Immortals Fenyx Rising - A charming Greek mythological adventure!

By Sam Coles:  

Ubisoft tend to get a lot of flak, and when their name is mentioned in current conversation you would think they broke into your house and kicked you in the stomach. Anyway, specific analogies aside they tend to do questionable things in the gaming industry, but I love most of their games regardless. However, there was one game that floated under the radar back in 2020, not because it was a bad game, quite the opposite as it is fantastic!  

That game is Immortals Fenyx Rising, a game that was announced a long time ago under a different name, originally code-named Gods and Monsters in 2019, it was a project that went very quiet which is always worrying when publishers do that, but it was great, nevertheless. Then it was just released in 2020 when everyone was in a low part of their lives, but I could never get into it at the time for obvious reasons. Fast forward four years later and I am enjoying it, and I am playing it on Switch because of course I am! I just want to talk about the game for a few paragraphs, as it is a wonderful experience that everyone should play!  

Immortals sees you play as the titular Fenyx who you can customise, anyway the world has been destroyed and taken over by Typhon who has imprisoned the gods. You are tasked with setting the gods free, so they can help you battle Typhon. It is a simple save the world story, but what makes it so fun, and amusing are the characters, for one it is narrated by Prometheus who is being held captive by Zeus and what makes it fun is that the story changes when Zeus gets bored or when he makes a funny joke. The dialogue is funny and well written, and I can’t help but have a smile on my face throughout, especially Hermes’ wisecracks. It is dialogue that I often see people bemoan about online, but some people just need to lighten as it is fun.  

In terms of the gameplay, people often drew parallels to Zelda: Breath of the Wild. However, that is a rather shallow assessment because outside the colourful art style, the stamina meter for climbing as well as the vaults (which are basically shrines). It does draw inspiration from that game with its open-ended design, but on the other hand you don’t have to contend with weapon degradation as your weapons stay with you throughout the game and can be upgraded with gems you collect. Not only that, but the Greek mythological setting also makes it more unique with combat encounters, plus the vaults are enjoyable to conquer as they have good puzzles to solve.  

The game’s world is just a joy to explore, you can start the main quest or just faff about for a bit collecting upgrades for stamina, health and much more. In typical Ubisoft fashion, you must climb an elevated position and scout each region for main and side objectives. I find that I spend about 5 minutes looking for every side objective to unlock from the top of a statue, so I can be as powerful as I can for boss encounters, as it is fun to unlock upgrades when I don’t usually bother in most open world games. You are rewarded in this game for going off the beaten path, and it is not one-use items you will get it will contribute to your overall goal to beat the final boss of the game as well as other more powerful foes. 

That is another aspect that I enjoyed about this game, are the boss fights as they are varied as they have an entire melting pot of Greek mythology to take from. You will be fighting cyclopes, Gorgons and other creators and corrupt demi-gods. The combat isn’t in-depth by any means, but the enemy variety alone stops it getting boring.

 

Visually this game looks incredible, it doesn’t go for a realistic look but instead it uses a cartoonish and vibrant aesthetic. The use of colour in this game is beautiful, especially in Aphrodite’s region, with the blue hues of the rivers and the red sunset warming the green grass. The character models are exaggerated, they look like something out of a Pixar film, and it fits given the lighthearted nature of this game’s narrative and world. Plus, considering what is going on in this game, it runs very well on the Nintendo Switch.  

Overall, I feel that Immortals Fenyx Rising is a very underappreciated game and if you haven’t played it, I highly recommend it. It understands what makes an open world game fun, freedom of exploration. This game is insanely cheap, and I would say grab a copy if you see as you get more than your money's worth these days.   

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance Nintendo Switch Port.

 

(Nintendo Switch copy provided by Plaion UK)

By Sam Coles: 

People often scoff at the Nintendo Switch whenever a third-party port is announced for the platform, often with hyperbolic statements about it running at 10 to 20 fps but most of the time they are good ports. Kingdom Come: Deliverance is one of those good ports, originally released in 2018 on PS4 and Xbox One, the historical medieval RPG is now in the palm of our hands on Nintendo’s platform. It was a surprise release this game, as it was announced a while ago and it was almost stealthily released on the platform, but it is a great port and I want to give my thoughts so far!  

Kingdom Come: Deliverance takes place in 15th century Bohemia where the land is in turmoil, due to the ruler of the kingdom Wenceslaus who inherited the throne from his father but doesn’t take the task seriously when he doesn’t even turn up to his own coronation. His half-brother Sigismund ends up kidnapping him, takes advantage of the situation by invading Bohemia, trying to take the land for himself. You play as a peasant named Henry, who finds himself in the middle of one of these invasions, his village and parents are destroyed and killed in the ordeal, and he ends up in the servitude of Sir Radzig as Henry and his father were making a sword for him and he feels indebted to him. The plot is well written and performed amazingly by all the cast, plus I love that they take pride with accuracy and attention to detail with real world history in this game.  

The gameplay is where things get interesting because at a surface level it is your typical medieval themed role-playing game and yes that it can be, but it is much more. It is part RPG and life sim as you can resolve things multiple ways, you must make sure you keep up a certain reputation in each area. Reputation is key in this game, as a lot of scenarios can be solved with conversation, you know like in real life and I found myself beating most quests with no or as little bloodshed as possible. I like this aspect of the game, as it makes you really think on your toes, and you really have to pay attention to dialogue as it can unlock new clues to a quest or resolve them in non-violent ways.  

You gain a reputation in each village and city; it can be in a positive light or negative way it all depends how you have acted around citizens and nobility. I like this aspect of the game as it makes the world feel alive, you can persuade people through coercion, or you can be more sympathetic, and it reflects throughout the kingdom as they will hear about your exploits from other regions.  

When it comes to the other life simulation aspects of the game, you have to keep yourself fed, clean and make sure you get enough sleep. If you don’t eat or sleep enough, it will impact your performance during combat and traversal, if don’t your sword swings will be inaccurate, and you will faint if you don’t get enough sleep. However, this doesn’t hinder the experience as there are a lot of areas to sleep in and food is plentiful, it just adds to the experience of the game plus you can unlock perks which minimise such issues.  

Of course it is not all about talking in this game, eventually you will have to get into a fight both with your fists and sword. This is where the game can be the deciding point for some, as the combat is not easy when you first experience it. You can’t just go into battle and swing your sword around like a feather duster, no it is more methodical and slower paced as you must take your time. Sword strikes are slow, yet powerful and you have to read your opponent's moves, while managing your stamina and health. It can be rather difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it you get into a good rhythm although it gets somewhat unfair when you are up against more than one foe. It can feel a bit clunky, but feels really satisfying when you win a fight without being hit and you really feel every stab and slash when you land hits. It is a bit of a learning curve, but the game does go over the combat at the start of the game.  

Now onto the Switch port itself and how it runs and looks, to be straight it looks good and runs well. I played this on the Nintendo Switch Lite, so I have no means to play it docked and it looks really good on the small screen. The draw distance is great, although I did notice some pop in when exploring outside the settlements, mostly foliage suddenly appearing in front of me but it didn’t happen too often. Framerate wise, the game runs at a consistent 30 frames per second, the only time it really drops is during conversations, but honestly it really doesn’t matter as it is a non-interactive situation that doesn’t hinder the experience. When exploring the game runs well, with only a few hitches here and there, but nothing that breaks the experience.  

The game on Switch runs well, and honestly is the perfect way to spend a lazy morning in bed. If you haven’t played the game before this is a great way to play it for Switch owners, plus it is the Royal Edition, so it comes with all the DLC and expansions on the cartridge too so no massive download for the game!  

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