Battlemages, besides being an amazing name to say, combine all of the best things of fantasy combat. Imagine CQC but with spells and melee combos. And not many games have transferred that mentality quite as well as this newest fantasy action game contender.
Immortals of Aveum is the first game from developer Ascendant Studios, where the bombastic nature of EA’s Battlefield campaigns are now transferred over to their fantasy setting, of which I can say that, they somehow have nailed it quite well, albeit with some hiccups here and there.
Presentation
Now, Immortals is one of the few games that will be using the new Unreal Engine 5 and it does show how well it is with how the visuals look quite good even on Xbox Series S, with it hovering over 60fps thanks to the dev team adding FSR into the engine as well, but there are some slowdowns when the magic spews everywhere on-screen.
But these visuals are quite a feast of the eyes, with the overgrown magic combining with the fantasy towns around the realms of Aveum, and that makes traversing the five areas and its Shrouded Realm (their other side location, filled with magic) that’s filled with unique looking enemies like the Gestalts and the main bad guy Sandrakk’s goons.
Music is quite an interesting mix of genres, with your usual fantasy flare with some added modern touch like a mixture of trap beats that you can hear during traversal and even during encounters. An unusual mixture of sounds but like its game, the mixture does fit right well with how it conducts itself onto the story that you’ll be seeing through.
Voice acting is pretty good for this scale of a game, with the likes of our main protag Jak (played by Darren Barnet of Netflix fame) doing the business being our voice throughout the story, with the cast of Immortals that helping you like General Kirkan (play by Destiny’s Ikora Rey, Gina Torres) and Devyn (also played by Antonia Aakeel, from the Tomb Raider movie) being really solid as your support as we help them battle an endless war of Mages and Wizardry over control of the Realm.
Gameplay
Now, the main pull of Immortals of Aveum is that it is a first-person magical shooter. But here’s the kicker, it plays like something out of the Gen Dooms instead of the likes of Battlefield (but it does have some resemblance of the old Bad Company Battlefields with how it shoots sans “iron sights”), with you having to dodge, grab and double dash your way to victory.
But fret not if you feel it strays too far from the FPS genre as its campaign does have a feeling of what you would expect this sort of game would go for: Bombastic set pieces and cutscenes that intertwine with a slow-pace hub world that lets the players breathe a little and upgrade their gear before the next round of enemies.
But what about the shooting elements, you might say? It’s simplistic but does its job quite well with the magic attacks splitting into 3: Red magic being the Shotgun, Green magic being a sort of SMG/MG-type, and Blue magic being your Rifle variant for those sweet taps.
These are also coupled with Furies, which are AOE attacks that help you maintain the enemies from overwhelming you, all of which culminate in a Dominion, a large attack beam that will shred enemies if time correctly.
And while I feel getting your powers as your Ascension progress is a good way to teach the mechanics on the go, the progression tree feels quite lacklustre. Bar the Buffs you can add to weapon or melee attacks, it doesn’t feel like it fits very well to this shooter, unlike Doom’s weapon-specific upgrades that you earn via secrets, Aveum does it via XP from downed enemies, which is fine but kinda feels unnecessary in my view.
But other than that, it’s a pretty good shooter that helps sell the Battlemage fantasy to me and even perhaps, many others.
Content
Immortals of Aveum is a pretty substantial shooter romp that has kind of like your average shooter type of level with some form of exploration to get the secrets that you can find along your travels (like a better gun or armor for example).
But I reckon that you’ll get your nice 10-hour romp with this Fantasy version of a military shooter. Kinda a shame that it doesn’t have a Doom-like multiplayer because this could be fun with friends, but I digress.
Personal Enjoyment
Immortals remind me of more wildly imaginative times of the 6th and early 7th gen era when games are made by developers who have the power to creativity make games that don’t sound captivating on paper but once you get your hands on it, the gameplay has you wonder how this is/was underappreciated, considering how weird this genre mixing is.
I kinda do feel like its launch price is a bit steep considering it’s single-player only and even Wild Hearts (the other recently released EA Original game) has more to stand on. And personally, considering how rare these sorts of games releasing are, pricing it at the new price of 70 Dollars (RM300 on consoles, RM199 on PC) is not doing the game any favours with anyone interested to try it out unless they have EA Play Pro, which just saddens because I do want to see this game series get fleshed out more.
Conclusion
Immortals of Aveum is a great introduction to the world that Ascendant Studios have created that flows together magic and shooters into a combo that I think can be refined some more if they get a sequel. Though I don’t really agree with their pricing at launch, this game should be a pick-up on sale, because I believe this is EA’s most unique shooter in their arsenal since Titanfall.
Played on Xbox Series S. Review Copy provided by the publisher.
Immortals of Aveum
A great introduction to the world that Ascendant Studios have created that flows together magic and shooters into a combo that I think can be refined more in the future.
- Presentation 8
- Gameplay 7
- Content 6
- Personal Enjoyment 8