Immortal Fenyx Rising, Ubisoft’s cartoonish take on an open-world game, has fine combat. It’s not amazing, being lifted straight from Assassin’s Creed Odyessy, but it works and it feels nice. However, killing enemies in Immortals is amazing because they don’t just collapse and die, but instead shoot off into the sky, like Team Rocket or an actual rocket, and … Oh I just got that!
Like Assassin’s Creed Odyessy, Immortals uses the triggers and face buttons for combat, having you swing your sword and ax with the triggers and bumpers, while you activate abilities with the face buttons. So fights in Immortals flow a lot like Odyessy, with lots of dodging, countering, and special attacks. But once you get an enemy to zero health, they don’t fall over dead. No, they fly off into the sky in an explosive and often hilarious manner.
This happens with any enemy you fight too, outside of a few bosses. Lonely, tiny enemy undead enemy soldier? Boom! They go flying. A big, giant griffin? It too, goes flying into the sky, tumbling end over end in the process. Even random animals you encounter, like bears, will get punched into the sky like cheap bottle rockets you bought across state lines because your state has them banned.
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The first few times this happened I laughed. But I figured after a few hours this would become old. Folks, it has not become old.
Part of the reason why is because you never quite know how a particular explosive exit will look or end. Sometimes they go straight up with no issue. Other times, they’ll crash into nearby trees or pillars, knocking them over in the process. I’ve even encountered moments where enemies got shot into the sky, but before leaving, they knocked over a big tree and squished some smaller enemies.
The other reason these high-flying exits never got boring, even after hitting the 30-hour mark, is because they are extremely satisfying ways to end large fights. When facing a big group of enemies, you get a nice slow-mo effect and close up shot of the final kill and that enemy zipping off into the great beyond. It reminded me of how great the final kill in Max Payne felt, watching that last bad guy in slow motion get riddled with your bullets. It’s a similar feel here and a great way to end every large fight.
Immortals is a more comical and over-the-top open-world action game, especially compared to other Ubisoft titles. And the high-flying death animations are a constant reminder that this game is big, silly, and weird. It also helps keep the tone of the game pointed in the right direction and it’s a blast too.