Immortals of Aveum review: A lot of magic, a tad less heart

When Immortals of Aveum finally launched last month, I was eager to check out whether "Call of Duty, but without magic" managed to live up to the community's high expectations. The high PC system requirements had already raised quite a few eyebrows. By the time I dived into my PS5 copy, I had heard a lot of people complaining and how it plays on PCs that are not high-end.

Immortals of Aveum's USP lies in the fact that the developers have exchanged the guns that we usually find in FPS titles with magical shooters that spurt out a variety of spells. They are delightfully colorful, easy to switch between, and allow for a diverse combat experience depending on which spells you decide to use and how.

With that said, what else does Ascendant Studios' debuting game have in store for those who dare to join the Everwar and try and save Aveum?

Immortals of Aveum's fun magical combat required a better supporting act

The world of Aveum is collapsing under the dire threat of the Wound (an ever-growing chasm) and the Rasharn. The latter and the Lucium are the only kingdoms left fighting the Everwar. Initially fought between five kingdoms wanting to control the magic that runs through the in-game world, the war has been going on for eons, with Rasharn and Lucium the only ones left.

The Leylines introducing magic (Image via Immortals of Aveum)

You step into the shoes of Jak, who initially disliked the notion of taking part in the war as a soldier. But with Rasharn threatening to take over Aveum and their warmongering resulting in personal losses, he joins the fray.

RGB Magic lights up the battleground!

In Immortals of Aveum, you are an Unforeseen Triarch Magnus. The middle word refers to your unique ability to use all three magic varieties - Red, Blue, and Green. Akin to the FPS genre's general diverse range of guns and their uses, the Red takes more of a shotgun approach, the Blue a long-range, and the Green an automatic rapid shooter.

You conjure these spells through a magical contraption on your right hand. With the left, you can use three augments that have abilities like grappling far-away enemies, refracting, and slowing down opponents or certain objects. The latter makes for interesting gameplay opportunities, especially during combat.

Shifting between the three magic colors is extremely easy, and on the PS5, it happens seamlessly with a push of a single button (triangle). This makes for a fluid combat experience, which is one of the biggest drawing points of the game.

As we progress within the game and pick up on various spells and mechanics, you will have a plethora of offensive options to play around with while dealing with an ever-increasing wave of enemies, which has a healthy mixture of melee and ranged opponents.

On top of that, you will gradually get access to furies - special spells that require mana to perform, which, when utilized properly, can do a significant amount of damage. The protagonist also has the option to bring up a shield and dodge.

With the erstwhile mentioned talent tree, whose depth and variety were not something I expected in Immortals of Aveum, there are plenty of buffs and upgrades to be added to tweak your playstyle accordingly, too.

All of this, when mixed together, provides a chaotic combat experience that is enjoyable when you manage to pull the necessary combos and dodges.

Fighting a dragon (Image via Immortals of Aveum)

Identify which enemy is vulnerable to which color of magic, equip, and blast through. If you need to quickly deal with a ranged enemy peppering you with shots of magic, simply lasso them close and finish them off with a burst of red magic or rapid fire of the green one.

While not as powerful later on, one of my favorites was the blue magic javelin. To use it at its fullest, you have to charge it up during combat. On one hand, it makes you vulnerable as the ability charges up, on the other, you get to throw it at an enemy like you are Zeus throwing a lightning bolt!

While the visual clutter from all these spells, the enemies' attacks, and their particle effects can sometimes get overwhelming, Immortals of Aveum does manage to make the entire combat experience an enjoyable one. It is chaotic but entirely one that you want to dive into and derive pleasure from.

The visual splendor and the soundscape

On these two counts, Immortals of Aveum does indeed score high. For the former, many times, the gameworld looks quite gorgeous. While it did not feel expansive in nature, it is carefully crafted, and it is clear that the developers have tried to weave it from the contextual lore the world is built upon.

For example, we begin the game in Seren, a city that is built upon a giant bridge and divided across classes into the Topside and the Underbridge. Our journey with Jak starts in the latter.

The visual elements of this place, with wooden houses, scaffoldings, and the vast gaping space beneath, aptly reflect the precarious condition of those who reside there and their marginalized existence within the macro society of Lucium and Aveum.

In contrast, when you make it to the Palathon, which serves as the headquarters for the Order of the Immortals that you will qualify for as an elite Magnus, you will notice the royalty and grandeur of the place. While the Palathon is bright and colorful, Seren is dimly lit and dark.

Taking advantage of Unreal Engine 5, Immortals of Aveum strives to visually delight players in both the spells you cast and the world you cast them in. In my time in Aveum, I will gladly concede that they successfully managed to do so.

Furthermore, the game is well-complimented by the music score and the voice acting. Well, to be fair, with someone like Gina Torres (voiced Kirkan, the leader of the Immortals and Jak's mentor) in the mix, that is of no surprise.

A pail full of potential, often untapped

My initial gripe with Immortals of Aveum was with how the developers have paced the Seren chapter of the story. We are shown that Jax resides in Seren with four other thieves. The leader of their motley, Luna, group is planning to leave to join the army, and Jak openly mocks her for not defying the draft.

When one of the three children in the group returns injured, Luna and Jak go off to find a way to heal him. As they are making their way back to the house, a sudden attack by Rasharn rings in. While Jak and Luna do manage to almost reach the house, they watch in horror as it, along with the three children, is completely swept off with one attack from an enemy ship.

Luna decides to pick a fight with an enemy in front of her and is immediately killed. This results in Jak losing control of the innate magical powers within him and decimating several opponents before passing out. Most of this is shown through cinematics, with a few segments of gameplay peppered in.

The tragedy that occurs here with the death of the only family Jak had, or the place he called his home, is crafted as the emotional crux of him finally wanting to join the Everwar, rise up to the Order of the Immortals, and fight. Yet, it feels unearned.

Given how little time the developers allow to create a bond with Seren, with the children, or even with Luna, the tragedy you are supposed to feel as Jak upon watching all of it being destroyed, I did not feel so. Had Immortals of Aveum given more time to nurture these relationships with more nuance, the emotional payoff would have been much stronger.

The narrative dissonance is also palpable within the dialog. As many have already noted, Jak is constantly making "funny" quips and passing remarks. Its protagonist's MCU-esque humor is often jarring on the ear or, at times, even falling flat. What makes it worse is that the quippy dialog and its one-liners are against the backdrop of cataclysmic events, uncountable deaths, and the Everwar-threatened Aveum.

While nobody can deny the impact Marvel's storytelling has had on our cultural zeitgeist, Immortals of Aveum could have done without the constant presence of such humor or at least could have dialed it down a few notches. I admit, there are a few true chuckles and funny one-liners, but not as many as the game would want me to believe.

Difficult conversations (Image via Immortals of Aveum)

Immortals of Aveum's narrative does, at times, dwell into making a few critical social commentaries. These include the matter of class divisions, racist undertones, the enforcement of hierarchy and how it is impossible to break it, the millennium-spanning conflict, and how they are themselves responsible for creating the Wound that is plaguing the world.

But these potentials feel untapped, remaining more as novel talking points than fleshed-out ideas to navigate around.

In Conclusion

There's no denying the fact that the developers at Ascendant Studios have tried to do something new with the FPS genre in Immortals of Aveum. Its magical combat mechanics are bright, vivid, and engaging. The narrative posits a vast and grand scheme, with the fate of the entire world hanging in the balance.

Though the aforementioned drawbacks limit what the game could have truly achieved. In a year where players have been almost spoilt with great releases, Immortals of Aveum is filled to the brim with magic but lacks the cohesion to tie it all neatly together.

Nevertheless, I would recommend players try this out simply for the fun and fluid combat experience.