Immortals of Aveum is a brand new IP created by Ascendant Studios, a studio made of up former AAA developers from Dead Space and Call of Duty. I went into this game completely blind. I really wanted to experience something completely out of nowhere for a change and it was actually pretty refreshing not knowing what to expect. With this late summer already being tightly crammed with high-profile releases, does a new IP from a new studio fit in amongst all the established players? Keep reading and find out more.
This is a review coupled with a supplemental video review. You can watch the video review or read the full review of the below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rtyminMZ0k
Immortals of Aveum
Developer: Ascendant Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 (Reviewed)
Release Date: August 22, 2023
Price: $69.99 USD
Immortals of Aveum is a first-person magic-based shooter where you play Jak, an orphan from the slums of a part of Aveum called Seren. The game starts you off running around in Seren with your best friend Luna and upon arriving back at your hideout, Jak finds out that Luna wants to enlist in the Everwar now that she’s 16 and legally able.
Jak wants to persuade her away from it, but the kingdom of Lucian is attacked by the Rasharn and Jak’s home is destroyed, killing off his friends, and this naturally awakens a deep power within Jak that allows him to uncover that he’s actually a Magis.
He’s rescued by the commander of the Lucian army and taken to their fortress, where he’s trained and eventually becomes a fully-fledged member of their Magister army. This army is what gives the game its namesake, as the Magni are called the Immortals.
What makes Jak unique is that unlike most of the other mages, he’s a Triarch, which means he’s able to use red, green, and blue magic in order to accomplish his tasks – and this is essentially what Immortals of Aveum uses as its core mechanic. Blue Magic summons shielding, Red Magic summons Armor, and Green Magic summons regeneration.
Each of the magics also reacts as if they were different types of guns – Blue is the all-around weapon that’s somewhat like a sniper rifle, while Red is short-ranged high-power, like a shotgun, and Green does low damage but has a high fire rate like a machine gun. On top of that, you’ll also use the different magic colors to solve puzzles, break enemy defenses, and of course do damage.
Each weapon can be quickly cycled through by pressing Triangle (and on the DualSense, the type of magic you have loaded is noted on the controller by the light bars, which is a cool touch) and you’ll quickly cycle through when fighting enemies that are immune to all but their magic type as you dash around the battlefield trying not to get blindsided.
Combat is quite fast-paced when you’re in the thick of it, and it’ll challenge you to keep moving and practice your aim like an old-school boomer shooter in order to survive enemy onslaughts. Jak is also equipped with a shield that he can throw up to help survive attacks and three totems that you can swap through for different effects both in combat as well as in the world around you.
The blue one is Lash, which allows you to pull enemies to you like in Bulletstorm but when out of combat it’s used to pull yourself to floating magic tether anchors for exploration and level progression. The red one is Disrupt, which allows you to stun an enemy who’s channeling a spell, and out of combat it allows you to shine a light through crystals to activate laser puzzles.
Finally, the green one is Limpets, and it shoots a green goo ball out, slowing enemies that it clings to. This is also what it does out of combat, slowing anything that’s textured with a green glow in order to prevent it from moving quickly.
As you progress through Immortals of Aveum, there’s a fairly large world to discover and the game itself offers some fun tricks to keep you exploring. Leylines appear through the sky and eventually, your lash gains the ability to let you tether to and ride them, similar to the Skyhooks in Bioshock Infinite.
If you’ve noticed that I’ve compared this game to several other games in the course of this review, it’s because that’s what this game basically is. It’s a satisfying shooter that’s like a grab bag of good ideas from games you’ve seen before it, repurposed in order to make a solid and entertaining game.
There are even six hidden bosses that you’ll come across the portals for, similar to the Valkyries in God of War, which are extremely challenging fights that offer great rewards if you’re daring enough to challenge them.
The enemy types are repeated, and once something is presented as a boss, it becomes a normal enemy with the exception of a few characters. At the end of the day, the magical gunplay is a lot of fun even if it isn’t very deep or super varied, and there are skill trees that allow you to build Jak to a playstyle that fits what’s most fun to you.
I preferred range, shielding, and damage, so I stuck with the blue magic, but red magic will allow you to do increased red damage upon using red magic or melee attacking, and green magic will allow you to heal as you fight, so the choices are up to you to play with and experiment.
Yes, there are some questionable concerns here for the culture warriors. Jak is commanded by a woman who’s basically the female version of Zavala from Destiny, and his field commander is a giant muscle mommy who looks like she’s hated every man she’s ever met, but they’re both solid characters and the cast has a good time bouncing off each other.
Jak’s banter with Zendara is great and he eventually even wins her over by the end of the story, though she’d never let you know that. Like I said, it’s an enjoyable experience and it’s a fun world to run around in and explore.
It isn’t the biggest or the best game I’ve played all year, but Immortals of Aveum has been one of the most fun experiences I’ve had. If I had any real complaints, it’s that the story continually urges the player forward without any assurance that you’ll have time to explore later.
This left me missing out on a few things that you can’t go back to once you hit a certain point. This also means I’d need to replay the campaign as there isn’t currently a new game+ mode which is a bit of a bummer as well. I also didn’t hate the story, but it’s kinda mid.
You’re fighting to save this world from being corrupted while a god-like being seems fairly willing to just hang out while its inhabitants fight to possibly destroy the planet as well as the god itself. A little more enthusiasm from the Pentacade could have helped make the tale a little less forgettable; in spite of some of the characters like ol’ Ted being far more enjoyable than others.
Otherwise, Immortals of Aveum is a solid title that isn’t full of unnecessary forced multiplayer or a super premium deluxe edition battle pass with 983 tiers. It’s just a normal game that’ll take between 15-50 hours to complete depending on your skill level and how good you are at puzzle solving/exploration.
Immortals of Aveum was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a review copy provided by Electronic Arts. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here.
