Kevin has played Immortals of Aveum for the first time and is surprised: The single-player shooter offers much more than it seems at first glance. Where does the hit potential come from?
Yesterday I rode a dragon. It was more of an accident than anything else, actually the beast wanted to eat me. But then I slammed a few spells against its head and it let go of me. That fall from a great height was the best opening I could have imagined for Immortals of Aveum
Because everything that came after was similarly over-the-top, inane and epic as that scripted moment that immersed me in a shooter setting that I usually only get served in role-playing games. Instead, the new title from Electronic Arts and developer Ascendant Studios throws me into frenzied single-player battles à la Doom that feel like someone turned the ancient Wheel of Time on all cylinders.
Doesn’t look too bad, does it? In this preview, I’ll take you on a journey through the demo of Immortals of Aveum and explain exactly what makes the first-person shooter so surprisingly fascinating. Because I’m sure: If you’re in the mood for a single-player campaign and find Call of Duty dull, you won’t get anything better this year.
Table of Contents
Great tactical combat
Three spell colours serve as the main weapons in Immortals, each of which can be specialised in three directions through an extensive talent tree. In addition, there are three so-called control spells, which you can use to pull enemies towards you or slow them down, as well as six wrath spells, which you can use to take out enemies entrenched behind shields or deal damage all around you.
These powerful bangers are the only ones that consume the precious mana, the standard spells you reload from an unlimited supply when you run out of “ammo”. And finally, there’s an ultimate spell that you save for the really big bombs. In the demo we only saw a fraction of all 19 spells, but using the existing ones was quite fun.
You navigate the battlefields from a first-person perspective using the double jump and dodge buttons, and you have to keep an eye on your life bar, which you recharge manually, as well as your mana, with crystals found in crates and on enemies – no automatic regeneration!
In the fight against faceless mages, who so far act like archers, swordsmen and heavily armoured colossi, you are constantly on the move. “It was important to me that Immortals not be a game where you just have to hold down a button to win,” says Creative Director Bret Robbins in the interview.
And indeed: the level hoses and arenas in which you face off against enemies that visually resemble a mixture of designs from Halo, Destiny and Warframe require a similar amount of dynamism from the player as the 2016 reboot of the Doom series. Pulling distant enemies towards us with our magic whip never gets old and brings back fond memories of Bulletstorm.
Colourful and wild
Meanwhile, particle effects in a wide variety of colours vie for the player’s attention and indeed I occasionally lose track of where enemies are still lurking; fortunately, a small red arrow points out nearby threats.
Melee attacks and a shield help in the thickest of combat, plus you have to use the different colours of blue, red and green of the spells against the enemies’ shields to break through their block.
The boss fight against a fire-breathing dragon, reminiscent of Bullet Hell games, makes me jump over projectiles like Mario, but could be a bit more challenging. The full version must show that the level of difficulty increases on higher difficulty levels, otherwise Immortal runs the risk of seeming too shallow in the long run, especially for experienced shooter players.
Overall, however, I had the impression during the 40-minute demo that Immortals could offer enough depth in the combat system so that the spellcasting doesn’t lose any of its … er, magic over the entire duration of the 25-hour-long single-player campaigns.
In any case, it already seems more diverse and varied than the shooting in the games of the Call of Duty series, of which Robbins was responsible for several in a leading position before he started his own company with Ascendant Studios.
There’s more to it than meets the eye
When I played the game, I was struck by the Metroidvania elements in the otherwise rather linear levels. At altars, hero Jak learns new spells; some of them allow him to crack previously impenetrable barriers. This should motivate you to return to places you already know, if you don’t pay them a second visit in the course of the story anyway.
Early indications in the demo and the interview with Creative Director Robbins (“Some of the best equipment in the game can be found in optional chests”) suggest that Immortals offers a lot of collectible stuff here and hides valuable rewards behind small door puzzles or jump passages.
Because beneath the shooter’s surface, the deeply entwined roots of a loot and level system wind around Immortals of Aveum’s gameplay pillars. Jak can equip various spell-launching contraptions, don found rings with bonuses, and use experience points to unlock earned upgrades in the aforementioned skill tree.
All of this seems like a sensible addition, especially since there are optional challenges similar to those in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Studio boss Bret Robbins compares them to the shrines from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, where optional bosses await, among other things. So it seems that the targeted 25 hours are well filled.
In contrast, Immortals of Aveum will not have a multiplayer mode, although it was initially experimented with, Robbins said. However, the veteran involved with Dead Space and Call of Duty ultimately wanted to focus on the story. “It feels like single-player games never really went away,” he notes, also referring to recent big sellers like Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy.
Crack Story
A final verdict is still pending on that very story. Despite several cutscenes, the hero Jak comes across as rather pale and interchangeable in the one level played. More charismatic is his superior, who is embodied by the well-known series actress Gina Torres (“Suits”, “Firefly”).
As professional as the presentation comes across with lots of showmanship and scripted sequences, I still don’t have a real feel for the story. A big bad guy wants to end the Eternal War that has been raging for decades and only the special unit of the Immortals (Robbins: “They’re practically the Avengers!”) has a chance to prevent the worst. An ancient artefact and Jak’s special status as a magician, who combines all three schools of magic, are also at stake.
Only the test will show how the fantasy scenario ultimately comes across – whether it fascinates the players or rather knocks them on the head. At the moment, the needle is pointing more in the direction of “risk of embarrassment”, but the promised scenes such as a fight on a huge statue striding through the sea could easily compensate for this in the full version.
One thing is clear in any case: it’s worth keeping an eye on Immortals of Aveum and not prejudging it.
Editorial conclusion
Dragons, ancient artefacts and powerful spells: now that’s the kind of fantasy trash I love! Even though creative director Bret Robbins explicitly praises the story in the interview (“some of the best dialogue I’ve ever seen”), I find the whole narrative so far still richly clichéd and uninteresting. Even protagonist Jak has yet to prove himself as a sympathetic character. But to be honest: as a fantasy fan, I’m not that bothered by all this, because so far I’m mainly celebrating the great scenes and moments that the scenario allows. Call of Duty with spells? Yes, please!
Especially since the shooter feels refreshingly classic so far. The battles are fast, the special abilities are fun (energy whip!), the graphics are snazzy. If Ascendant Studios keeps coming up with enough surprises and advancements to the basic concept throughout the entire playtime, Immortals might become my favourite shooter of the year. And yes, I’m as surprised about that as you are!
