After completing Assassin's Creed Odyssey (along with all its DLC) late last year, I've been sort of put off starting any new long games. Aside from a semi-brief Watch Dogs: Legion run, which was largely just about putting my new Xbox Series X to the test, almost everything I've played so far in 2021 has been smaller indie titles and adventure games.

Except for Immortals Fenyx Rising, which I became intrigued by after watching people play a bit on Twitch. I downloaded it and played a while right after completing Odyssey, but it felt too similar to that (and I was suffering from an overload of Greek mythology) so I shelved it until a few weeks ago, on a quest to finish it anew.

I actually really like Fenyx - it is very obviously built on top of Assassin's Creed tech, and so it feels quite similar - but the cartoonish style and silly humor suit it well. The combat is fun and once you gain more powers, it's a blast to vanquish hordes of enemies and traverse the terrain quickly.

At 47 hours, I'm at the point where I could trigger the end sequence and finish the game, but for now I am picking through all the stuff I missed and collecting achievements. I'm probably about 80% done with the content in the base game.

My problem is that, at about 20 hours in, it felt like the game could've been more focused - and that feeling has stuck with me since. Fenyx never gets boring really, but as I unlocked yet another map region full of icons to visit and complete, I couldn't help but wonder how much better the game could have been if Ubisoft had just kept the scope a bit smaller. Like, why not cut a region or two and spend the extra time/money on a more cinematic story? Better animation?

It's mildly frustrating because I feel like this game could've given The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild a run for its money. It's a good game that is so, so close to being a great game.

Sadly, Ubisoft seems unable to help themselves when it comes to giant maps and too many objectives. It's cool that they can create such expansive content for every one of their franchises - but I wish they'd just show some restraint sometimes. It makes me think that games like Splinter Cell haven't seen new entries in a while just because they haven't yet figured out how to drop Sam Fisher on a Skyrim-sized map.

Anyway, that's my rant. I shall continue my enjoyable slog now.