Immortals Fenyx Rising (2020)

I'm in the final fourth of this game and am in danger of falling off of it completely. I've been having fun so far, despite it's many flaws, but that sense of fun just suddenly vanished. I don't want to find any more chests, or complete any more vaults. I don't want to solve any more puzzles. The fact the game is throwing some of these things at me as part of the final critical path is really off-putting. Also I'm really stupidly overpowered. I've maxed every base skill and stat and now can invest in multipliers for everything. I'm so powerful that there's not a lot of challenge to the combat. I can pretty much just use the godly powers on repeat and plough through enemies. Even bosses. Bosses melt in seconds. Maybe I need to bump the difficulty up because I am getting really bored now that I'm at the end.

I'm really struggling with these AAA open world games lately. I really must be burnt out because I am not having fun.

Like with many Ubi games, once you get past the jank and fall into the routine of the gameplay loop you remember how satisfying that loop can be. I don't know why that despite the fact that I tend to get burnt out on open world games, I still have a good time in Ubi's games provided I am not playing them back-to-back and they are not littered with world icons and collectables like Unity was. Also Elias Toufexis is Prometheus and I adore his voice, so I find his narration very enjoyable. Annddd, with the Misthios hair and cosmetic outfit Fenyx looks and acts like a cartoon version of Kassandra from AC: Odyssey which makes the entire game feel like an extended version of the Atlantis DLC from that game. Especially with Hermes following me around telling me what to do. I can't really complain given combat feels very similar and I've latched on to perks that duplicate a lot of how Kassandra fights with the Izu equipment available in that DLC. Fault me for enjoying this game as proxy for another game I enjoy, but I can't help myself.

My only mistake was deciding to start this a week prior to Horizon Forbidden West's release, which means I have saddled myself with two giant open world games in succession.

Wow, this really is cell shaded Assassin’s Creed Odyssey right down to the way armour, weapons and skills/perks are set up. It’s get the obvious elements borrowed from BotW but those feel very superficial compared to the fact that underneath the cell shaded facade is AC: Origins and more so Odyssey. My god, weapons are even upgraded at the Forge of Hephaistos. It’s clear Ubi took the ideas they started in AC:Odyssey and ran with them in this game. The sad part is it kind of makes me just want to play that instead.

Oh good, the game has eight forms of currency. God I hate what Ubisoft has become. To think think I used to really like their designs ideas.

The planned DLC for this game seems interesting. The first DLC appears to be similar to the Trial of the Sword in BotW with the description "As Fenyx, overcome the legendary trials and challenges of the gods of Olympus to change the Greek Pantheon and fulfill your destiny."

DLC 2 is a smaller standalone game set in ancient China with a new hero.

DLC 3 is a top-down brawler starring yet another hero.

Everything, right down to the menu, feels like AC:Odyssey. And the setting feels especially like the Elysium section of the Fate of Atlantis DLC. I think it’s something I’d be willing to play, but once it’s dropped in price down closer to $20-$30 CAD. I’m not here to argue the game isn’t worth more, but I haven’t purchased an Ubisoft game for more than that in quite some time. Their games usually drop significantly around a year after release, and I could probably pick up this and AC: Valhalla for less than the current asking price for Fenyx Rising alone.

The demo illustrates that this is likely a worthwhile purchase, but one I’m more than happy to wait on.

Started Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Thoughts so far.

Quite funny. The dialogue has actually made me laugh out loud at times.

I love the art style. It's cartoony and bright and cute.

Story so far is there. It's not particularly engrossing but certainly not offensive. The shift from "oh no my brother is a rock, I'm so weak what can I do?!" to "Well I guess I'll go tackle that cyclops then get back to my best bro Hermes is pretty abrupt.

Traversing the world is more interesting than Assassin's Creed Odyssey. It seems like a game where you can just tackle the quests in no particular order which is cool.

Combat is pretty cool, but I'm a sucker for a game where you can pull off air combos.

All in all it seems like a fun lil game that I hope doesn't overstay it's welcome.