Immortals Fenyx Rising....

A post I've been holding for a while. When the Demo for the game came out I was 'into' it. I liked the comedy, the art style and the gameplay. At that time I was put off by the games iterations, special content depending on where you bought it and the prices being asked varied as well. My conclusion was to wait for an all singing full bells and whistles edition at a lower price in a year or so.

It's been over a year, nearly two and it's been a game closely held to Ubisoft's chest. Only recently have I seen some price drops(still not to my liking); But again recently(last couple of months) it's been available to access via Ubisoft through the Xbox gamepass. Free is free and it was a game demo I liked so of course I installed it. 

Installed and played about 45 minutes. It was not the game I remembered. It felt less structured and had less narrative, with more assassins' creed style item/object hunting and terrain climbing. Maybe it's my memory but the demo was (imho) far superior. Playing the real thing seems to have less charm; Both in the main character, the gameplay and narrative. Like it's a generic clone of a clone of itself. I know Demo's are promo material but this was a departure I really noticed. Maybe the demo was too condensed. Still I can't shake the feel that the demo was a better intro to the game than the actual game's intro I was playing.

So there the game has sat, installed while I've put 220+ hours into Death Stranding. Which means the spark for the game has gone? I'd left the game on the first island after having fought, claimed and gathered enough to make me averse to the gameplay. The thought of going to and interacting with all the icons I'd unlocked/seen in the distance was too off-putting. Not something I expected but it's the reality to my fun expectation of the demo experience. 

The world covered in cloud is huge! If it was the only 'big' content filled game I had I'd probably be more into it. I've been well into Death Stranding, a surprise game to be sure and had Fenyx Rising been of more immediate interest I'd have put more immediate time into it(probably?). If I was waiting for this game to be 'the game' to play I'd say I's be disappointed slightly deflated. Conflicting and maybe a bit harsh.... But true all the same.

Getting to play it for 'free', maybe I'm not fully valuing the game that it is. That said I persisted with more gameplay in the last few days and to my surprise I've liked what I've seen. 

The action is there, the platform puzzles and the comedy. Maybe I'm opening up to it but it still feels like a game that needs a lot of time and 'work' to get the most from; So 'the jury is out'. Maybe for some time....