When we think of first-person shooters, we normally think of the likes of Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Halo, all of which feature heavy duty guns and lots and lots of bullets. Ascendant Studios thought differently with its debut game, and the result is Immortals of Aveum; a title where you use magic instead of lead, in order to kill lots and lots of bad guys. It’s a neat take on the decades old formula, and brings something different to the table as a result.
Immortals of Aveum is set in a world in chaos, where a war called the Everwar rages on. Two different sides are fighting for control of magic, and the ability to do with it as they please, while a deep emptiness threatens to slowly consume everyone and everything in Aveum. This is a world full of ley lines, which can not only be used for travel, but also provide magic users with their abilities. One in which something needs to be done before calamity strikes in one way or another.
We take on the role of Jak — an orphan and a basic street thief, along with the other teens and kid(s) he lives with. Together, they try to score by stealing from unsuspecting folks, including a man watching a play, who appears in the game’s first cutscene. It’s a rough life within what is a very ramshackle and poor city, and one that Jak doesn’t really seem to expect to leave. That is, until the shit hits the fan and invading forces attack his hometown.
After suffering unimaginable losses all at once, Jak becomes engulfed by magic and realizes that he’s an Unforeseen, which means someone who suddenly gains the ability to use magic out of nowhere. He’s quickly brought into the fold of the Immortals; a group of battle-mages who are seemingly fighting on the good side of the Everwar, against the potentially evil Sandrakk, who was behind the attack on Jak’s home and loved ones. However, despite being taken under their wing, he doesn’t become a trusted soldier for quite some time. It takes years. Five of them, in fact. By then, he’s finally proven his worth, and ends up becoming heavily involved in the war after ignoring orders.
The story is quite involved, and can be convoluted at times. There’s also a lot of gray in the war, which was a nice touch. As such, you’ll find yourself wondering if you’re truly fighting for good, or if the enemy may have the right idea. This brings in a sense of morality, not just within Jak, but also within the player.
At its core, Immortals of Aveum is a first-person shooter, but it’s one where magic replaces bullets. That isn’t to say that things weren’t somewhat inspired by guns, though, because Jak’s three different types of colour coded magic all resemble different traditional weapons. For starters, there’s blue magic that is a one shot kind of deal and resembles a pistol or a sniper rifle, without the zoom. It’s joined by red magic, which is essentially a shotgun blast, and green magic, which is more like a homing assault rifle. The idea is that you must cycle through these three different types of magic, in order to do battle against the magic-infused enemies that threaten you time and time again. While it’s possible to favour one type of magic (which I did with red, as it was the most powerful), you’ll need to use them all, because enemies are colour coded as well, and some can only be hurt by using the correct type of magic. This is also true of shields, especially during boss battles, as they generally require the right colour to be destroyed.
The player’s magical abilities are complemented by additional powers, such as a (regular, non-boss) shield breaking earthquake, a wall of fire, and some homing rockets. He or she will also gain access to things like a leash, which can be used to pull enemies towards Jak (like in Bulletstorm), or utilized in order to get to hard-to-reach areas, and a laser than is used to solve some puzzles later on in the game. There’s also something that can slow down fast moving platforms, but you won’t use it all that much.
Speaking of platforms, it’s important to note that this game does feature some first-person platforming. You’ll be jumping from one area to another, creating bridges to otherwise unavailable parts of the map and even moving things so that you can gain access to where you need to go. That’s on top of the leash, which lets you zip to a faraway point. To aid this requirement, Jak can double jump and even hover for a short period. This platforming isn’t perfect, though, so you can expect the occasional fall and bout of frustration. Thankfully, only a small amount of health is lost whenever you fall into the abyss.
The action that results from all of the above is generally fast-paced and frenetic, with enemies shooting at you from every direction. It’s important to think, and make sure to use your abilities to your advantage. Some of the battles — especially later on — can be quite challenging, and even frustrating, on the normal difficulty. To this extent, the game sometimes reminded me of arena shooters like DOOM and Wolfenstein.
Earlier in this review, I briefly mentioned puzzles. While Immortals of Aveum is nowhere near a puzzle game, it does feature some not too obtuse ones. Most of them will task you with shooting colour coded crystals in order to open a door, with the challenge involving finding where they are. However, later puzzles introduce the laser, which you must shoot at a crystal from the right spot so that it hits two different eyes at the same time. I found the latter type kind of annoying, but I must admit that puzzles are generally my least favourite part of most games. Here, the controls were kind of cumbersome when it came to pinpointing the laser, so that factored in.
For the most part, Immortals of Aveum is a good, fast-paced, frenetic and fun shooter with magic instead of bullets. It does have some issues, though, like chokepoints and difficulty spikes. The most frustrating thing about it, though, is the fact that its dodge button has a cooldown. This means that you can’t keep dodging out of the way of incoming fire, and makes things more difficult than need be. Also, the fact that both mana crystals (which you use to occasionally ‘reload’) and interacting with things like chests, doors and the like are both tied to the X button leads to frustration. This is because you have to be perfectly lined up with something in order to the X prompt to occur. If you don’t do so, and press X, you’re likely to waste a mana crystal. Then again, there are a lot of those, and the same is true of health crystals.
This game also differs from most other first-person shooters due to the fact that it has gear. That, as well as a forge, where you can upgrade your ‘weapons’ (Jak’s magic bracelets) and armor, or your magical rings. The forge can also be used to craft new ones, or increase either your mana or the amount of health crystals you can carry. You’ll earn money from opening and breaking chests, and will also earn magic energy that is needed for upgrading. You can also earn some from dismantling things that you’ve collected but don’t want.
Additionally, experience points are earned as you kill enemies, providing Jak with upgrade points that can be used in three different skill trees. As you’d expect, these trees are based around the different colours of magic, allowing players to upgrade and improve the ones they like best. Special abilities, like the rockets and wall of fire, can also be upgraded in these colour-based trees. During your play through, you should earn enough to upgrade all of your weapons and increase your health crystals to maximum, while also unlocking an entire skill tree and part of another. That is, if you wish to focus on just one. I spent most of my upgrades in the red tree, making my ‘shotgun’ extra powerful, but also used several in the blue column. Green got kind of overlooked, but I used it least and thought it was the worst of the trio.
Although it is, of course, a video game, Immortals of Aveum features a movie-like credits near the beginning of its 12-15 hour adventure. Therein, all of its actors’ names are listed, along with a flashy title card. It’s fitting, because the developers did a truly good job with their character models, which look very realistic.
This game stars Gina Torres, who you may know from 9-1-1 Lonestar, as well as Lily Cowles and Darren Barnet, who plays Jak. The facial rendering is impressive, as is the attention to detail, which makes them look almost lifelike. I was especially impressed with Gina Torres’ face, which looked very good, and featured forehead wrinkles that would appear whenever she lifted her eyebrows. That was a nice touch. However, there was some pop-in, as well as some basic looking textures. As a result, the game looked good, but not as good as some of its next-gen peers.
The voice acting is also quite strong, and the characters feel alive because of it. Torres’ character — whose name is Kirkan — is most definitely the best voiced one of the bunch, but Jak’s actor does a pretty admirable job, too. There’s a decent amount of one liners and comedy to be found within, and it’s all handled well. Some will like this, while others may find it annoying, but I was a fan of the writing.
Lastly, as far as sound effects go, this is a very boisterous game. Its effects feel as realistic as possible, but within reason given that this is a fantasy game, and they make good use of your speakers. The music, though, is fine, but didn’t stand out. It often seemed to be made up of somewhat basic beats, which worked, but they were repeated.
If you’re looking for a fun, fast-paced and challenging (single player only) first-person shooter, Immortals of Aveum is well worth playing. It’s a good game, which is kept from being great by some frustrating gameplay and a few other relatively small complaints. It’s most definitely an impressive debut for its five year-old studio.
This review is based on the Xbox Series X version of the game, which we were provided by EA.