Returning to Immortals: Fenyx Rising is never a punishment as it’s clearly one of the better games that released at the end of 2020. It’s a shame it got overlooked by Ubisoft’s other two heavy hitters but even today, Immortals is definitely worth checking out, especially now that the second major expansion just got released. Enter Myths of the Eastern Realm, an entirely new adventure set in the world of Immortals. Let’s jump in!
Meet your new hero
Where the first big expansion ‘A New God‘ offered more puzzles in the same world as Fenyx Rising, the second expansion does things a bit differently. Myths of the Eastern Realm introduces a new hero, new story filled with new gods, and even a new map. Although it looks very different at first, it still holds all of the mechanics you love from the base game and even starts off rather similar. You play as Ku, who woke up to find all his beloved ones turned to stone. Unlike Fenyx Rising, you can’t alter the gender or looks of this new hero, but that won’t stand in the way of having fun. After Ku woke up, he immediately searches for help and finds it in the voice of the goddess Nuwa who explains what’s going on in the world. It appears the evil Tao Lu has opened up the Bu Zhou mountain, creating a gigantic force too powerful for humans or gods to tame. As Ku, it’s your job to help the goddess and reclaim the land once and for all. As said, this feels very similar but since the expansion is a lot shorter and the map isn’t as big as the base game, the story does serve a purpose as it will guide you from one quest to another until you face the ultimate danger.
I like the fact that the team really went all out in creating this new setting. It’s created by Ubisoft Chengdu and trades the Greek gods for Chinese gods and all the lore that comes with them. This results in a complete reskin of the original adventure, meaning you’ll certainly recognize the iconic enemies and objects but all of them are altered to match the Asian-orientated story. Even though it’s clearly a reskin, it does offer enough variation and a unique atmosphere to really stand on its own. Even for newcomers, this story is perfectly enjoyable if you haven’t played the original before. Ku is a new hero who needs to finds his own weapons and abilities in order to defeat evil. You won’t have Fenyx’s powers here, but you’ll quickly learn Ku’s powers are very similar, although you’ll gradually need to unlock them again. A nice little bonus here is the fact that you can transfer Ku’s gear to your main story as cosmetics once you’re finished with Myths of the Eastern Realm.
New environment, same mechanics
So at its core Myths of the Eastern Realm feels like a mini version of Fenyx Rising, set in a different location and although this doesn’t really sound positive, I did enjoy my time with this expansion a lot. Compared to A New God, this one isn’t just more of the same, it offers more of the same mechanics but in an entirely new environment and with a completely new story, filled with lore and funny dialogues. In my opinion, this is exactly what a good expansion should do, offer you more of the content you loved in the base game but make it interesting enough so it feels like a new entry in the franchise rather than just an expansion. Of course, this also comes at a price, the major difference being the world’s size. The map of Myths of the Eastern Realm is a lot smaller and although this helped traveling from one location to another, it also means there’s a lot less to see and explore here. You can easily clear the expansion in a couple of hours, even faster than solving all puzzles of the ‘A New God’ expansion. It’s a shame the story is over rather quickly but in the end, it’s a very enjoyable one if you’re a fan of the original game. Just like the first expansion, it’s more of the same, but that’s never a punishment if you ask me.
Conclusion:
Myths of the Eastern Realm is a safe expansion when it comes the mechanics and storytelling, as it clearly follows the same path as Immortals: Fenyx Rising and feels more like a reskin at first sight. Although it’s very similar to the original game, the new setting and story itself are reasons enough to get excited if you’re a fan of the original. The smaller world of this expansion offers more of the same but that also means you can discover new secrets in a world you haven’t visited before, which is always a win! Nothing groundbreaking here but just more Immortals fun for the fans!
