EA and Ascendant Studios were kind enough to provide me with an early access code to Immortals of Aveum. I was able to play the game for over 20 hours and still haven’t completed the main story campaign. I will note that I was on a completionist run instead of rushing my way to the end.
I would have liked to provide a full review before my scheduled vacation but I fell short on time. However, I do want to share my experience with the game so you can form an educated opinion for yourself.
In the Beginning
You play as Jak in Immortals of Aveum and at the start of the game, you don’t have any significant magical powers. The story picks up where you and your friends are basically living off scraps or stealing to keep your head above the water.
However, due to an impactful moment in Jak’s life that you get to play through, he gains the ability to use all 3 colors of magic. While his powers were untamed, it did feel empowering to me to unleash the destructive magic.
This introduction to Jak and his backstory is basically a beginner’s tutorial. You go through a more advanced training section as Jak gets recruited by General Kirkan. There the game will teach you the different types of magic and some additional abilities. This gauntlet tries to set you up for what’s to come in Immortals of Aveum.
Storytelling
I personally enjoyed the dialogue and the storytelling. I heard some snippets of dialogue throughout some of the trailers. I get that they cherry-pick certain lines for those things but they sometimes didn’t feel right to me. However, did wasn’t the case when I heard their voices in the full game.
I thought that Devyn would be my least favorite character but he’s actually really enjoyable.
The game tells an epic story about the Everwar and the word choices do get real but they also sprinkle in some humor. I enjoyed most of those fun beats throughout the campaign.
Combat
There are 3 different colors of magic that each represent a weapon type.
- Red: Acts similar to a Shotgun
- Blue: Acts similar to your long-range Pistol/Sniper
- Green: Acts similar to a rapid-firing SMG with homing projectiles
These 3 different colors also kinda act as the different elemental types from Borderlands. Because enemies are weak against their own magic type. This means you will be using Red Magic against Red Magic-type enemies as that is the most effective.
The combat feels good but you can get overwhelmed from time to time. You have a wide range of abilities but I sometimes forget that I can use some of them. I get reminded that I have a shield when those floating battlemages fire blue magic javelins at you.
I was struggling with some Red Beasts that like to be in your face all the time, kinda like the Rabbit skag from Borderlands.
I might need to get into the flow of the combat but because I’m exploring the world a lot, I’m not getting into that groove.
Map Design
The areas I explored looked great. There is a main path that you can follow which will carry you through the story. However, you can also explore some side areas for loot.
There is some Metroidvania going on in Immortals of Aveum. When you obtain new abilities, you can go back to earlier maps and discover all new areas.
There is an obstacle course early on in the game which you can totally do by double jumping and using the blink ability to reach the next platform but you need some skill in order to do this. This feels rewarding if you are a more advanced player because you can get some cool loot early on. However, if you aren’t able to overcome that obstacle just yet, there is a hover ability that you unlock later in the game that makes those sections easier. I think that’s clever game design.
There are a lot of loot chests and other things hidden throughout the maps. They will commonly reward you with Gold and Magical Essense but discovering a golden chest with a new piece of loot is exciting.
Performance
Immortals of Avuem looks great, plays smoothly, but has some high system requirements. My PC is meeting the low requirements but it still looks good. There was some small texture pop-up, probably that Nanite tech they are using where a lower rendered section gets replaced by a higher one if you get close enough. I wasn’t that bothered by it but I’m still playing an early build, there is going to be a Day-1 Patch that further optimizes the game.
I like the system resource budget tool they have in Immortals of Avuem as it calculated your systems capabilities and tells you how much you are using and how many resources each quality setting uses. This lets you tweak the game to your liking, however, there wasn’t much tweaking to be done on my system.
Conclusion
While I haven’t fully finished playing through the whole game, I’m impressed by Immortals of Aveum and have already sunk 20+ hours into the game.
Would I personally buy the game? Yes, the combat is smooth, I enjoyed the Metroidvania aspects of the game, and the story is entertaining. There are some challenging moments that test you as a player but there are also a lot of health pick-ups to keep you on your feet.
Now I’m going to spend the week with my fam in a cabin in the woods but next week I’ll finish the game and update my review.
