The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released two weeks ago to resounding applause from both critics and fans. It perfects the open-world formula and gives the player complete freedom as to what they want to do and how they want to do it. Unfortunately, Tears of the Kingdom is not available on PlayStation and Xbox. To fill that void, players on these platforms can turn their heads towards Immortals Fenyx Rising, an open-world action-adventure game available on PlayStation Plus Extra and Xbox Game Pass.
Immortals Fenyx Rising was developed by Ubisoft Quebec, the same people that made Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. At first glance, Immortals looks a lot like AC Odyssey and Tears of the Kingdom. The art design and the ability to climb anything in your sight if you have enough stamina smacks of Zelda, and the game’s Greek mythology setting is similar to AC Odyssey. Regardless of the similarities, Immortals still stands on its own as a fantastic game and that’s why it’s the perfect alternative to Tears of the Kingdom.
Immortals Is Like Tears of the Kingdom in More Ways Than One
In Immortals, the player takes control of Fenyx, a mere mortal tasked with saving the Gods of Mount Olympus who have been cast away by Typhon. Each God has their distinct region that the player has to explore to find that particular God’s essence and resurrect them back to power. The world in Immortals Fenyx Rising is extremely beautiful and dense. There are main quests, side-quests, and vaults to complete.
These vaults are very similar to shrines in Tears of the Kingdom, and each one has the player complete some sort of puzzle or fight a few enemies. The vaults are consistently fun and never get boring throughout the game. Of course, this world wouldn’t be as much fun to explore if there weren’t any entertaining ways of traversing it. Like in Tears of the Kingdom, players can scale any solid surface on the map and then glide off of it to get across the map using Fenyx’s wings. This makes exploring the Golden Isle an enjoyable experience throughout.
The combat in Immortals Fenyx Rising is simple, and it does just enough to keep the player coming back for more. The mechanics are very similar to the combat in Assassin’s Creed, wherein the player has a series of heavy and light attacks combined with the ability to slow down time after executing a perfect dodge. The progression system in-game is also free of all the grinding and looting that plagues modern open-world games. The players can collect different types of armor and weapons for Fenyx, but they don’t have to upgrade every single one of them. Putting points into one weapon type means that it will carry over to all weapons of the same type and that makes the progression a lot more bearable.
From puzzle solving to traversal mechanics, there are a lot of similarities between Tears of the Kingdom and Immortals Fenyx Rising, but the two games have drastically different tones. Immortals‘ tone is easily its more distinguished attribute — the entire story of Immortals is narrated by two unplayable characters, Zeus and Prometheus. They casually talk over Fenyx’s adventures as the player glides across the map or engages in combat. Their narration of the entire saga is extremely light-hearted, and they will often put a smile on the player’s face.
A Must-Play for PlayStation Plus and Game Pass Subscribers
Immortals Fenyx Rising is a wonderful testament to the statement that sometimes less is more. It never tries to do something revolutionary. Instead, it takes several things that have already been done in open-world games and does them well. Its puzzles and side-quests incorporate unique ideas that never get old, and that’s due to the game’s length. Immortals doesn’t overstay its welcome, ending naturally when it has nothing new for the players.
The game’s simplicity, humor, and resemblance to Tears of the Kingdom will make it highly enjoyable for many people. Immortals Fenyx Rising also has DLC, which makes it a complete package that deserves to be experienced at least once by everyone, especially now that the game is free to play for all PS Plus Extra and Xbox Gamepass subscribers.
