Immortals Fenyx Rising lets his bad father off the hook too easily

Video games have a father problem. My colleagues raised the subject in an episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, where they hit some of the worst dads in video game history. (How are you, Kratos and Joel?) Now I want to nominate another member for the Bad Dads Hall of Fame: Zeus, from Immortals Fenyx Rising.

Ubisoft’s ridiculously named open-world action game, out last month for consoles, PC and the Switch (technically), ostensibly about the titular character, a Greek shield bearer named Fenyx. After beating the game, I am less convinced that’s the case. Yes, you spend your time with immortals in the bronze Fenyx sandals, a front row seat for yet another story of yet another unexpected rise to greatness. But seen immortals in its totality, the game is really about Zeus, the Olympian gods, and the fraught nature of fatherhood – how any behavior, however rotten, can apparently be written off and forgiven in an instant.

Spoilers follow in front Immortals Fenyx Rising.

Immortals Fenyx Rising contains a split story based on Greek myth. At first, Typhon (actually the Balrog of Ancient Greece) escapes from his underground prison, robs most of the Olympians of their powers, and declares war on the pantheon. Zeus turns her tail and asks Prometheus for help. Prometheus fires back with a bet: If a mortal can take out Typhon, Prometheus won’t get an eagle swallowing his liver every day. If mortal fails, well thereafter he will help. Zeus agrees.

Prometheus begins to tell the story of Fenyx. After a shipwreck, she wakes up on a beach and soon discovers that every human has been mysteriously turned to stone. (You can play Fenyx as male or female. I chose the latter.) She teams up with Hermes, the legendary messenger god, to make things right.

Along the way, Fenyx helps Aphrodite, the goddess of love; Athena, the goddess of wisdom; Ares, the god of war; and Hephaistos, the god of the smithy. In each quest line, she learns about the awful, unforgivable ways Zeus treated his descendants. He married Aphrodite to Hephaistos and treated her no more than he would a chess piece. Repeatedly unable to rely on Athena’s unparalleled insight, he sowed deep insecurity. He undermined and criticized Ares at every turn, literally throwing Hephaistos off a freakin ‘mountain. Short version: Zeus is a worthless father!

You learn all these things through the eyes of Fenyx, yes, but it is also told by Prometheus and Zeus all the time, with Prometheus telling the plot beats and providing context, while Zeus makes jokes and generally refuses to take anything seriously. The vocal casting for these two roles is phenomenal: Elias toufexis, which you may recognize as Adam Jensen from the recent Deus Ex games, Prometheus plays, and Daniel Matmor (Socrates in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey) is Zeus.

Matmor’s top-notch vocal performance is meant to make us believe that the foremost Olympian has found salvation, and it almost works. In a late game mission, Zeus reflects on his own father (the titan Kronos) and says, “He was a terrible father too – almost as bad as I am.” Matmor brings so much gloomy reflection into this line that you want to believe that Zeus really believes that. Much of the rest of the mission is laced with dialogues in which Zeus admits his mistakes. During the previous 39 hours, all of Matmor’s dialogues have been light and jovial. These heavier lines suggest that an arc has come full circle, or at least is starting.

And then the dispute strikes.

So all the time Prometheus played an act. Before the events of the game, Prometheus apparently tapped his brother Atlas to free Typhon and wreck Fenyx’s army. And then Zeus realizes that – plot twist! – Phenyx is to be daughter. Oh, yes, and Zeus is the one who turned all mortals to stone. (I’m in the dark as to exactly how Zeus forgot that point.)

At this point, both plot threads – the one you’re playing and the one you’re listening to – come together. Phenyx reaches the top of Prometheus, while Zeus audibly admits that everyone turns to stone, citing the inherent imperfection of mortal beings as his rationale. Fenyx is equipped with a god-killing poison that she obtained after defeating Typhon shortly before. We can assume that Prometheus hopes she will use it on Zeus. She refuses. ‘I know you’re not perfect. But you’re my dad and that’s what matters, ”she says. ‘You thought you got out of here so easily? Saying you’ve made a mistake is the first step. “Classic.

immortals then it storms into a fit of endgame plot beats. Typhon shows up again (who could have seen that coming?) And kidnaps Zeus. Fenyx chases them, frees Zeus, and fights Typhon again. All the gods team up and knock the mess out of Typhon in a boss fight that, admittedly, has some tense moments.

i was with immortals till the end. After Typhon is good and dead, Zeus and his children just reconcile. Within seconds they bicker as if they were on an episode of Arrested development. Everything is peaches and gravy. I’m not a psychologist, but it’s hard to imagine that a literal eternity of neglect and ill-treatment could be washed away in an instant. I’m not buying it. Fatherhood just isn’t that easy.

immortals largely takes a brave approach with his stories. The bickering between Zeus and Prometheus is really funny, and I can’t remember a game with such a persistent narration that remains compelling all the time. I am not saying that I think Fenyx should have killed Zeus, because that is inconsistent with her character, nor is the death penalty an unreasonable punishment that should be abolished yesterday. But I think I expected the game’s finale to be as new as the rest of the story. How much more surprising would it be immortals‘The end has been like, say, Aphrodite told Zeus to rot? Or if Ares said, “You know what? Until Hades with you, Daddy – you’re a total jerk.” Yes, Zeus helped save the day, but he was still awful – unforgivable – to all of his kids. One righteous act does not rewrite a history of mistakes.

I never wanted to be a father. The one moment in my life when I remotely questioned that, for just a split second – and this is embarrassing to admit – was at the end of The last of us, when Joel puts the fate of humanity aside for his surrogate daughter. Moral consequences aside, that’s a powerful moment. The route immortalsstory went, I expected it to produce a similar response, to wonder if fatherhood is really in the cards. But when the credits rolled, like a child of Zeus, I was abandoned.

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