Gameplay
Immortals is an action-adventure video game played from a third-person perspective. At the beginning of the game, players can customise the gender, the voice and the appearances of Fenyx using Aphrodite’s Beauty Chair. At any point in the game, they can return to the beauty chair and customise 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 in the map. Fenyx can traverse the world quickly through climbing cliffs, riding on a mount, and flying using the wings of Daedalus. The full open world will be accessible from the start of the game. 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. Players can also complete various side-objectives and optional puzzles.
The world of the Golden Isles are occupied with various enemies inspired by Greek mythology, including minotaurs to cyclopes. There are two modes of melee attack; light attacks with a sword are fast but weak, and heavy attacks with a hammer 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. 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.
Story
After an accident stranded Greek soldier Fenyx on the Golden Isle, they must rescue the Greek gods from the monster Typhon, who seeks revenge after he was banished by Zeus and the Greek gods to Tartaros. The game features a light-hearted tone, with Prometheus being the game’s main narrator and Zeus being the unreliable narrator.
Development
The game is currently being 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.
The game was officially announced as Gods and Monsters during E3 2019. Initially set to be released on February 26, 2020, the game was delayed in October 2019 after another Ubisoft’s tentpole release Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint failed to be commercially successful. According to Ubisoft, the delay gave additional time for development team to “ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players”. Quebec studio used the additional time to add Zeus and Promethus as the game’s duo narrators, replacing Greek poet Homer who was initially intended to fulfill this role. A work-in-progress build of the game was leaked on Stadia under the codename Orpheus in June 2020. 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. 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.
Gareth Coker, who previously worked on Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps, would compose 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.
The game is set to be 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 would be released for Stadia users before the game’s official launch.
Reception
Pre-release reception was generally positive, with most of the critics comparing the game to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Upon announcement, the game’s new title received mixed reviews.