Immortals Fenyx Rising: Myths Of The Eastern Realm DLC Review

We don't see enough Chinese legends and folklore explored in Western games, which is what makes the pitch for Immortals Fenyx Rising's second expansion, Myths of the Eastern Realm, so exciting. Developed by Ubisoft Chengdu, the DLC moves Immortals' open-world structure from Greek to Chinese mythology. But while its open-world fundamentals are still solid, the Chinese mythology that defines its aesthetic is more of a coat of paint than an imaginative look at a new realm.

Myths of the Eastern Realm wastes no time getting you up to speed. After a brief explanation of how chaos threatens to upset the balance of Heaven and Earth and how a mysterious force has wiped out most of the world's gods, new hero Ku wakes up inside a cave filled with his compatriots, who've been turned to stone. The legendary Bu Zhou mountain has erupted and caused the emergence of the Scar, a powerful primordial force reverting the world back into chaos. The premise is almost identical to the base game's, and that ends up being true of the rest of the expansion: The two new islands that make up the DLC's Mortal Lands are hard to distinguish from the Golden Isles from the original game, even if the buildings and foliage are pulled from Chinese history.

Immortals Fenyx Rising: Myths of the Eastern Realm DLC captured on PC
Immortals Fenyx Rising: Myths of the Eastern Realm DLC captured on PC

Immortals' main loop, in which you search for a nearby mountaintop, tag a bunch of icons so they appear on your map, then hunt them down until you decide to progress the story, is identical. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since it was a good loop the first time around. But solving a new round of puzzles and checking icons off on a map lost its allure much more quickly in this DLC--Myths of the Eastern Realm just doesn't have much to keep that loop interesting. Unlocking my glide ability, clearing out vaults (now called gateways), and grappling enemies isn't as fun because Ku plays exactly like Fenyx, and I'm disappointed he doesn't have any new abilities that change how you explore or interact with the world a second time through. The fact that your skills are now called the Blades of Huang Di and Pangu's Strength instead of Ares' Wrath and Herakles' Strength does little to hide that.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

source https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/immortals-fenyx-rising-myths-of-the-eastern-realm-dlc-review/1900-6417654/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f

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