Yes, HATE is a strong word but that's exactly how I feel about this game. The only reason I gave this game 3-stars is because it's a highly polished product that some people are going to love. Not this guy though.
So why do I HATE this game so much? It's because Immortals Fenyx Rising is one of the most frustrating, aggravating, infuriating, and annoying games I've EVER played-wrapped up in a candy-coated, kid-friendly exterior.
Fenyx is EASILY the worst experience I've had on any console all year. Hands down. Bar none. And I've played a lot.
First of all, the good. I would say the graphics are outstanding, but that only applies to the game world. The characters themselves are pretty rough if you ask me. I played as the male Fenyx (Should've chosen the female) and by the end of the game I hated his stupid ps2-looking face. World traversal is also good, Fenyx has a pretty handy run and you can also ride various mounts around the game. You can glide through the air as well. Overall, no complaints about the world itself or world traversal. This is where the positives end though. Everything else is pure frustration.
Every. Single. Thing. In this game seems designed to frustrate the player. From having to manually move your analog stick around to search for the perfect pixel that reveals your obscure points of interest, to falling to your death about a hundred times an hour in every single vault you try to complete- this game smacks of frustrating game design. Do developers actually play their own games I wonder? There is so much about the way this game is designed that seems to want to lead to broken controllers.
I love skill trees in games, but in this one, any progress you make in that department is slow and stingy. By the time I completed this game I had just a few of the god powers and little else and I did plenty of the annoying puzzles and vaults. And oh my god the Puzzles. Want to get something as simple as a chest of gems? Do a puzzle. Want a pittance of Charon coins to buy some upgrades? Do a puzzle. Want a stupid cosmetic helmet that looks as stupid as all the others in your inventory? Do a puzzle. Need a bathroom break? Do a puzzle. Need to breathe? Do a puzzle.
Every single attempt at progression in blocked by puzzle after puzzle after puzzle. I couldn't help but think about the movie "Inception" while playing this game because their are puzzles within puzzles that open other puzzles all wrapped into one big overall mega puzzle which is blocking still another annoying puzzle. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against puzzles in these type of games, it's just with this one, that's all there is. Sure there's the occasional combat (which lets face it, is pretty spammy and not really very finessed) and some platforming but this is a puzzle game. It's not an action game at all and that's how it was marketed. It's a puzzle game. Endless, tedious, obtuse, frustrating, annoying, progress-blocking PUZZLES.
I wanted to like this game. I truly did. I've been following it since it was first announced as "Gods And Monsters". I preordered my copy and waited eagerly to play it. Some people are going to love this game, and the reviews have been mostly glowing, but for me constantly falling to my death for the four millionth time because of sloppy controls, succumbing to ridiculous progress set backs because of minuscule mistakes, Constantly having drawn out puzzle solving completely halt any attempt at progress and listening to my annoying character's super annoying voice does not make for a very fun experience. (Seriously, the male voice in this game is annoying as all get out and doesn't fit the character model even a little bit.)
For a bit of reference I completed Assassins Creed Valhalla, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Ghost of Tshushima, Doom Eternal, Resident Evil 3 Remake, Spiderman Miles Morales and several others this year and this is the only game from 2020 that made me want to break things for almost the entire duration of my playthrough. That trek up the mountain toward the end was the most infuriating thing I have done in a video game for as long as I can remember. The souls games are less frustrating. Do you hate the Water Temple in The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time? This ENTIRE game is the Water temple.
HATE. THIS. GAME. Rant out.
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