Immortals Fenyx Rising is the newest neo-peplum game slated to be published by Ubisoft and developed by Ubisoft Quebec. Ubisoft have long established themselves as the premier publisher of video games that embrace the different shades of the sword and sandal and historic epics genres, specifically in regard to their Prince of Persia releases and numerous Assassin’s Creed titles that sees players exploring various time periods. Assassin’s Creed fully embraced the sword and sandal genre with their release of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in 2018 that had gamers playing as the misthios Kassandra (or Alexios) during the Peloponnesian War in Greece in the latter half of 400 BCE.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey more-or-less stuck to the non-magical variety of the sword and sandal genre, only making occasionally forays out of the historic epic subgenre when Kassandra fought legendary creatures such as a cyclops and a Medusa, or, via a simulator, traveled to Elysium. Otherwise the game kept mostly to being a stealth-action game with conspiracy theory intrigue.
Immortals Fenyx Rising looks to fully embrace the mythological aspect of the sword and sandal genre that Odyssey only flirted with, making it more akin to the legendary Harryhausen film Jason and the Argonauts (1963) rather than, say, Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960).
Immortals Fenyx Rising has gamers playing as Fenyx, a winged demigod who is trying to save a Grecian-Mythological world from various other gods and beasts. The gameplay looks to be an action-RPG, with comparisons to Nintendo’s sword and sorcery game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Here is a slideshow of screenshots and artwork from the Ubisoft press materials for the title’s announcement:
Ubsisoft has also uploaded various trailers and gameplay reveals on YouTube:
Overall, this looks like an exciting game and a fun take on the sword and sandal genre. The colours are vibrant, the graphics look playful and excellent, and if the game does mimic Breath of the Wild even a little bit, then it should have some solid gameplay that can easily be expanded upon. While the neo-peplum genre continues to show declining interest on the big screens for a contemporary audience, Ubisoft is instead demonstrating how successful the subject matter can be in video game medium with not only with Immortals Fenyx Rising, but also with their upcoming Prince of Persia remaster and new Assassin’s Creed title: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.