Immortals Fenyx Rising took a lot of people by surprise when it launched back in December 2020. After it was announced, it was easy to dismiss it as a Breath of the Wild clone tacked into the familiar world of Greek mythology. Though it does have a lot in common with the Nintendo title, it brings plenty of new ideas and streamlined mechanics to the table. That’s not to mention its clever and extremely funny script.
It isn’t overly original, but it is a darn good time.
Right now, we know of three DLC releases headed to Immortals Fenyx Rising, and the first expansion in that trio is out on January 28, 2021. Titled A New God, it continues the main story and, for better or worse, gives you bigger and more difficult puzzles to play around with.
Immortals Fenyx Rising: A New God DLC Review — Testing Brain More Than Brawn
We want to avoid getting too far into spoiler territory, in case we’ve got readers who haven’t finished the main questline yet. If you know how Immortals Fenyx Rising ends, just know that the new DLC picks up right where it left off.
The new section that A New God allows you to explore is an expansive place, and it offers another unique style that fits in nicely with where the story is headed. You’ll encounter characters you already met, but this time you’ll be assigned special trials from each in order to further prove your abilities.
Each of these trials is extremely difficult, and they often require that you combine several of your mastered abilities in unique ways.
A New God is serious endgame content. You’ll practically need to have your full suite of abilities and your stamina upgraded near-maxed to stand a chance at completing several of them and nabbing their fun, if unspectacular, rewards.
There are some new equipment sets to build out and a few new character upgrades to be had, but this DLC is really about pushing your skills to the limit and your brain to the point of breaking as you try to figure out some of the diabolical puzzles put in front of you.
This is for better and for worse. One of the things that makes Immortals Fenyx Rising such a pleasant surprise is that it doesn’t suffer from quite as much bloat as many other open-world games. There came a point in my review playthrough where I thought, “Alright, I’m done with sidequests. Let’s finish this out.” And I did, and I was happy. The side quests and other collectibles don’t keep you from finishing the game and feeling powerful while doing it.
As such, stepping back into the shoes of Fenyx and having Hermes say, “Oh, but wait, there’s more!” wasn’t exactly the big, exciting moment I was hoping for with this DLC.
When Ubisoft revealed their expansion plan for Immortals Fenyx Rising, A New God isn’t the one that jumped out. The second DLC is an entirely new story, inspired by Chinese mythology, and the third DLC promises a “new top-down exploration and brawler-style combat.”
So more of the same here isn’t bad — it just isn’t terribly exciting.
The environmental puzzles here are harder than most anything in the main game. Just figuring out what you need to do in certain areas is a monumental challenge, and putting together a run without mistakes in order to complete it and gain your reward is extremely satisfying.
There are plenty of new mechanics to make things even tougher: portals that warp blocks through walls, stamina orbs that make for extremely long sections of gliding, and laser obstacles that require stringing together all of your combat maneuvers. If you were disappointed by Immortals not being difficult enough, then you might be in luck with A New God.
Though combat is put on the back burner a bit, and the focus here is testing your brains and abilities, you’ll still deal with some foes here and there in some unique combinations, even if the mechanics are essentially the same.
Immortals Fenyx Rising: A New God DLC Review — The Bottom Line
Pros
- Tough puzzles that force you to use all your skills in unique ways
- Continuation of the main quest story
- Writing and characters are just as charming
Cons
- A bit underwhelming
- Lack of true character development, which was such a big part of the main game
A New God is really made for players who finished Immortals Fenyx Rising and wished there was more. This is strong additional content to an already strong game, and it’s nice to know that Immortals Fenyx Rising is still getting developer support.
Judging from the response that Immortals Fenyx Rising has received since release, there seem to be plenty of players who want to dive right back into the world of Immortals and experience the new challenges that it has on offer.
[A copy of Immortals Fenyx Rising: A New God was provided by the developers for the purposes of this review.]
Published: Jan 27, 2021 10:43 am