There’s a moment at the beginning of Immortals Fenyx Rising, the new open-world adventure from the developers of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, where it feels like newly-forged hero Fenyx is going to go full-on assassin. She climbs a massive stature, surveys the land, and then prepares to leap gracefully to the ground. She would have done it too, if not for the flailing and the screaming.
I did not realize how damn funny Immortals Fenyx Rising is until I actually played it. I thought it was another cookie-cutter Ubisoft open-world adventure, but this one’s got heart and humor. Fenyx’s adventure is narrated by Prometheus and Zeus, bickering like old friends all the while. And Fenyx herself (or himself, depending on your character choices)? She can be a bit of a goof as well. A daring goof, but a goof nonetheless.
The game does a great job setting up this fall gag. First Fenyx learns to fight. Then she has to climb a giant statue of Hermes, Greek god of showing up later in the game. Then she has to essentially synchronize her surroundings, Assassin’s Creed style, to reveal a portion of the world map. At that point I was fully-prepared for Fenyx Rising to be a cartoony skin of an AC game. But no. Watch.
Fenyx is indeed NOT another stoic professional murderer who somehow has no problem diving hundreds of feet into a small stack of hay. She is a real person who has second thoughts about jumping at the appropriate time, vis-a-vis seconds after jumping. You got me, Ubisoft Quebec. Well-played.