We already had an idea that Ubisoft had made the decision to cancel an in-development sequel to 2020’s excellent Assassin’s Creed/Breath of the Wild mashup, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, but now thanks to a report from Axios that quotes two anonymous sources involved with the project we have a somewhat better idea of what we’re missing out on.
The report suggests that the game, codenamed Oxygen, would’ve taken some interesting and exciting inspirations, like the more organic navigation and questing that Elden Ring is known for with players using their environment to figure out the path ahead rather than being hammered by quest icons and map markers. It was also apparently set among a series of fictional islands inspired by Hawaiian Polynesian islands and culture, with players sailing between them. Sources say the game was primarily in development at Ubisoft Quebec alongside Polynesian consultants. We’d already heard previously, but Immortals 2 was also set to allow players to take on elemental and shape-shifting powers from various Polynesian gods and be able to influence the story and world around them,
While those ideas definitely sound intriguing and like an exciting new direction for the franchise, other claimed changes in the sequel sound a bit more misguided – like doing away with the quirky narrator and vibrant visuals in favour of a more realistic style, and placing less emphasis on puzzle solving. Given the bold, fresh visuals, humour and puzzles in Fenyx Rising were some of the highlights it’s almost a relief that Ubisoft decided not to go forward with this follow-up. Axios’ report claims that before the cancellation, which supposedly came as a surprise to the studio, it was being floated whether it should be marketed as a sequel to Immortals or spun off into its own, new franchise.
You can read the full report here for all of the details on these claims.
