Developer: Ascendant Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Available On: PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
Whether it’s a group of people making their very first video game, or a team of industry veterans forming their own studio to create a passion project, I love seeing debut games from new teams set in worlds that offer fresh and original stories and characters that aren’t based on pre-existing IP. In the case of Immortals of Aveum, the first project by Ascendant Studios (a team comprised of talent from Electronic Arts, Sledgehammer Games, and Telltale Games), the first-person shooter is reimagined not as a power fantasy with deadly firearms, but as a Metroidvania-like adventure with an array of magical spells and abilities. Unfortunately, it was released at a poor time last year, ending up in the same release window as massive titles like Baldur’s Gate III, Armored Core VI, and Starfield, making it hard for the game to find an audience and a moment to shine. It was also made fun of all over social media and YouTube for stupid reasons, like the haircut of the protagonist and some of the jokes in its dialogue not landing. This rough launch also led to about half of the studio being laid off, which is utterly heartbreaking. As someone who loves developers and thinks they’re rock stars, I wanted to honor the hard work of this team and check out their game and (assuming I liked it) use my platform to try to bring it some extra recognition. That being said, I had a great time with Immortals of Aveum and think it may be one of the sleeper hits of last year.
One of the things I’ve always tried to let shine through in my reviews is my love for good stories, characters, lore, and worldbuilding, which are all avenues in which Immortals of Aveum knocks it out of the park. The world of Aveum has been locked into an ongoing conflict called “the Everwar” for as long as anyone can remember. All of the kingdoms produce people called “Magni” who are born with the ability to wield magic for everyday use. The kingdoms essentially force them into their armies to use their abilities as powerful weapons of war. Likewise, the “Lightless” (those born without magic) are sent to serve as disposable bodies on the front lines, creating an endless cycle of war where your class determines your position in combat. The lore in Immortals spans centuries, and while it can be overwhelming at first trying to keep track of the different kingdoms, the events that turned them against one another, and the dozens of terms used in that world, it pays off in spades for those who take the time to pick up and read notes, go over journal entries, and talk to every NPC they come across. It’s an incredibly rich world that not only serves as an interesting fantasy narrative to get lost in but also has something to say about real-life conflict and the seemingly endless bloodshed humans cause in the name of their countries and beliefs.
You play as a young man named Jak who finds himself caught up in the horrors of the Everwar. Born as a poor Lightless street rat, the invasion of the evil Rasharnian empire in his hometown results in the death of his closest childhood friend, awakening a hidden power in him that reveals his strength as an Unforeseen Triarch, a powerful type of Magni that only gains access to their magic later in life, typically while under duress. While most Magni can only wield one form of magic (Blue for long-range/defensive spells, Red for devastating close-range blasts, and multi-purpose Green magic that can be used both in combat and for manipulating your surroundings) being a Triarch allows Jak to command all three forms, which gets the attention of the Immortals, the strongest Magni in Aveum. To honor the death of his fallen friend, Jak joins the Immortals and embarks on a journey through the heart of the Everwar to find a way to bring it to an end once and for all.
Alongside Jak is a wonderful cast of characters that I found myself connecting with almost instantly. Kirkan, the leader of the Immortals, is a tough woman who has seen both the horrors of war and the beauty of the kingdom’s people, allowing her to lead with both strength and compassion. Devyn, one of the first Immortals Jak bonds with, is a bit of a jokester, always looking to lighten the mood and speak whatever is on his mind, regardless of the trouble it might get him in. There’s also Zendara, a personal favorite, who happens to not only be one of the strongest Immortals (she’s literally a mountain of muscle) but also the princess of one of the kingdoms, subverting the defenseless princess trope. This core group is who you spend most of the game with, but the Immortal’s home base also has a few more people you can talk to between missions, such as a commander of the non-magic troops, a member of a house of political assassins, and a blind seer who can view the past, present, and future simultaneously. I will say that one of the weirdest design choices is that you can’t face someone when you want to talk to them. Instead, you have to stand behind them and look at their back, which then gives you the prompt for dialogue. I assume it’s because they have a little turning-around animation to greet you that the dev team is proud of, but it’s a weird little choice that I found confusing and ended up ultimately finding more hilariously ridiculous than annoying.
The world of Immortals is a large and fascinating place to explore. While not quite an open-world structure, the game is divided into large regions full of intersecting paths, hidden areas, secrets, and all sorts of puzzles and environmental obstacles. Much of what makes this game such a joy to play is how wonderfully it mixes the magical spells you’re given with the world around you, creating a Metroidvania-like experience where whole sections of the different regions are gated off until you get new abilities. The main path through the game is designed to constantly nudge you forward with little to no confusion, but each region is jam-packed with activities you can only do as you progress, learn new spells, and gain new abilities. Abilities like Lash allow you to cross great distances and scale heights, while other abilities allow you to break magical barriers, restore infected parts of the world to life, or even manipulate wooden and stone objects to create new paths to reach secrets. This structure actively encourages backtracking to revisit older areas with your new abilities to get stronger gear, find rare upgrade materials, and unlock skill points to augment your spells. Those looking to mainline the game will be able to finish the storyline in around 15 hours, but it took me more than twice that length to get 100% in each region, and even longer to get the Platinum Trophy (60 hours).
As for the combat, part of the design philosophy and marketing of this game is that it’s supposed to be “Call of Duty with magic”, which doesn’t fully come across in the final product. Yes, it’s a first-person shooter that uses magical spells and abilities instead of guns, but I ultimately found it to feel more like DOOM. Combat is fast-paced and has more of an arena vibe than anything else, and the constant shifting between spells and abilities feels more complex than the “hunker down and pick your shots” feel of COD. Your spells are a mix of long, medium, and short-range (color-coded as Blue, Green, and Red magic, respectively), and the different enemies you encounter all have strengths and weaknesses that correlate to these colors. As you can imagine, combat is a ballet of magical blasts as you switch between colors to target different enemies and take them out more efficiently. While the magic is channeled through special gauntlets called Sigils, the best way to describe the visuals of the magic in this game is to simply point towards the Marvel character Doctor Strange. Jak (and other Magni) wave their hands, point their fingers, and have all of the stylistic flair of Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme, with some of the motions coming eerily close to feeling like they’re pulled directly from the character. Although it does come off looking a little familiar, the visual effects are insane and the trading of magical blows between you and your enemies fills the screen with colorful arrays of magic that are gorgeous to behold, even if they do occasionally make things hard to focus on.
However, what really makes Immortals stand out in its combat is how it implements your non-damage dealing abilities to expand combat. The Lash can be used to quickly reposition yourself if you’re in a sticky situation, or even pull distant enemies close to you for an easier fight. Another ability allows you to lob green orbs at enemies that slow them down, while another lets you disrupt them as they’re casting spells of their own. Each of your three magic styles also has a special attack of its own, and while you can infinitely use your basic attacks to put your enemies down (these attacks have a clip like a gun, but you don’t run out of “ammo”), the special attacks cost extra Magic to use, which can only be replenished by picking up Magic Crystals from defeated foes. These special attacks are super powerful and have special purposes (one deals damage in a wide area, another delivers a barrage of heat-seeking strikes, etc.) you also have an uber-powerful Ultimate ability that delivers a constant stream of damage that applies all three magic styles at once, although the cooldown between uses is very long, so you’ll want to save it for special situations.
As you level up by killing enemies, solving puzzles, and completing story missions, Jak gains skill points which can be spent to upgrade his magic. There are three skill trees (one for each magic style) that can unlock anything from higher damage to improved accuracy, while also augmenting the functionality of each color’s special ability to make them even more deadly. Unless you spend hours and hours farming XP to level up and get skill points, it’s basically impossible to upgrade every spell and skill in a single playthrough. I tried to spread points around the three skill trees to keep all my spell styles viable, but I only got a third of the way through each tree, even after doing every side activity and fully completing each region. Likewise, you can find and craft new gear throughout the game to increase the base stats for each magic type and increase your own stats like health, maximum MP for special attacks, and how many times you can use certain abilities (like Lash) before they have to cool down. Each of the three weapon colors has multiple styles of Sigils to equip to change things like damage, clip size, and rate of fire, so those who really want to dig into creating their own playstyle have a lot to work with.
As part of a free post-launch update, there have been several bonus optional bosses added that offer up the best gear in the game. While you can take these on as soon as you find them, it’s highly recommended that you wait until you have late-game gear before you even think about attempting them. Some of these fights are infuriatingly difficult, and one of them took me two nights of countless attempts before I finally overcame it. The problem with these fights is that the bosses all have absurdly high HP and damage output, with most of them being able to kill you in just 3-4 hits. This means you spend the majority of these fights hiding behind pillars and peeking out for a single attack here and there, and this was even with the highest gear I had from the base game fully upgraded. I really like the combat in this game and think its use of magic over guns is a fun and unique idea, but these fights were so tedious that they stripped any fun out of the encounters.
On the plus side, both the visuals and performance in this game are rock solid. Unlike other modern console games, you don’t have the option to choose between Fidelity or Performance Mode. I don’t know what the exact resolution is that the game is running in, but the image quality is fantastic and everything looks highly detailed and runs perfectly at a consistent 60 FPS. It’s also worth noting that this is one of the first games to take advantage of all the visual bells and whistles of Unreal Engine 5, and while I’m not clued into all of the details of the fact, I definitely noticed that things like lighting and physics look incredible in motion and helped enhance my immersion. This is easily one of the best-looking games I’ve seen on the system, and still images don’t do it justice.
One of the downsides I encountered was a few obnoxious bugs. There were a handful of instances where enemies would fall through the floor or get stuck in the wall and become impossible to kill, preventing me from finishing an encounter and being able to progress without closing and relaunching the game. I also encountered a bug where cycling through spell types quickly would make the game freak out and get stuck in the cycling animation, but this only happened two or three times in my 60 hours with it. Lastly, one of the final puzzles I had left in one of the regions broke and wouldn’t let me interact with any of the parts to it, so I had to use a glitch to get outside of the map to reach the treasure on the other side of the door. All things considered, these bugs are minor and not frequent enough to ruin the entire experience, even if they are a little frustrating during the moment.
On a final note, I want to push back against some of the hostility this game has received. Since its launch, this game has been constantly kicked to the ground across social media and on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. I have seen so many posts and videos calling the game garbage, laughing at its failure, and even making fun of the studio for letting people go. I think too many gamers and content creators go into things with the intent of hating it and play up their anger as comedy to drive engagement. Modern gaming culture seems to be leaning more and more into hyper-negativity and hostility by tearing everything apart that isn’t deemed a perfect “10/10 Masterpiece” by calling it trash, ridiculing it for not being better, or even attacking developers on social media. While it’s totally valid to voice your complaints with a video game, this constant dogpiling on things to generate forced outrage to turn into attention/views has gotten out of hand, and I think it’s causing more harm than good. It honestly depresses me that coverage and critique of video games have gotten so negative and that there’s a generation of upcoming writers and video creators who are being inspired by hatred and toxicity and view that as the baseline. Alright, I’ll step off my soap box now.
FINAL VERDICT
If I had actually played Immortals of Aveum when it launched last year it would have found a spot in my Top 10 Games of 2023. Ascendant Studios has crafted a fun shooter that mixes in Metroidvania elements to create a cool and interesting fantasy world that I loved getting lost in. The excellent worldbuilding, rich lore, and genuinely engaging cast of characters make for a great narrative experience, while the fast-paced magical combat and world design keep your adrenaline running and your sense of exploration alive across the entire experience. While it does occasionally stumble with some tedious optional content and a handful of bugs, Immortals of Aveum is a solid debut game from a studio that I pray gets another chance at financial and critical success, because the talent and passion on display in this project is impossible to ignore.
– Zack Burrows
Sight-In Games 