Immortals of Aveum Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Speedrunning Tips

Immortals of Aveum from developer Ascendant Studios won't be hard to pick out in a crowd.

A first-person (FPS) magical shooter without guns, the unique effort in tandem with Electronic Arts is a colorful fireworks display with some interesting ideas from a studio comprised of former veteran Dead Space and Call of Duty developers.

Add on a story that tries to tackle ambitious subjects and background systems that represent where the game industry might be headed and it's an interesting title, to say the least.

If it all comes together well, Immortals of Aveum could become an established IP. If not, it will filter into the background of what has been a stunning year for games.

Graphics and Gameplay

It's impossible to not hit this point first—Immortals of Aveum is a stunning showcase of the tech powering Unreal Engine 5. From afar, it almost looks like a tech demo aimed exclusively at flaunting its power.

But it passes the eye and performance test at nearly every corner and has quite a bit more going for it, too.

First, the combat. There is a stunning amount of particle effects, lasers and explosions of different colors at every turn. While it does get a little harder to tell what's going on the deeper one gets into the game as more and more enemies populate the screen, it's hard not to come away impressed regardless.

Characters look good, too, as expected, while players progress through an impressive number of varied biomes hitting the expected ranges, such as icy tundras and lava-filled traps.

While players control a battlemage by the name of Jak, the world itself is engrossing in the sense that, while there are super-technological things going on powered by magic, this war-torn land also features people living typical medieval lifestyles.

Aiding this is a nice musical score, some booming sound effects to go with the glitzy combat and some strong voice acting, even if the subject matter isn't always amazing (more on that in a bit).

That's all a nice backdrop for the star of the show, which is a gun-free FPS experience in which characters cock their fists to reload their magical ammo and play a tense game of shield counters.

Three magics define the combat loop—Force (blue), Chaos (red) and Life (green), with red feeling like close range, green spammy and blue long-range.

Chaos magic is destructive and can dish out damage-dealing beams or disorient foes. Force does what it sounds like, be it precision damage, shields or gravity powers. Life can bind, cast illusions or debuff enemies.

Each category of magic gets a trio of Strikes, which are primary attacks. Blue, for example, can cast Arclight, a beam that pierces through all enemies it touches. Red can use something like Burstfire, which is effectively a magical bomb and Green can use something like Maelstrom, which slows enemies the projectiles hit.

There is an easy-to-digest bit of rock-paper-scissors going on, with enemies weak to the exact color of magic they visually show. It's easy enough to pick up at first and the game continually throws new skills into the mix throughout a lengthy campaign.

But one of the problems is that the skill juggling feels tailored toward the early game and doesn't hold up as well later in the game, when more enemies than ever crowd the screen and fumbling from magic type to magic type robs the player of critical chances to inflict damage. It very much feels like a game that will perform much better on a PC's mouse and keyboard.

This is a rather big issue for a FPS because success doesn't just come down to taking proper cover, angles or weapon accuracy, but quickly trying to filter through three colors in the proper order.

Still, while the controls are tough to nail down at times, the game does feel snappy and it's fun to partake in the fights, which is half the battle for a new FPS.

Exploring the world is fun visually, though puzzles are mostly easy enough with color-based solutions. More impressive are the discoverable challenges called Shroudfanes, which are indeed tough at times and offer worthwhile rewards. Similar story for Golden Chests, which players earn after doing puzzles or platforming tasks.

In quite a boon for the game, there is even worthwhile backtracking, especially as fast-travel points open up and new abilities enable better traversal to new areas.

As a whole, the gameplay won't be for everyone. The enemies aren't all that smart and the only thing keeping the combat engaging is the savvy rolling-out of continuous new things to try. Linear-world exploration is fun, but with a rather basic checklist feel.

Still, the moment-to-moment action can be a blast and the foundation feels rock solid—and it's about as eye-catching as it gets in the video game space.

Story and More

Players take control of Jak, a begrudging hero who can harness all three types of magic at once, which is exceedingly rare worldwide.Lucium and Rasharn, the last two kingdoms standing of the original five, serve as the backdrop for the story as the big bad, Sandrakk, sets his sights on nefarious things.

That's painting in broad strokes for the sake of spoilers, but onlookers get the gist. Luckily for would-be players, the story hits some interesting points over a rather long runtime and even boasts an interesting endgame after the campaign that players will want to pursue.

Unfortunately, while the world and backdrop are pretty interesting, there's a Marvel-lite dialogue thing going on where the main character goes for the impossible-to-hit Robert Downey Jr. bar, complete with a lot of cussing. Quips are one thing, too, but it's a little immersion breaking in a fantasy setting when modern greatest hits like "Like for real?" happen from the main character and the supporting cast set up for comedic relief. It's a little head-scratching, like the lack of naming conventions for the three magics other than colors.

Which is a shame, because shoved just under the surface is some worthwhile real-world commentary and themes that make it a pretty enjoyable romp. There's a healthy bit of lore shoved into the nooks and crannies of the game for those who want to pursue it, which is always an amazing inclusion.

As for progression, it's one of the game's stronger points with the way it paces unlocks over the course of its lengthy runtime. It boasts 25 spells and 80 talents at launch and there's a dripfeed that feels rewarding enough while also keeping the wealth of options at a player's fingertips evergrowing.

The game's economy has a nice flow, with Arcanum collected off enemies then funneled into a currency that allows the purchase of Talents. Those three talent categories, of course, have branching individual skill trees to unlock. But unlike talents, the crafting or upgrading equipment at a forge feels more skippable than it probably should.

For what it's worth, there's an interesting tug-of-war here. Upgrading the gear is minor and feels tacked on, whereas investment in the skill trees can provide massive buffs. That's how it should be, at least, if one has to be much more important than the other, given how fun buildcrafting in these types of games can be.

As it stands, there's a nice backbone of an investment-based FPS here, with the steady unraveling of abilities and skill trees doing some very heavy lifting to prevent what would otherwise be repetitive gameplay somewhat refreshing.

Like many modern heavyweights these days, Immortals of Aveum comes with an impressive suite of accessibility options and overall options. To its esteemed credit, it runs rather well most of the time too, which isn't a small feat in modern gaming.

Speedrunning Tips

The suite of abilities players eventually have access to makes Immortals of Aveum a pretty interesting speedrunning game.

A few things in traversal and combat stick out. One is Blink dodge, something most gamers in the FPS space should be familiar with by now. Leaning on that to get around, if not make combat easier, feels like it will be a staple of runs.

In combat and of major note, the Disrupt control spell not only stuns, but sets the player up for easy hits on a foe's critical spot.

Beyond that, memorizing proper pathing and understanding which side content to avoid will lead to the best times. The expected staples of running, like skipping cinematics and cutscenes, also apply.

Conclusion

The Marvel mentions earlier don't have to be a completely bad thing. Picture this—Immortals of Aveum often feels like Doctor Strange FPS, the game.

That's just fun. And in a land of safe sequels and remakes (if a game isn't just copied and pasted to new consoles), it's really, really hard to knock a unique-feeling effort like this.

Immortals of Aveum isn't a difficult game and it has some divisive things going on like the dialogue. But it's also a fun single player without microtransactions and other modern groan-inducing things.

Were this a lighter gaming year, Immortals of Aveum might just be a breakout hit. But it's worth checking out anyway, especially because the foundation and rich world has super potential for more down the line.