Immortals of Aveum Review

Electronic Arts has been responsible for fostering developers to bring some of the best first-person shooters the gaming business has known. The likes of Battlefield, Titanfall, and the Star Wars Battlefront series have been highly successful franchises, enter Ascendant Studios, a new independent gaming studio that is bringing us a whole new world named Immortals of Aveum.

Immortals of Aveum follows in the footsteps of EA’s recent title, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, a complete single-player experience with no micro-transactions or online play. The focus on non-monetary elements like gameplay and narrative are one of the things I look for in a game.

Enter the main character of Jak, a kid raised on the streets and part of a gang led by Luna. She is trying all she can to make life easier on her ‘family’ as she owns the house you all live in and has aspirations of joining the Lucium army to do her part in what is known as the ‘Everwar’.

The Everwar is the backdrop and reasoning behind all that is going on in the world of Aveum which used to be five kingdoms and after a millennia of war over magic, has been reduced to two juggernauts colliding, the Lucium and Rasharn armies. 

The opening of the game does a good job of giving a brief introduction to the world of Immortals of Aveum and tells of this magical world where everyone relies on magic with some being more powerful than others. These are known as Magni, they are the ones who are usually called up to serve Lucium and it’s only when the war comes to your small part of town and tragedy befalls Jak that the story really kicks off.

Throughout your time in Immortals of Aveum, there will be revelations and plot twists that will keep you invested in the overall story. There are also many collectables to be found in the form of notes scattered around the world that will dive deeper into the lore of the land and the armies involved.

Combat starts off as fast-paced and a lot of simple fun that eases you into the game mechanics and the three main powers you will wield. These are simplified into a colour system. Blue, green, and red.

Blue is used for more accurate shooting of magic, almost like a sniper rifle of sorts, red is more your shotgun variety of magic and green acts as an all-out assault blast that will help you with multiple enemies. As you progress further and level up in Immortals of Aveum, you will gain access to more powers. This is where it can get a bit overwhelming. 

Your right hand is your main hand of combat during the game, then you will receive access to your left hand which utilizes the D-Pad, three of them being the offence and the fourth being the health recharge. The RB/R1 is eventually there as your spellbook. This will let you access more powerful magics which will come in handy if the Rasharns are using shields or if you just need to take out a horde of soldiers. Lastly, you will have your shield and R3 & L3 stick attack which is one of the most powerful attacks you have in your arsenal.

Needless to say during my time in Immortals of Aveum, I forgot about many of these attacks and it wasn’t until I got further into the game and thought to myself ‘Man! I wish I had a more powerful attack’, that I remembered. When you get used to this all, you will feel like a huge badass capable of taking down anything and everything. 

When you are not engaging in combat, you will come to learn how huge the world is that Ascendant Studios has created. There are definitely times when it does feel too big, but they did an amazing job of scattering puzzles, chests, and collectables in the quiet areas of the game. Solving the puzzles will net you better equipment such as your gauntlets and other stat-boosting equipment you will find. Finding chests will normally recover resources and money which can be used to purchase the previously mentioned equipment as well as upgrade them. There is a LOT to do and keep you occupied in this game.

The visuals of Immortals of Aveum were a bit of a mixed bag for me. While there are no performance or quality options for gamers, the game is running on Unreal Engine 5 and I’ll admit, this game looks really beautiful but there was just something I couldn’t put my finger on, it was almost like there was a blur when switching gauntlets and moving about. I did disable the motion blur in the options but it seemed like there was still a bit of it involved in the overall art style. In saying that though, the characters all look great and the main hub area for the Lucium army has a really great-looking art style.

All of the acting was done really well, and so it should be. Immortals of Aveum has some Hollywood talent that lends their likeness and voices to the main characters. The most notable will be General Kikan who is portrayed by Gina Torres (Destiny 2) who is a stand-out along with the main antagonist voiced by Steven Brand (The Order: 1886).

Electronic Arts has found a winner in Immortals of Aveum. This fast-paced shooter is a load of fun and a joy to take in the world that was created. The only downfalls are that at the time of review, the game crashed for me multiple times back to the dashboard and an overwhelming amount of combat options. But once you look past that and get used to it, you’re looking at a game that could easily draw you into the world created.