Shortly after Immortals’ release, Bethesda’s sprawling space RPG, Starfield, arrived, promising a thousand planets. Starfield, the studio’s first new IP in 25 years, allows players to fulfill their space fantasies with endless exploration, intense gunplay, and spaceship building. As studio director Todd Howard described, it’s essentially Skyrim set in space. Starfield, touted as the biggest Xbox exclusive in a decade, demands hundreds of hours to fully enjoy its offerings. It promises an enthralling journey into the mysteries of space and time, exploring themes of existence, humanity’s quest for knowledge, and the profundity of human endeavor.

Between these two massive, game-changing titles lies Immortals of Aveum with its modest ambitions. The game simply allows you to shoot colorful Magic spells from your fingers in a pew-pew fashion. Immortals doesn’t aim to provide a compelling narrative, deep gameplay systems, or total immersion into its world, and that’s not necessarily a negative aspect. What Immortals does offer is what video games should ultimately be—fun. While Immortals falls short of the grand scale and ambition displayed by the two games surrounding its release, it doesn’t require dozens of hours of commitment or compete for the Game of the Year title. However, Immortals delivers on its straightforward storyline, its sincere and somewhat goofy tribute to modern superhero films, and its tightly packed 25-hour campaign—exactly what it promises, nothing more, nothing less.

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Warlock Warfare Meets Dr. Strange

Immortals of Aveum, the debut game from Ascendant Studios published under the EA Originals banner, is a gunless first-person shooter. Instead, players use their hands to shoot color-coded magic spells, similar to what you’d expect if Dr. Strange were combined with Call of Duty. Visually, the gameplay resembles Ghostwire Tokyo from 2022, but with a unique twist. Between Forspoken and Hogwarts Legacy, magic has made a comeback this year, and Immortals incorporates arcane elements. The game’s single-player campaign primarily follows a linear path, featuring narrow levels with occasional branching paths for exploration.

The gameplay mechanics in Immortals offer a modest yet interesting variety, effectively complementing the magical combat. Each level incorporates simple but satisfying platforming sections and puzzles, serving as refreshing breaks from intense spell-shooting action. On the narrative front, the game delivers a story that resembles a second-tier DC movie. The highlight resides in its arena-style shooting sections, where players juggle their arsenal of magic spells, jumping and dashing like a hyperactive rabbit while battling multiple enemies simultaneously.

The protagonist of Immortals is Jak, a common street thief in the slum city of Seren, unknowingly possessing a powerful and rare form of magic. Players follow Jak’s journey as he experiences personal tragedy and enlists as a soldier in the Everwar, a millennium-long conflict involving Aveum’s five kingdoms. Jak’s path unfolds as he gains recognition as a soldier on the frontlines and becomes an Immortal, an elite order of mages leading the war effort and protecting Lucium, one of Aveum’s five kingdoms. Initially, the game bombards players with an overload of information about Aveum’s world, the ongoing conflict, the involved parties, their motivations, and ancient artifacts and secrets that could change the course of the Everwar and the fate of the lands.

Aveum, a world fueled by magic
Photo Credit: Electronic Arts

If you find yourself drowning in jargon, it’s understandable. Aveum introduces several elements such as the Shrouded Realm, the Wound, the Pentacade, Laylines, Fonts, Binding Stones, and Shrineforges. Fortunately, these components can be overlooked, allowing players to focus on easily digestible information. In essence, you play as a battlemage fighting an unending war where the lines between good and evil often blur. Immortals follows a familiar hero’s journey, much like blockbuster superhero films, where humor accompanies action and tension at every step. The narrative doesn’t offer much freshness, but it still manages to surprise with a few twists and turns.

Jak is joined by a diverse group of allies—the other Immortals—in the Everwar. Kirkan, the leader of the Immortals, serves as Jak’s mentor, taking him in when his life falls apart in Seren. She possesses relentless determination and keeps her intentions concealed, consistently giving Jak frustratingly vague answers about the Everwar. Zendara, Jak’s field commander, remains focused on the next mission, with little time for small talk and camaraderie. On the other hand, Devyn is talkative and sociable, providing a friendly presence within the intimidating order of the Immortals. Devyn also adds humor to the mix, sharing jokes at unexpected moments with the confidence of a clown, even though not all of them land successfully.

As Immortals lead Lucium’s army against the forces of Sandrakk, a tyrant aiming to seize control of the source of all magic in Aveum, the game’s characters resemble the archetypal figures one expects to encounter in a phase five MCU film. However, these characters possess a natural chemistry, which works in their favor. The voice acting throughout the game remains committed and sincere, even when the writing falls short.

Kirkan, Jak’s mentor, leads the Immortals
Photo Credit: Electronic Arts

As mentioned earlier, Immortals often resembles a genre-fatigued superhero film, following familiar narrative beats and action sequences. Similar to the films it emulates, the game relies heavily on humor; however, it avoids trying too hard. The abundance and suddenness of jokes sometimes dilute the seriousness and stakes involved, momentarily breaking the narrative tension. Nevertheless, these jokes also reflect the overall lightheartedness of the game and the willingness to embrace absurdity.

As you progress, new characters are introduced, initially appearing menacing and intimidating, only to reveal themselves as quippy fools reminiscent of Joss Whedon’s style, evoking chuckles from players. For instance, in the game’s second act, players infiltrate a monstrous underworld, traversing a path filled with smoldering lava and ash while battling hordes of enemies. Finally, they reach the volcanic lair of an anticipated opponent, only to find him mildly annoyed that they broke into his bachelor pad. He corrects them when they refer to his room as a porch and proceeds to offer them coffee.

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Spells and Whistles

Despite Immortals of Aveum attempting to emulate a movie, its true strength lies in its video game elements. Ascendant Studios, led by industry veteran Bret Robbins, known for Dead Space and Call of Duty campaigns, brings his experience to Immortals, which, beneath the surface of magic, functions as a first-person shooter. Within Aveum’s world, ancient magic manifests in three variations: blue, green, and red. Jak possesses mastery over all three as a Triarch Magni, while other characters can only manipulate a specific type.

Each type of magic is accessed through Sigils, which serve as magical substitutes for firearms in the game. Red magic serves as shotguns, designed for short-range combat, with high damage output but smaller clips. Blue magic functions like a precision rifle or sniper rifle, ideal for long-range encounters. Green magic represents automatic rifles or submachine guns, boasting large clip sizes suitable for medium-range enemies. However, the rapid-fire nature of green Sigils comes with increased recoil and spray, reducing accuracy. Each Sigil has a designated reload time after depleting the clip, which can be decreased through skill upgrades.

Sigils can be changed in the gear menu
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Manas Mitul

Most enemies in Aveum are color-coded, necessitating the corresponding type of magic to damage them effectively. With diverse enemy encounters, players must juggle different Sigils and switch between magic colors by pressing the triangle button on PlayStation’s Dualsense controller. This ability becomes crucial and enjoyable as players navigate through different scenarios.

In addition to attack-oriented strike spells bound to the Sigils, each magic color is accompanied by a Totem, which grants control-oriented spells aiding in traversing the environment, manipulating enemies in combat, and solving puzzles. Sigils are equipped on the right hand, while Totems are bound to the left. Blue Totems, or Chains, channel the Lash spell, a magical whip pulling distant enemies closer during combat and enabling players to grapple onto anchor points during exploration. Green Totems, or Vials, contain Limpets, fluid blobs that slow down moving targets, whether they are enemies or objects. Red Totems, or Lenses, emit blazing scarlet beams of disrupt spells, nullifying enemy magical attacks and stunning them.

Beyond these combat-focused spells, players have access to augments, including a shield for defense against incoming attacks, as well as blink and hover abilities to evade enemy assaults and navigate challenging platforms. Immortals strikes a balance between strike, control, and augment spells, ensuring a harmonious combination without overwhelming players or becoming unwieldy. As the Dominion meter fills up, players unleash an ultimate attack, a devastating beam merging all three magic colors to deal immense damage.

Combat in Immortals can be psychedelic and chaotic
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Manas Mitul

Immortals primarily presents arena-style battles, interspersed with linear exploration segments. The game features a decent variety of enemies, particularly in the initial stages, but later encounters involve familiar foes. Each chapter introduces unique boss battles to diversify gameplay, providing a break from standard combat. While these encounters are generally easy, they offer a refreshing change of pace. However, the spell-shooting mechanics in Immortals fail to match the impact and feedback provided by traditional firearms in games like Call of Duty. The combat also lacks the challenge present in many other titles, and each encounter area includes an ample supply of health and mana crystals to replenish players’ health and magic meters. Immortals is a breeze on the normal difficulty setting, but I would recommend selecting the hard difficulty option if you desire a more challenging experience.

Fortunately, Immortals of Aveum incorporates a healthy dose of exploration as well, rewarding curious players with gear and valuable items. This exploration aspect resembles side excursions found in God of War or Jedi: Fallen Order, where mostly linear hub worlds contain branching paths that are initially locked. As players acquire new abilities and spells, these paths open up, revealing new areas to explore, gear to discover, and enemies to fight. The hub worlds in Immortals may not be as expansive as those in God of War, but players can revisit previously explored areas and find new surprises. Each level also includes optional challenges called Shroudfanes, featuring dedicated platforming sections and boss battles, both of which can prove tricky but offer valuable rewards. The game also incorporates a gear and upgrade system, as well as a skill tree for the three magic branches. While not as deep as RPG systems, these mechanics remain simple yet serviceable, effectively complementing the overall experience provided by Immortals.

Boss battles feature grand scales
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Manas Mitul

Visuals and Performance

Being one of the first major titles built on Unreal Engine 5, Immortals of Aveum utilizes the engine’s proprietary Nanite geometry and ray-traced Lumen lighting. This reliance on advanced technology is evident in the game’s stunning visuals. Both characters and environments benefit from these enhancements. Character faces are expressive, capturing subtle changes in emotions. The campaign takes players through a wide range of outdoor spaces and changing environments, such as open plains, snowy cliffs, dense vegetation, and arid lands—all beautifully illuminated by the game’s golden lighting. However, Immortals’ art style lacks originality, resembling derivative designs and failing to establish a distinct identity.

The impressive visuals come at a cost in terms of performance for the PlayStation 5 version. The game lacks visual settings options to toggle between performance and quality modes. Instead, Immortals aims for a 60fps output with upscaled 4K resolution. While the game generally maintains its target frame rate, occasional frame drops occur during intense combat or in busy areas. Image quality also remains inconsistent, as it becomes apparent that texture quality and resolution were sacrificed to maintain smoother performance. Future patches may address some of these issues. At the time of writing, a third update has been released, claiming to improve upscaling for enhanced image fidelity on consoles among other optimizations, available for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

The world of Immortals of Aveum features visually stunning environments
Photo Credit: Screenshot/ Manas Mitul

Verdict

In the current gaming landscape, finding a decent single-player shooter campaign can be a rarity, particularly with franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield focusing more on their multiplayer modes. Furthermore, a concise and satisfying single-player experience devoid of microtransactions, battle passes, and loot boxes has become increasingly scarce. In a time when many publishers rush incomplete games to market, Immortals of Aveum defies the norm by launching as a complete and well-optimized title. While the game has its flaws, it possesses genuine charm. Its imperfect yet enjoyable spell-shooting combat and well-crafted level design make it a breeze to play. Although the game’s summer blockbuster-style story lacks originality, it manages to capture players’ interest with its earnestness. The various mechanics work cohesively together within the game, resulting in an experience that functions despite having a few loose screws and imperfections.

Immortals of Aveum arrives at a time when games have become more akin to homework, demanding significant time and attention. They require players to temporarily set aside their real lives and immerse themselves in vast virtual worlds. This transformational power is unique to video games and cannot be replicated by any other medium. However, there are moments when players don’t need games to be a full-course meal. Sometimes, games can serve as satisfying snacks. Immortals is like a bite-sized biscuit—it may not leave a remarkable taste in your mouth, but it will be enjoyable, providing exactly the kind of experience you need. In a world where ambitious video games aim to deliver incredible depth, Immortals of Aveum mirrors a simpler and more superficial era of the medium, which remains just as significant.

Pros

• Enjoyable spell-shooting combat
• Tightly crafted single-player campaign
• Well-designed exploration and platforming
• Likeable characters
• No microtransactions or bugs
• Impressive visuals

Cons

• Generic villain and story
• Excessive and overwhelming lore
• Derivative art style
• Performance issues

Rating (out of 10): 7

Immortals of Aveum was released on August 22 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.

The Standard Edition is priced at Rs. 2,999 on Steam and the Epic Games Store for PC, and Rs. 4,499 on the PlayStation Store for PS5 and Xbox Store for Xbox Series S/X.