Immortals Fenyx Rising review – heavenly heights but not enough depth

PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, PC; Ubisoft
Ubisoft's derivative gods and monsters game has divine charm, but starts to feel like a golden cage

Weeks after Assassin's Creed Valhalla proposed that Norwich in the dark ages was an ideal place to pass the time during a global pandemic, Ubisoft is back with a much sunnier escapade in Greek mythology. Immortals Fenyx Rising may sound like a chewed-up heavy metal tape your dad found at a car boot sale, but it's actually a charming open-world adventure where you bounce around the heavens solving problems for the gods.

The idea for Immortals struck the developers when they were researching ancient Greece for Assassin's Creed Odyssey, but they evidently found time for a few study breaks in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, too. Clambering over mountains while keeping an eye on your stamina meter, gathering fruit and flowers to cook potions, delving into vaults to solve physics puzzles; let's just say there are a few nods. There's even a big red ethereal foe towering ominously over the centre of the map, waiting for you to save a quartet of far-flung deities before confronting him. The painterly art style disguises this flattering imitation with about as much subtlety as soldiers hiding inside a giant wooden horse.