Immortal Aveum has worked so hard to look and feel like a summer blockbuster, I’m surprised the Collector’s Edition doesn’t come with a big tub of buttered popcorn. Or at least one you can microwave at home.
It’s even set to release in July, a traditionally barren point in the release calendar, but surely softer competition can only help this gorgeous new IP on EA Originals’ release label break through?
From its high-stakes story that relies heavily on the kind of fantasy escapism that would never use real words if it could be made up, to the sarcastic stinging tone of its funky superhero script, from what I’ve seen in my hands – in three A preview of the first story level, Aveum’s Immortals is generally successful at the goals it sets out to do — with a few caveats.
Why do games always refer to Michael Bay and James Cameron movies when they try to be “movies”? A lot of games are clearly inspired by the movie, but whenever the “movie” tag comes up, it usually comes down to moody close-ups of big explosions and gunfire. Crucially, though, what developer Ascendant Studios thinks sets its first game apart is that there aren’t any guns to fire, just a dizzying array of spells.
Immortals of Aveum tells the story of an eternal conflict known as the Everwar, where for thousands of years people have fought for control of the magic at the center of the world. You come in when the balance is shifting toward evil, with the despotic Sandrakk at the helm of the Rasharn faction gaining the upper hand against the Kingdom of Lucium.
It’s up to Jak (unfortunately not related to Daxter), a newcomer to the Order of the Immortals and a talented spellcaster with access to all three colors of magic, to make the crucial difference that turns the tide of Everwar.
Apparently conceived as “what if it was Call of Duty, but dragons”, the three colors of magic are based on familiar weapon archetypes. Red is for close range, similar to a shotgun, green is for quick fire like an SMG, and blue has longer range options, more akin to a marksman rifle or hand cannon.
Because of this, I don’t believe the magic shooter’s gameplay is as unique as Ascendant asserts, since there aren’t many tangible mechanical differences in terms of firing spells rather than the weapons they conjure up.
But having said that, the magic definitely adds a lot to the action. Visually, Immortals of Aveum is fantastic, filling the screen with vibrant shattering particles and filling the screen with violent confetti as you bounce around, constantly switching between spells to exploit enemy weaknesses.
Enemies aren’t as versatile as Jak, so they themselves usually only use one color of magic. But it also means they’re weak against that color, allowing you to kill them off more easily by using your equipment effectively. This tactical layer adds an extra layer of complexity to combat, which can cause shards to be very tough and hectic.
But it can also cause the gear to make a dull sound in the heat, making it difficult to distinguish weapons of different colors and outfits at a glance. This could be an accessibility issue due to my color blindness, or simply not being familiar with Aveum’s different spells, but fumbling with the overstuffed control scheme on the pad is frustrating at times.
Perhaps the most impressive element of Sea of the Immortals, however, is the exceptional scope and scale of the levels. As one of the first major publisher games to ship with Unreal Engine 5.1, you can really tell how massive everything is.
My preview starts with a tutorial level and sees Jak face to face, basically a training dummy, but the action quickly shifts to a dense and sprawling jungle, with dilapidated temples crumbling through the undergrowth, and then into dark, subterranean caverns that sound ominous of light.
There are obviously more biomes to explore in Immortals of Aveum, so it’s a visual treat in many ways. Judging from the opening large-scale battlefield cutscenes, the sense of presence is very strong. You can feel how the model exists in the environment with perceived depth instead of just looking like a flat image.
But it also has gaming apps. While many encounters take place in standard-looking arenas, as you’d expect from a DOOM-like shooter, the sheer scale meant that Ascendant Studios could incorporate a lot of variation in each area, taking advantage of the different corners. Verticality level map and enough distance between vantage point and line of sight to make short, medium and long range spells have noticeable impact.
Hopefully the finished game will take full advantage of this spectacular technology, but it will be a real test when performance issues have been at the forefront of so many releases, and this will be the first big game from a fledgling studio. The true test of whether it will run smoothly.
Another interesting aspect of Immortals of Aveum is the rhythm between action and exploration, with subtle environmental puzzles scattered throughout the world. These can be simple locked doors where you need to pay attention and use the correct power to return later, treasure hunts where you need to destroy colored crystals that match the colored crystals shown on the locked door, or tricky ones. Platforming challenges that ask you to time a shot or jump forward onto a moving bridge.
I really like the puzzle gameplay, even if some of the puzzles do have you bumping into the invisible walls of the goldfish bowl. Because the environment does feel so present and expansive, it often seems like you can get to places you can’t actually go, which takes you out of the moment, but if you’re not feeling it.
So, with incredible special effects, expansive environments and a groundbreaking story, “Avim the Immortal” is a big-budget epic with all the hallmarks of a summer blockbuster. But just like at the box office, we’ll have to see if the whole package is still something we remember from awards season.
Let’s see if it sticks around when Aveum of the Immortals launches on July 20, 2023 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.