I'm a little bummed that Ubisoft has apparently canceled the sequel to Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Variety in games is good

Immortals: Fenyx Rising has a horrible name, and I think that plus looking like a Breath of the Wild clone (which it was in some ways like the traversal and the shrines but definitely was not in others) doomed it. The game itself, however, was pretty solid and it was one of the first "9th gen" games I played on my Xbox Series X, though it didn't come out until about a month after launch. For that reason I will always have some fondness for it as a "launch window" game for a new hardware generation, and because the game itself had some very solid aspects. A lot of people didn't like the Stadler & Waldorf of the Gods type commentary narration but I didn't mind it, and found most of the characters decently charming. The combat was fun and fresh. Exploration was mostly good except for the weird part where you could tag locations of interest through the terrain for some reason.

Now Ubisoft appears to have canceled the sequel.

It's not just that a sequel to this game would have been fun and would have done more to flesh out the BOTW-like genre that I really enjoy, but also what it says about Ubisoft's approach to games. It's just the same few franchises over and over. Assasin's Creed, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Watch_Dogs, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed etc...etc...

Apparently "The Crew" still survives and maybe whatever you want to call the "Steep/Riders Republic" They keep threatening us with Skull & Bones and a new Prince of Persia. Maybe there will be a new The Division and some new Tom Clancy game at some point. Trials is Ubisoft if that ever comes back. But like all the mega-publishers they're down to a few repetitive franchises that have been around for a very long time.

Immortals was still an Ubibloat open world game but it played very differently from all the others and had a different tone. It didn't really "feel" like yet another Ubisoft cookie cutter game, and that made me excited for the series. But nope. I guess it wasn't live servicy enough (even though it did have those stupid Ubisoft single player cosmetics.)

At this point I'd settle for a Rayman collection (Though most of the Rayman games are available) or some other compilation of older games from back when Ubisoft was still taking chance and making interesting things. It's not that I hate Assassin's Creed or Far Cry. I've enjoyed games from both franchises. It's just that the AAA space feels so repetitive at this point and Ubisoft is one of the chief offenders. Immortals was not VERY different from the rest of Ubi's slate but it was somewhat different.

At least they made a sequel to Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle. I should finish the first game (which I liked I just got kind of sick of towards the end) and pick up the second one of these days I guess. There's a little spark of hope in titles like that among the vast sea of churned out franchise sequels.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My wife asks me about once a month if I have heard anything about Immortals: Fenyx Rising getting a sequel. She loved that game. She played it shortly after playing BOTW and liked it more. At one point, she tells me, "I think I'm getting a bit bored. I'm going to go fight the final boss." We looked at her save profile and that was 70 hours in.

Is it variety if it’s just another open world “littered with map icons” ubi game?

So I look at it as two sides. Yes, the way they try to prompt you to explore and navigate the landmass is via the open world barf of icons.

The other side though is what you're doing in the world. As I was getting more abilities, the character action combat skills were fun and there were some good navigation puzzle challenges that are at least approaching the BotW/TotK shrine puzzles.

I admit I only picked it up because it was on Game Pass AND there was a "Gamepass Quest" related to it because I had a sickness of trying to always do those and maximize reward points. But then I kept on it and my completionest sickness took over and I had a pleasant time.

I genuinely enjoyed Fenix Rising. I thought it was one of the more inspired titles from Ubisoft in a long, long time and it felt like a game someone wanted to make rather then one designed to make as much money as possible.

Ah well, not everything needs a sequel and its a robust enough experience to enjoy playing again in a few years. I think the art style will keep it relevant visually for some time to come yet.

I also enjoyed the whacky antics and narration. I cant say it made me laugh all too often but it was often amusing enough to add some brevity and color to the game.

I just realized that I have the Platinum for Fenyx Rising, but I also remember very little about it. All I can recall is that it was . . . pleasantly inoffensive? It was at least a different flavor of map vomit than Ubisoft usually puts out.

Regardless, this doesn't seem like the best news. Gotta love the strategy of "Our current IPs aren't selling well, so we're going to cancel our new IPs to focus on the IPs that aren't selling well. Also, NFTs."

I wonder if it's possible for Ubisoft to skip the "circle the drain for several years before potentially finding a buyer" step and just skip straight to the bankruptcy? Because that kind of feels like where they're headed.

When people started talking early in this game, combined with the points you mentioned, I had concerns it was going to be a dire experience, but I genuinely, thoroughly enjoyed the experience from start to finish and am legit sad it's gone. There were times I felt it was a much better designed version of BOTW, and it still does stuff better than TOTK.

The story stuff tho was still pretty bad the whole way through. The humor especially.

@wulfbane: "Thanks to my not one, but two, gaming related habits I found myself accidentally enjoying this game" is the most 2020 way to describe video games, it's amazing. It also happens to be the exact reason I also finished and 100% this game 😅

I also skipped it because the people at GB at the time seem down about it. I remember watching the quick look and them constantly complaining about how horrible the narration is, and the gameplay itself being basic. I had other games on my plate at the time as well. Now after reading this thread, I'll give it a go. I can play it right now on Game Pass. Should take advantage of this before they remove it.

@bigsocrates: To be fair can you really blame them. People usually call out companies like Ubisoft for not doing what some other big companies do and make something unique or develop your ideas so on...but they don't have that luxury. Hate to defend the company that's the easy punching bag...but they did make a line of games where they would try out new ideas i believe and what occurred...no one cared to buy those experimental games. They tried to change assassins creed when people got annoyed of unity (and syndicate took the beating it didnt deserve as it was a good game) and they made it more like an action rpg...people liked the change and then...they got bored and wanted old creed. Yes they focus on their money maker...but everytime they branch out they get smoked...these companies arent just infinite in money...they are a few bad game sales away from failure. Taking 3-4 years to develop a game that will sell 100000 copies is awful feeling even if you break even or every game you make is considered by critics to be A+. The demon souls or souls guys focused on souls for a lot of games...now that elden ring gave them F U money they decided to try risk. Ubisoft aint just gonna bench immortals forever but as you said, you liked the game and still found a bunch of issues with it, imagine people who thought it was just ok. Add to that no matter how good or different it was or streamlined people will always say just get zelda. I enjoyed the opening parts of immortals and found the voice over worked and the game was delightful but i put it down and havent gone back as other games took my attention. They put out a good sequel and i and many others would go cool let me finish the old one...and not but the new one on release. The best bet for Ubisoft money wise is to focus on one thing and polsih it so they can make that gta like money...then they can do what they want. Honestly they have to improve their pubilic image because the games arent as bad as people say but people still find them to be the basic brand...get it done...company when they're looking to be and spending enough to be the gourmet meal. Witcher 3 costed like 70+ million, horizon 2 200+ million, assassins creed and so on needs to get to a bigger quality cause their money and any company spending more than 20 million is wasted if the game can't look and get a basic 80+ on metacric easy...ubisoft focusing on one small but good game is the way to go...though i think this assassins creed will remind people why they dont even want old assassins creed that much and just want something cool to play. I say finish the assassins storyline and do a multiverse reboot time reset...

@av_gamer: To be fair, most GB videos on new game franchises they usually seem down on. They come off like the type that takes a while to chew and sink into the feel of what a thing is trying to do. Jokes in a game can be especially off putting when you arent the target humor. The early gameplay of any game will feel basic unless its doing something your shocked by which comes off great in video but that shocking thing wont be that important if you end up just doing it over and over so its best to just have a good foundation and immortals has that. Im surprised you put off playing it due to their video though. The game had great reviews at release and the biggest issues were people not liking the humor which well its just not for them...its mostly saturday morning fun humor...and the game coming after BOTW so it gets heavily scrutinized for even trying to exist...even if plenty of BOTW games existed just not packaged together like BOTW. I agree that some of the issues you'd have with BOTW, they just didnt include in the game...I dont think weapons break or you will have much issue finding out where to go while still also being able to mark and find stuff off the beaten path that's not map marked. The puzzles are also fun and breezy and combat isnt over done etc. The biggest issue is that it feels like the A+ student (BOTW) in class had a A- student look at his paper and say I can do that, let me take out the things that are frustrating...and hand it in and gets a A+ but the teacher still feels their is not as much soul in the copying students paper even if they have just as much potential. You can still taste a bit of corporate goo...nintendo corporate goo is filled with weird cooky goo that doesnt understand the internet and loves cute things and cares about honor more than money.

I skipped because the jokes in the quick look weren't landing and that I wasn't interested in the doing the Greek pantheon again. But a Polynesian one of these would have been so cool, I'd go in sight unseen.

After realizing that Adam Jenson plays the voice of Zeus, I couldn't take the game seriously anymore.