When Immortals of Aveum cuts the snark, it’s an enjoyable magic FPS that’s not actually that similar to Call of Duty.
Immortals of Aveum is much more than Call of Duty with magic. I came to this realization as I was running for my life through some deep catacombs.
While looking for a missing Immortal (a powerful magical being) that could help protagonist Jak in the fight against the Rasharn empire and its evil leader Sandrakk, I had to visit the dark and creepy Underdwell. Once I got there, I started to encounter Aelori, beings that magic can’t kill. After being on a bombastic power trip with a variety of colorful spells for several hours at this point, I had to play much smarter as I stunned enemies at the right time in order to escape.
This exhilarating enemy design and combat scenario isn’t something I’d find in a modern Call of Duty, and it made me appreciate how distinct of a project Immortals of Aveum actually is. The debut game from Ascendant Studios, Immortals of Aveum is a first-person shooter that swaps out guns for magic. The fact that former Sledgehammer Games dev Bret Robbins founded Ascendant has caused a lot of Call of Duty comparisons.
I went into Immortals of Aveum expecting a linear, on-rails Call of Duty campaign-style experience but found a game with levels that were more vast than I expected, a world with intriguing lore, and vibrant combat that kept me on my toes, and constant switching up what magic I was using. It’s a solid choice for those looking for an inventive shooter game that stands out from the crowd in that genre, although boring puzzles and cloying dialogue drain some magic out of the experience.Snarky fantasy
In Immortals of Aveum, players follow Jak, an initially magicless kid who’s thrust into the center of an endless war over the control of magic after he turns out to be a triarch — a spellcaster that can use three different kinds of magic. He’s initiated into the Immortals, an elite group of battlemages from the Lucium kingdom fighting against the Rasharn empire and its cruel leader Sandrakk as a magical wound that could destroy the world constantly expands. As the game goes on, though, that initial conflict ends up not being as black-and-white as it initially seems.
Players encounter many more characters, factions, and magical MacGuffins through the adventure, but I’ll save you from the jargon-filled specifics on those. I typically have a low tolerance for games that lay on lore and world-specific jargon too thickly early on, but I found Immortals of Aveum’s pacing brisk enough where that never became a real issue. If someone walks in with no context on the game’s world, they almost certainly won’t understand what’s happening. Thankfully, the story eases players into this world in a compelling way and aligns it with Jak’s journey. I learned about the world alongside the hero.
