Game review 22 August 2023, 15:35

author: Giancarlo Saldana

Immortals of Aveum Review: When Magic Fizzles

A new IP, Immortals of Aveum, doesn’t make the best first impression, yet has the potential to be much more – if it focuses on what it does well.

The review is based on the PS5 version. It's also relevant to PC, XSX version(s).

Immortals of Aveum doesn’t have guns, but plays like a first-person shooter. It’s also a linear experience but it features a customization system that feels like one from an RPG. It also takes place in a fantasy world but features dialogue that feels more like teen angst than anything else. It’s a lot of things but doesn’t truly excel in one.

At the same time, its design and gameplay choices, however, make it a refreshing take on the FPS genre. You won’t purchase guns, but instead will outfit your player with magical sigils that let you harness magic in different ways. It also offers one of the most stunning visual experiences you can find, with impressive, photorealistic characters that make it feel like you’re part of an interactive movie. Chances are, however, that this movie is one you’ll watch once – and never again.

Modern Fantasy

One of the reasons why Immortals of Aveum feels a bit lost is that the game’s protagonist isn’t one you’re rooting for from the beginning. Perhaps it’s his delivery, or the fact that he will say the most obnoxious things sometimes – but Jak is as meek as his name, the unique spelling aside. He starts out a poor, street urchin, but in a turn of events becomes a battlemage fighting in a magical army against a ruthless despot who wants to absorb all the world’s magic for himself. It’s your typical good vs. evil storyline, but there are some redeeming highlights along the way.

The characters you interact with, such as the strict yet motherly General Kirkan and your hostile yet secretly caring colleague Zendara, are some of cast’s strong points – each one delivering a believable performance and the voice of reason to Jak’s immature and sometimes annoying quips. It’s not the actor’s fault, as the lines he delivers become grating at times. Sure, he starts off as an immature kid and grows into a more battle-hardened soldier, but getting to that realization takes a long, long time. What’s worse is that you have to play as him. So before long, the game’s overarching conflict – not his personal – was what ultimately made me want to stick it out until the end.

Immortals of Averium also doesn’t feel like your typical fantasy game from the start. Dialogue choices and even just how some of the characters deliver their lines make the game feel more contemporary than one of those fantasy titles spoken in Middle English. In some respects, this matches the game’s fast-paced action elements which don’t bother wasting your time with stuffy lines that will inevitably put you to sleep. This is an action game first and fantasy game second. Of course, you will be introduced to a plethora of Aveum-specific vocabulary as you play that will orient you into its world, but you can thankfully read through this lore at your leisure. What’s also interesting is how the game’s conflict, which involves wasting the world’s resources through the use of magic, echoes that of environmentalism and makes Aveum’s problems feel closer to home.

Triple Threat

A rare breed of mage, Jak is a Triarch Magnus who’s able to wield three kinds of magic via the sigils he wears on his arm that allow him to harness mystical powers. This also gives the game its magic-FPS feel. Red magic shoots off bursts of light similar to a shotgun, so it’s great at close-range. Blue magic can snipe at enemies from afar and pierce shields like a rifle, while green magic acts like a rapid machine gun. Each one is good in different situations and battles will constantly have you juggling between each kind to successfully defeat enemies.

In fact, enemies don’t stand still and can sometimes fly to different parts of the battlefield, cast magic at you, teleport, or simply rush at you, so you will always be moving and attacking. Even the easiest battle can become a frenetic spectacle of magical fireworks that leaves you feeling great when it’s over. At first, that is. More hours into the game, and you will realize you are doing a lot of the same stuff but in larger quantities. Enemies don’t necessarily get more difficult, but they do spawn in more numbers and are weak to a specific color of magic.

This wouldn’t be a problem if you could swap these spells at will, but you will always go from blue to red to green, which can put a dent in your plans during moments when you are multitasking on-the-fly. It’s more aggravating when you get a battle that features enemies that are weak to a variety of colors forcing you to focus on one while you are dodging the others. It’s a rush that feels great, don’t get me wrong, but when you do this nearly every few minutes during the second half of the game, the fireworks quickly start to fizzle out.

Color Me Unimpressed

You also can equip various tools to deploy during these fights which add to how you want to engage with enemies, adding to some variety. You can, for example, use a lash to pull enemies closer to you and then shoot them in the face with the magic of your choice – which was my personal favorite. Or you can throw limpets at them to slow them down and get a few seconds to find your bearings. The way you decide to approach certain situations is pretty unrestricted, but if a red enemy approaches, you know you need to go with red magic to really do any damage, which makes the approach to combat feel linear at times depending on what you are fighting.

This is where the game gets confusing as it tries to mix in elements from modern FPS games, while not offering the strategic elements these games normally provide. You can’t hide behind cover, for example, and plan out your attack or position yourself to snipe an enemy from a distance. Instead, you simply have to keep matching colors, running, and dodging shots, hoping you don’t have to wait for your spells to reload. To an extent, it’s great that the game isn’t a magical facsimile of Call of Duty, as it feels more like Doom when it comes to battle, but offering more strategic elements than just color-matching enemies would have amped the thrill up a bit.

Beyond just the three magic colors, the game also lets you purchase and upgrade your sigils just like you would any gun. Frankly, I kept with the first few sigils I found from the start of the game and focused on leveling up Jak’s talents instead, which powered up his overall spells and offered some buffs to his damage and defense. In addition to just regular attacks, you can also unleash more powerful ones that take up part of your magic meter and even an ultimate attack that depletes it all. These powers are great during boss battles and thankfully add a kick to your combat experience.

Final Thoughts

Immortals does something most FPS games don’t do, namely it creates a single-player experience that works well without the need for a multiplayer option, but it gets repetitive halfway through. Lasting a little over 20 hours, the experience becomes a hassle simply due to the repetitive nature of combat and the amounts of enemies you are faced with, which is unfortunate considering its potential in exploring more of its dark themes and diving into Jak’s character struggles and victories.

As it is, Immortals of Aveum is a fun, but short-lived adventure and it doesn’t offer anything that hasn’t been done before. The experience does have plenty of highs such as an engaging combat system that feels good when it performs well and a strong cast of characters that give it an Avengers-like tone. It’s not perfect nor is it bad, but like its protagonist, Immortals of Aveum is more of a jack of all trades than a master of one, specific art.