Last week Ubisoft provided editors GameMAG.ru the opportunity to get acquainted with the early version of the game Immortals Fenyx Risingwhich was previously called Gods & monsters… The project was presented back in 2019, but for a long time nothing was heard about it due to alterations, a reshuffle of the development team and a revision of the company’s strategy, within which its games had to stop being conveyed.
However, the result in the face of Immortals Fenyx Rising is puzzling. Let’s jump right off the bat, because the game is a conveyor clone The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the style of the myths of Ancient Greece. This is the most capacious description of what he saw. However, some design decisions raise questions.
Immortals has the following setting. The giant Typhon got out of Tartarus and captured the Olympian gods. The main character, Phoenix, and her firebird need to thwart the villain’s plans, fight monsters and free the captives. The whole story is told on behalf of Prometheus and Zeus, who regularly break through the fourth wall and try to “joke funny” and tell stories about the emergence of the Internet, which the titan allegedly stole to give to people. It looks very strange and constantly interferes with diving.
A huge island is available for research, divided into regions, each of which is controlled by a certain god. In the demo version, you could run around The Forgelands under the control of Hephaestus – this is a hilly area with a forge in the center, and automatons often come across among the enemies.
In the neighboring area, the gate of Tartarus is located, which is a volcano where Typhon sits, who periodically begins to rage and send his minions to Phoenix. In some ways it reminds Crackdown 3where after killing the boss, waves of enemies attacked the player. Here it looks like: an eruption begins, stones fly, various enemies appear, some tentacles, and so on.
As for the gameplay itself, this is an attempt to clone Breath of the Wild, only the performers are much less talented than the team Eiji Aionuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi… And this can be seen in all elements.
In addition to the main tasks, there are various side activities on the map: bosses, puzzles, challenges, points of interest, chests and Tartarus vaults. The latter are tracing paper from the Sanctuaries from “Zelda” and are labyrinths with obstacles. The main task when visiting them is the lightning of Zeus, waiting at the end of the obstacle course.
Many puzzles rely on physics and platform pushing. Therefore, we have the ability to attract objects such as pieces of stones, columns, spheres, and cubes. It looks like in The Legend of Zelda, but worse because of the control: you can only pull an object, throw it under your feet or at a distance. Because of this, accuracy suffers greatly.
There is a general problem with management. In the demo version of Fenyx Rising, the layout of the buttons on the gamepad could not be changed, and the existing one was extremely inconvenient. For example, a Phoenix can glide on its wings, but for some reason as many as three buttons are involved: you need to jump, spread your wings for gliding and make a dash. Because of this, my character regularly dived down. There are also questions to the bow, which does not have a response from an arrow hitting an enemy and pulling a bowstring.
The second major problem is the lack of interactivity, coupled with weird logic. Apparently, Ubisoft expects that the player himself must understand the presented mechanics and start experimenting with them. But the implementation let us down. Task: break the wall. Before that, it could be destroyed with a cube, but in other ruins it is not. Maybe you should use a log that is lying around? No, it will fall apart, so you just need to carry out a powerful blow with an ax. In the third ruins, you must climb the ledge and stand strictly in front of the weakened wall, otherwise the hammer blow will not be counted.
And the same is here at every turn. Did they tell you to light the stoves? Coal is required, for some reason lying in a hole, which you will not immediately pay attention to, or in boxes on statues, from where it is not always possible to pick up the load with a “magnet”.
The worst is the case with the laser riddles. One of the puzzles involved pressing four platforms, for which it was necessary to run with one cube, which should block some of the rays. However, due to the inconvenient dragging and the fact that there is only one cube, it was much easier to just fall under the lasers and constantly heal.
With one more test, the developers have already been clever. This is an obstacle course that must be overcome quickly. Fire and liquid emanating from the walls prevent this from happening, upon contact with which the character’s stamina evaporates. As conceived by the game designers, it is necessary to jump over the columns, avoiding falling into the liquid, but in this case there will not be enough time. Instead, you just need to jerk to fly on the wings almost from the very start.
As for the world itself, the game looks pretty nice and picturesque. The developers chose a slightly cartoonish style, and the landscapes resemble paintings. Apparently, visually, each region will differ from its neighbors in palette. Various statues are scattered all over the map, and the world is quite lively: automatons, cyclops, minotaurs roam the locations, and harpies fly in the sky. In addition, you can find simple animals: horses, lions, and so on.
This is where another mechanic comes into play, borrowed from Breath of the Wild: animals can be tamed. True, everything is easier to implement: it is enough to get close to the horse on the sly to saddle it. This is quite easy, because the animal will not resist in any way and will immediately be added to the inventory. It looks like another menagerie can be tamed this way, but in the demo version, a robotic analogue of Epona with good stamina was available by default.
The very movement around the world turned out to be quite convenient. The ability to move quickly did not go anywhere, but the character turned out to be very mobile due to the ability to climb any sheer walls and use the wings. So when you get used to the specifics of management, you start to enjoy the trip.
The combat system turned out to be quite spectacular. The player has access to a sword, an ax and a bow, as well as several special blows (spears from the ground and a powerful blow with an ax). You can throw objects, but this is rather inconvenient. However, it is really possible to avoid battles, because Phoenix is able to go into invisibility.
Special moves spend a scale of stamina, which can be restored with quick hits or drinking potions. The latter must be made by collecting food and blue mushrooms. To do this, you need to find a boiler in which they need to be welded accordingly.
Leveling in the demo version was blocked, but it is quite extensive, and it is allowed to improve potions as well. And while exploring the world, you can really find new equipment: weapons, armor, helmets, as well as various artifacts.
What preliminary conclusions can be drawn from the outcome? What we have seen is not a bad game, but it reminds too much of Breath of the Wild, mixed with Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey… It seems that Ubisoft has adopted the methods of Chinese game makers, but somehow this does not fit with the desire to leave the assembly line.
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Author: Vadim Syedin (Vadimeys)
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