Immortals Fenyx Rising (December 3, 2020)

[MindFreak]

Just found this at a great price again so bought it and am waiting for it to arrive. Looking forward to playing it, as I'm nearly done with Super Mario 3D World, so perfect timing. 

[drahkon]

There's a demo out now. At least it should be?
Can't actually download it on my PS5 even though it's in the PSN store. (Edit: Worked via the app)

Haven't checked my Switch and obviously no Microsoft console.

Edit: Finished the demo (yes, it's quite short) and I loved it.

Turned off the quest markers, compass and all that jazz. Only had potions, health, stamina and skills left on the screen.
While the quest for the demo was very straight forward, it did require a bit of exploration to finish. Managed to navigate the area via distinct structures or statues or landmarks.

Combat is fun. Very few skills in this demo, but I can see it evolving quite a bit with more abilities to unlock.

Game is beautiful, too. Obviously a cross-gen game, but still...gorgeous. Runs smoothly, as well.

Haven't paid attention to the story/dialogue, i.e. I skipped what could be skipped (it's what I do with demos that don't allow saves to carry over ), so I can't comment on that.

 

I've always been interested in this and the demo turned this into a "this will be my next game situation". Hope this isn't too far off.

Edited January 28, 2021 by drahkon

[MindFreak]

Game arrives today, hopefully will be able to put in a couple of hours between baby stuff over the next couple of days. Paternity leave is god sent... 

[Ronnie]

It's excellent. 70+ hours in and I'm having a great time.

[markderoos]

I’ve finished the game earlier this week and really loved it. It has its flaws, but in the end I think this is a really good game. 
Not sure about the first DLC that launched this week, but the second and third one sound really good too!

[MindFreak]

Started this yesterday on Switch. It's a bit stiff looking, even in docked mode, and jumping is really weird. But the way the story is told is really a stroke of genius. I look forward to playing more of it. 

I tried remapping combat to X and Y via a guide but couldn't go through with it as it wouldn't let me add two button inputs, i.e. L+Y or such. 

[Sheikah]

So I picked the PS5 version of this up off eBay the other day for the grand total of a tenner delivered. I've played about 6 hours or so but I have to say, I'm impressed! Ubisoft have actually done a pretty good job of making an open world with a lot of different content that isn't all just copy and paste. 

Now obviously it takes heavily from Breath of the Wild, but weirdly it doesn't really feel similar. Probably because the battle system is much more arcadey, and it feels a lot easier to get around. Considering how stupidly cheap I got this for I am very pleasantly surprised. It's a shame it seems to be quite overlooked compared to Assassin's Creed because I'd go as far to say that the gameplay at least surpasses it.

[Ronnie]

53 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

So I picked the PS5 version of this up off eBay the other day for the grand total of a tenner delivered. I've played about 6 hours or so but I have to say, I'm impressed! Ubisoft have actually done a pretty good job of making an open world with a lot of different content that isn't all just copy and paste. 

Now obviously it takes heavily from Breath of the Wild, but weirdly it doesn't really feel similar. Probably because the battle system is much more arcadey, and it feels a lot easier to get around. Considering how stupidly cheap I got this for I am very pleasantly surprised. It's a shame it seems to be quite overlooked compared to Assassin's Creed because I'd go as far to say that the gameplay at least surpasses it.

Yeah I think it's an extremely under-rated game, easily my most enjoyable experience on PS5 so far. Beautiful visuals too.

The map is flooded with the usual Ubisoft checklists but the narration from Zeus and Prometheus and the storytelling makes each little collectible a lot more fun than most of their other games. 

[MindFreak]

I stopped playing this at some point after the 20 hours mark because I didn't really know where to go and didn't have energy to just wander about discovering stuff. I've always wanted to return to it, though, as I did enjoy it rather much.

[Hero-of-Time]

I've been meaning to pick it up for a while now. I nearly did so around Christmas when most places were selling for £12. As someone who enjoys the cookie cutter format of Ubisoft's open world games, I think I'll really enjoy this.

[Sheikah]

I've been meaning to pick it up for a while now. I nearly did so around Christmas when most places were selling for £12. As someone who enjoys the cookie cutter format of Ubisoft's open world games, I think I'll really enjoy this.

I was thinking you'd enjoy this one. Good fun so far, and you can pick it up around a tenner now if you don't mind going preowned.

[darksnowman]

I gave the demo a whirl a while back and liked that it seemed pretty well guided. I prefer to be told where to go next and to be allowed to deviate on the way there rather than be dumped into something that has next to no structure. I've had it in my hands a few times when I've seen it on sale but am yet to take it to the tills. 

3 hours ago, MindFreak said:

I stopped playing this at some point after the 20 hours mark because I didn't really know where to go and didn't have energy to just wander about discovering stuff. I've always wanted to return to it, though, as I did enjoy it rather much.

But this is pretty discouraging to hear.  

[Ronnie]

The game guides you pretty well? There's always main objective markers on the map from what I remember. I think the most you have to figure out on your own might be locating the enormous colossi in each of the four main areas, but they're not exactly easy to miss

[MindFreak]

Ah, no. It's entirely my fault. Sort of. At least not the game's fault. I had just followed a quest, it ended, and I didn't know where to go. But I had just got my second son at that time (January last year) and things were getting busy so I didn't have the energy to pick it up at the time. And then time passed. Didn't play much for a good month or two after that.  

[Sheikah]

So it's been suggested that they are making a sequel to this game. That's good news, I've enjoyed what I've played of the original game so far. Elden Ring has somewhere interrupted my playthrough but I'll be back on this game after that.

[darksnowman]

Been on this the past few evenings. Not a perfect game. Let me say that first. Technically rough around the edges (similar to M+R Sparks of Hope). Controls can be a bit wonky at times when you're attempting to move/climb/jump with precision. 

Yet it seems to be good to very good. Open world, but so far has me on a string, tugging me forwards, making sure I know where to go to continue which gives it a more linear feel than I expected. There've been times I thought I'd spent a lot of time veering off to check for nooks and crannies, only to pan the camera around and recognise somewhere fairly close that I'd come from. So it was nice not to have a huge trek back. Decent rate of picking up new equipment and abilities, then after the prologue, upgrading becomes available so there seems to be a good sense of progression with your character. Speaking of the prologue, I spent about 4 hours in that opening area (without doing everything) and I was just as surprised as the narrator when IMMORTALS: FENIX RISING came up on the screen and it became apparent that was just the intro. 

Missed stuff in that opening area for several reasons. It looked like I might need gear/abilities I didn't have (so I could check back now) and didn't people say "these Ubisoft games" put everything on your map? Hasn't happened for me here.  I scaled something and it expected me to do a 360º point-and-click pixel hunt to find and mark things myself.   After a couple I jumped down and moved on. Might be more fun just to happen upon things as I go if mapping is Skyward Sword dousing. At least guiding arrows like the Skyward Sword flying beetle item is fun to do.

Another pain point is Ubisoft Connect. I have to take the Switch offline just to get into the game as there's no other way I see to cancel/bypass the Connect login. The menus are cursor based which in itself isn't ideal, however my thumb is always drifting to the d-pad and on the pause menu, down takes you to the store... which brings up the Connect login... which I need to go offline to cancel out of... yeah... it's a bit of a hassle. 

Combat on the shoulder buttons is strange for me. R for sword? Weird! Taking some getting used to but I'll get there. Not sure if I'll ever get the timing reliably down for parrying. Looking forward to powering up so much I can go back and one-shot early game bears. I'll tell you what is satisfying—sending enemies flying off into the ether when you deliver the crunching death blow. I keep reflexively trying to run after them for item drops. 

The underground challenge areas remind me of Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Had a good chuckle when I jumped into the first one and end-of-first-phase-of-K. Rool in DKC credits played.  

This isn't typically my type of game so let's see how long I stick with it. Trying to explore but glad to know where the game wants me to go so I have the option to press on without wasting an evening being lost, frustrated, getting fed up. Will just have to keep an eye if I beeline it and end up being underpowered.

Got the Gold Edition for ~£2 as it was 98% off on some region's eShop the other week, so I might be viewing Immortals through a more critical prism had I forked out full price. But yeah, good personality, good impetus, good value and I wonder if this guy'll show up in a late-game twist:

[EEVILMURRAY]

1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

Missed stuff in that opening area for several reasons. It looked like I might need gear/abilities I didn't have (so I could check back now) and didn't people say "these Ubisoft games" put everything on your map? Hasn't happened for me here.  I scaled something and it expected me to do a 360º point-and-click pixel hunt to find and mark things myself.   After a couple I jumped down and moved on. Might be more fun just to happen upon things as I go if mapping is Skyward Sword dousing. At least guiding arrows like the Skyward Sword flying beetle item is fun to do.

I only marked stuff that I could see from my current position, I think this is better than it giving you everything. Plus you can use that sense/marking thing from anywhere really.

Arrows... great fun, even though going for the head is the best weak point for massive damage. You've got to go for a few classic crotch shots.

After mainly fapping with Dark Souls, shoulder buttons for light/heavy combat is becoming more normal for me. It's also happening on other games I have too.

 

It's what Breath of the Wild should've been. 

[darksnowman]

On 13/04/2023 at 12:34 PM, EEVILMURRAY said:

Plus you can use that sense/marking thing from anywhere really.

Thought it was context-sensitive to those special high spots so this has been a top tip. Do you know roughly what the range is on it? Seems things appear on the radar bar from 300 meters.

I've played some more this week. Getting into it. I've found stuff I can't beat (like the Achilles Wraith) but I'm getting by okay with other encounters. Nothing flashy; just dodging and attacking but it's satisfying enough for me! I've got Phospheros, did the Aphrodite stuff, did other things that seemed to give me items for the DLC?, and last left it in the midst of going after 4 beasts Aphrodite put on my map. I'm handling those all right which seems a good indicator I'm capable of doing the story tasks...?

Rather than go after everything on the map, I noticed I've prioritised ambrosia (for health). I uncovered two more areas of the map but don't expect to push into them until I do some more stuff in Aphrodites region. There's a certain "I'll just grab this, then I'll just nip over and grab that" rhythm to it. I was pleasantly surprised how small the map is. At one point when going around the coastline, I pulled up the map thinking I'd only gone a few millimetres in the grand scheme of things and I'd actually made it a good distance from where I started. So it's been handy enough going back and forward across that area without depending on fast travel.

On 13/04/2023 at 12:34 PM, EEVILMURRAY said:

It's what Breath of the Wild should've been. 

 Was trying to tip-toe around that since I hadn't played enough of Immortals. Main problem I'm having with Fenix is he doesn't quite turn on a sixpence when in flight which makes it difficult if you slip out of an updraft to get get back in it. Otherwise it's good stuff! Maybe that's because I don't play Assassins Creed and that kind of thing though. I can see myself uncovering the entire map here which is more than I did with the Shiekah Towers in BotW anyway.

[darksnowman]

Think that's the starting zone 100% done now. Scans aren't turning up anything else, at least. Doubt I'll comb through the rest of the areas to completion so it's nice to have (potentially) mastered that one. Was surprised to learn that you have to memorise the lyre music—I thought it was just a matter of finding them then reporting back to the big one for some goodies. So, I'll probably skip on the rest of those unless I feel hard up for stuff further down the road.

Second "story quest" done too. Athena. By the way it fills in on the menu, it looks like that should have been the third but since the other areas look more hostile, I went in this direction first. It's a smaller region with stuff packed in vertically and still plenty left to mop up. As I said before, I'll probably just home in on the ambrosia scans I have then head on.

For some reason I still don't trust the game when it comes to quest zones for things like those galaxy orbs or searching out objects to put on the pressure pads, and every time it proves me wrong because what you need is always in the immediate vicinity and never too longwinded to sniff out. You just have to familiarise yourself with the nearby environs. In fact, the one time I brought in rocks and wood from further afield I ended up accessing a vault I couldn't proceed with anyway due to my limited abilities at that time. So that was me taught. (Could return to that now actually...)

There's a task on my list to take down three lieutenants. Haven't got one yet, nor do I know what I'm meant to be on the lookout for. Curious to see what ends up feeding into that. Snow zone sighted but I'm going to keep it in reserve and head up the uninviting east side of the map next. Might just do the bare minimum there. See how it goes.

[EEVILMURRAY]

On 5/2/2023 at 7:36 AM, darksnowman said:

Think that's the starting zone 100% done now. Scans aren't turning up anything else, at least. Doubt I'll comb through the rest of the areas to completion so it's nice to have (potentially) mastered that one. Was surprised to learn that you have to memorise the lyre music—I thought it was just a matter of finding them then reporting back to the big one for some goodies. So, I'll probably skip on the rest of those unless I feel hard up for stuff further down the road.

Second "story quest" done too. Athena. By the way it fills in on the menu, it looks like that should have been the third but since the other areas look more hostile, I went in this direction first. It's a smaller region with stuff packed in vertically and still plenty left to mop up. As I said before, I'll probably just home in on the ambrosia scans I have then head on.

For some reason I still don't trust the game when it comes to quest zones for things like those galaxy orbs or searching out objects to put on the pressure pads, and every time it proves me wrong because what you need is always in the immediate vicinity and never too longwinded to sniff out. You just have to familiarise yourself with the nearby environs. In fact, the one time I brought in rocks and wood from further afield I ended up accessing a vault I couldn't proceed with anyway due to my limited abilities at that time. So that was me taught. (Could return to that now actually...)

There's a task on my list to take down three lieutenants. Haven't got one yet, nor do I know what I'm meant to be on the lookout for. Curious to see what ends up feeding into that. Snow zone sighted but I'm going to keep it in reserve and head up the uninviting east side of the map next. Might just do the bare minimum there. See how it goes.

I don't think I did a single Lyre challenge, maybe the first as it was right nearby the harp, but I couldn't be bothered to memorise a tune then whizz over wherever. I liked the constellation challenges more, and the calming music when you do the arrow challenges

There will be a thing where things to find for switches etc are very close (like rocks to Deku circles in that boring Zelda rip off of this game), I think I did the exact same thing as you, and when zipping away I saw it, lesson learnt. One upgrade I would try and get is the making a statue clone of Fenyx, helps with switches a lot, and for attacks having your bird pepper the enemy with fire.

Don't bother with the snow until the end, will be your last zone.

[darksnowman]

1 hour ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

I liked the constellation challenges more, and the calming music when you do the arrow challenges

I think the arrow challenges could do with something to draw your attention to the next hoop. Mostly it's predictable enough and fairly self-explanatory, but there are times the next one isn't in your field of view so it takes some trial and error to figure out the route. For example in a vault, it took me a while to finish an arrow section because the hoops were moving and I never knew which one/s I was missing. Perhaps a nitpick, but you'd think this stuff would be a bit more player-friendly in the modern era. At least the arrow challenges are accompanied by a nice little relaxing tune like you say. Sort of makes me fancy a bit of Pilotwings. 

I take some elaborate routes from distant flames for those bits you need to light torches with arrows.  

1 hour ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

There will be a thing where things to find for switches etc are very close (like rocks to Deku circles in that boring Zelda rip off of this game), I think I did the exact same thing as you, and when zipping away I saw it, lesson learnt. One upgrade I would try and get is the making a statue clone of Fenyx, helps with switches a lot, and for attacks having your bird pepper the enemy with fire.

I've since got the statue ability so I can return to the vault I lugged in additional rocks and logs to access and actually progress inside it now. I thought I had all the abilities now yet last night I came across another vault it says I don't have the ability for. I've a small stash of coins of charon to splurge so I'll keep that in the back of my mind for another time. Yup, I've been using the bird companion a lot. It's a good help for normal enemy groups and bosses alike. Last night I pretty much depended on it against a medusa boss I came to as it kept teleporting out of my range. The fight was so long I ended up throwing caution to the wind and tried to parry back medusas laser attacks. Thankfully it worked.

Happened upon another boss against which I glitched a win. I started whaling on it and for some reason it took off, slugging its way through shallow water so of course I pursued and kept up the slashing. The game told me to get back in the battle area and I obliged, but the boss did not. Eventually it warped back with full health to restart the encounter. Again it fled so I just stuck with it, hacking away and calling Phosphorous to divebomb it. It wasn't long until I tipped it into the deep water and I was teleported back to the encounter area for the victory scene. I'll take it.

All this and more (chests, constellations, frescos, ambrosias I hadn't mapped) I did while going after three ambrosia in close proximity of each other that I'd marked. Thought I'd just grab those and move on but with things being so close I keep deciding there's no harm getting sidetracked for a minute... then there's a wraith attack and wherever I've fled to by the time that blows over there's always something I might as well grab when I'm there... and on it goes.

Athena put a harpy on the map she wants me to go after. It wiped the floor with me in three or four swift hits so I left it there. Looks like something I'll have to come back to. Next stop is definitely the east side.

[EEVILMURRAY]

9 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Athena put a harpy on the map she wants me to go after. It wiped the floor with me in three or four swift hits so I left it there. Looks like something I'll have to come back to. Next stop is definitely the east side.

Is that the one on the (I think?) bottom left of the map, probably one of the hardest bitches in the game. Even with all my anti flying stuff and crotch shots it took some time.

[darksnowman]

19 minutes ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

Is that the one on the (I think?) bottom left of the map, probably one of the hardest bitches in the game. Even with all my anti flying stuff and crotch shots it took some time.

The very thing. If it's that hard with anti-flying stuff (and I don't have any...) then I'll spare it no further effort and press on.

[darksnowman]

War's Den. Not the most hospitable what with it being a battlefield of giants, but I came to realise it's not the scorched hellscape I had it down as. That's because the first time I legged it through this area for the Phosphorus sidequest, I was under a wraith attack which was mayhem to experience in the early going with low health and low stamina. Then, this time, as soon as I crossed into the area, another wraith attack broke out and I figured I was going to be up against it for the duration. But it passed and a level of calm settled, and while I still don't find it the most inviting of zones, I was able to go about my business (with wraith attacks hitting at the usual inconvenient intervals).

The comedy of the Ares situation (story stuff) provided a nice contrast. I grabbed a couple of ambrosia, the odd chest, a night chest (to complete a task of getting 5), transported an apple, and didn't do a great deal more. Took down two lieutenants! One was an oversized enemy beside a story quest zone and the other was the boss of the storyline here. Just the one more needed but I'm keen to put War's Den behind me so I doubt I'll mooch around for it. If I need to, I'd rather go for the remaining chests, vaults and whatnot in the other (green) areas before coming back here. 

To cap it off, I did a vault in a pot for Ares then took down a pair of enemies he marked on the map. Beating these pushovers yielded some armour that's the worse for wear, so I've been pointed to a forge in the (unexplored) north. 

[EEVILMURRAY]

Just a curious thought popped into me head - Do you use your sight to signpost the chest in each Vault?

I didn't till at least halfway through