challenges that require players to utilize both Fenyx's combat and traversal abilities.[4] Players can also complete various side-objectives and optional puzzles.[2]

The world of the Golden Isles are occupied with various enemies inspired by Greek mythology, including minotaurs to cyclopes.[2] There are two modes of melee attack; light attacks with a sword are fast but weak, and heavy attacks with an axe are slow but strong. Fenyx can also use bows and arrows to defeat enemies. Players need to manage Fenyx's stamina during combat, as they will become exhausted when they attack successively.[5] As players progress in the game, they would be able to unlock powerful godlike abilities. For instance, Fenyx can unlock Ares' spears which thrust enemies into the air. Armor and weapons can also be upgraded by collecting sufficient crafting resources in the game's world.[2]

Story

After spending eons imprisoned under a mountain by Zeus, Typhon manages to escape and takes his revenge on the Olympian gods, severing them from their godly essences and robbing them of their powers. Zeus flees and meets Prometheus, seeking to secure his aid in battling Typhon. Prometheus instead makes a wager with Zeus that if Typhon can be beaten by a mortal, then he will be freed from his imprisonment. Otherwise, Prometheus will agree to help Zeus. Prometheus then uses his power of foresight to tell the story of Fenyx.

Fenyx, a young Greek shield-bearer of the Delian League, barely survives a shipwreck and washes up on the Golden Isle. She (or he if the player chooses to make them a male instead) is shocked to find that the surviving crew and the Golden Isle's residents have all turned to stone. After recovering several artifacts belonging to legendary Greek heroes and receiving a prophecy, Fenyx rescues a young stranger who later turns out to be Hermes, who informs her about the situation and the grave threat Typhon poses, as he seeks to break the barrier between the mortal realm and Tartaros and reform the world in his own image. Determined to stop Typhon and save humanity, Fenyx agrees to venture out into the Golden Isle to restore the deposed Olympian gods. Through her efforts, Fenyx befriends a magical bird companion named Phosphor and manages to restore Aphrodite (who became a tree without her passion), Ares (who turned into a rooster without pride), Hephaistos (who became one of his automatons without suffering), and Athena (who turned into a child with no judgement). Fenyx also defeats the spirits of Achilles, Atalanta, Herakles, and Odysseus, who had all been corrupted by Typhon.

However, despite the gods having been restored, they quickly begin to fall to bickering and infighting when they cannot agree on a plan to stop Typhon. Fenyx's older brother Ligyron, who somehow escaped the petrification curse, then arrives and tells the gods of his plan to steal Hephaistos' chains from Typhon, enchant them using the blood of the gods, and use them to imprison Typhon once again. The gods agree to Ligyron's plan, but Fenyx is frustrated that he refuses to bring her with him in order to protect her from danger. However, the gods encourage Fenyx to go after Ligyron so as not to let him steal the glory Fenyx deserves.

Fenyx scales the mountain at the center of the Golden Isle and manages to witness Ligyron collaborating with Typhon, collecting all the ingredients necessary to create a poison capable of killing the gods. In return, Typhon will allow Ligyron to become a god in his new world and rule the Golden Isle. Fenyx confronts Ligyron and defeats him, forcing Ligyron to flee to Tartaros. Fenyx follows him and confronts Typhon himself, being able to best him battle. With his last breath, Typhon reveals that Fenyx is actually a demigod and Hermes' child.

Throughout the story, Zeus comes to realize how much he has mistreated his children and the other gods and becomes regretful at how he had become such a poor parent and husband. However, he interrupts the story when he hears Fenyx is supposed to be Hermes' child, pointing out it should not be possible. Prometheus then admits that he had manipulated and fabricated parts of the story. He arranged his Titan brother Atlas to free Typhon and shipwreck Fenyx on the Golden Isle. In addition, he hid details that Fenyx is actually one of Zeus' children and that in reality, Typhon told her that it was Zeus who turned all of humanity to stone. At that moment, Fenyx arrives with Typhon's poison, confirming the entire story was part of Prometheus' plot to have Zeus killed.

Zeus admits that even though he created them, he wanted to destroy humanity due to their flaws, but has come to realize that humanity's flaws are merely a reflection of the flaws the gods and he himself possess as well. He feels he doesn't deserve to live and doesn't put up any resistance. However, Fenyx reveals she doesn't have any intention of killing Zeus, instead of wanting to inspire him to be a better father to his children and a better god. Typhon then reappears, furious that Fenyx will not kill Zeus as planned. He consumes the poison to empower himself and captures Zeus, taunting Fenyx to come and try to stop him. Fenyx follows Typhon back to Tartaros and battles him again, but Typhon manages to slay Phosphor and Fenyx begins to lose ground against him until Zeus escapes and rallies the other gods to come to Fenyx's aid. Working together, they are able to defeat Typhon once and for all as he succumbs to the very poison he consumed.

Afterward, as a reward for helping defeat Typhon, Zeus agrees to return humanity to normal, restores Phosphor as a new creature, the phoenix, and invites Fenyx to live on the Golden Isle with the gods. Fenyx agrees, as long as she gets to keep an eye on Zeus to make sure he's committed to becoming a better god and father. Meanwhile, Zeus sends Ligyron to free Prometheus as part of the wager, but not before tormenting Prometheus by having Ligyron tell his own story of Fenyx, much to Prometheus' annoyance.

Development

The game was developed by Ubisoft Quebec, the team which created Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Game director Scott Phillips added that the project originated from a software bug the team discovered during the development of Odyssey, which changed the humans on the player's crew into giant cyclopses, and decided that it would be a good idea to create a separate game that embraces the mythological side of Greece. Due to the positive reception of Odyssey, Ubisoft's management agreed to greenlight the project.[6]

The game was officially announced as Gods and Monsters during E3 2019.[7] Initially set to be released on February 26, 2020, the game was delayed in October 2019 after another Ubisoft tentpole release, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, failed to be commercially successful. According to Ubisoft, the delay gave additional time for the development team to "ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players".[8] Quebec studio used the additional time to add Zeus and Prometheus as the game's duo narrators, replacing Greek poet Homer, who was initially intended to fulfill this role.[6] A work-in-progress build of the game was leaked on Stadia under the codename Orpheus in June 2020.[9] It was re-revealed as Immortals Fenyx Rising on September 10, 2020. The studio decided to rename the game to reflect its narrative focus and put more emphasis on Fenyx, the game's protagonist.[10] The name change appeared to be a result from a trademark dispute with Monster Energy, which challenged the Gods and Monsters name, believing it would cause confusion.[11]

Right now our heroes are being shown on camera all the time. We see them being selfish, we see them being clumsy falling down stairs, we see them making all kinds of mistakes. At the same time everyone is under such pressure to curate their Instagram story to have the perfect relationship, the perfect food, the perfect house, there's all this pressure to be perfect, but it's also increasingly impossible to be perfect. I feel like [Greek] mythology is the perfect lens to examine that.

Jeffrey Yohalem, The Sixth Axis interview[12]

Jeffrey Yohalem, who had previously written for previous Ubisoft titles such as Assassin's Creed II, Far Cry 3, and Child of Light, served as narrative director and lead writer for the game. The humour of the game – particularly that involving the bickering between the narrators Zeus and Prometheus – was inspired by films such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Princess Bride, and The Naked Gun. In regards to adaptating Greek mythology for modern audiences, Yohalem explained that he didn't want to avoid the darker aspects of its gods and heroes (providing the example of Theseus's kidnapping of Helen of Troy), and instead wanted to specifically highlight those elements through a modern perspective, as it "[speaks] to our current political climate and who we are as human beings on social media." Yohalem believed that the capability of Greek gods and heroes to commit evil acts made them more human, saying that "[the] Greeks believed in balance where what makes us human and makes us complete are both our strengths and weaknesses."[12]

Gareth Coker, who previously worked on Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps, composed the score for the game. Ancient Greek instruments such as lyre and kithara were used when he was recording the music. Coker commissioned these instruments from a Greek luthier and had them transported across the Atlantic.[13]

The game was released on December 3, 2020 for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S. A free demo for the game was released for Stadia users before the game's official launch.[14]

Downloadable content

The first of three DLC packs for the game, A New God, was released late January 2021.[15] Myths of the Eastern Realm and The Lost Gods will release later in the year and feature different main characters to play as.[16]

Reception

Immortals Fenyx Rising received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[17][18][19][20]

References
  1. Tach, Dave (September 10, 2020). "Hands on with gods and monsters in Immortals Fenyx Rising". Polygon. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  2. Wallace, Kimberly (September 10, 2020). "Five Big Takeaways From Our Hands-On With Immortals Fenyx Rising". Game Informer. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  3. Yang, George (September 10, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising Brings Open-World Mythological Adventure in December". The Escapist. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
  4. Mejia, Ozzie (November 30, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising review: Birth of a legend". Shacknews. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  5. Gartenberg, Chaim (September 10, 2020). "Ubisoft's Immortals Fenyx Rising is a familiar-feeling take on Breath of the Wild". The Verge. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  6. Phillips, Tom (September 10, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising is a messy mash-up of the best Nintendo and Ubisoft games this generation". Eurogamer. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  7. Bukacek, Jacob (June 10, 2019). "E3 2019: Ubisoft Announces Gods and Monsters". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  8. Wales, Matt (October 25, 2019). "Ubisoft delays Watch Dogs Legion, Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six Quarantine". Eurogamer. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  9. Oloman, Jordan (June 12, 2020). "Gods and Monsters Gameplay Leaks Due To Google Stadia Bug". IGN. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  10. Ramee, Jordan (September 10, 2020). "Why Gods & Monsters Is Now Called Immortals Fenyx Rising". GameSpot. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  11. Nunneley, Stephany (September 15, 2020). "Gods and Monsters' name changed due to Monster Energy contesting trademark". VG247. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  12. Burrows, Adrian (October 30, 2020). "Interview: Jeffrey Yohalem discusses the myths and comedy that made Immortals Fenyx Rising". The Sixth Axis. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  13. Makuch, Eddie (September 10, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising Adds Halo Infinite Composer, Listen To The Main Theme Here". GameSpot. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  14. Skrebels, Joe (September 11, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising Officially Announced, Coming in December". IGN. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  15. Maguid, Youssef (January 22, 2021). "Immortals Fenyx Rising – Take on the Challenges of the Gods In New DLC On January 28". Ubisoft. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  16. "Immortals Fenyx Rising – What To Look Forward To". Ubisoft. December 12, 2020. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
  17. "Immortals: Fenyx Rising for Nintendo Switch Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  18. "Immortals: Fenyx Rising for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  19. "Immortals: Fenyx Rising for PlayStation 5 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  20. "Immortals: Fenyx Rising for Xbox Series X Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  21. Carter, Chris (December 4, 2020). "Review: Immortals Fenyx Rising". Destructoid. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  22. Damiani, Michael (November 30, 2020). "Review: Immortals Fenyx Rising". Easy Allies. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  23. Goroff, Michael (November 30, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising review". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  24. Shea, Brian (November 30, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising Review – Divine Inspiration". Game Informer. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  25. Leri, Michael (November 30, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising Review - Breath of the Mild". Game Revolution. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  26. Vazquez, Suriel (November 30, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising Review". GameSpot. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  27. Cunningham, James (November 30, 2020). "Review: Immortals: Fenyx Rising". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  28. Shea, Carm (November 30, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising Review". IGN. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  29. Gray, Kate (November 30, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising Review (Switch)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  30. Zawodniak, Matthew (November 30, 2020). "Immortals: Fenyx Rising (Switch) Review". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  31. Kelly, Andy (November 30, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising review". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  32. Croft, Liam (November 30, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising Review (PS5)". Push Square. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  33. Aitken, Lauren (November 30, 2020). "Immortals Fenyx Rising review: A proper good Greek mythology action game". VG247. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
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