What would happen if you were to design an FPS shooter and engulf it with magic in a high-fantasy setting? The team at Ascendant Studios asked that question and came up with Immortals of Aveum. In this magical game, players can explore the world of Aveum, flinging multiple spells in a fast-paced adventure to save the world from falling into chaos.
In Immortals of Aveum, players will play as Jak, an Unforeseen who has developed magical abilities later in life. These magical powers are discovered by the Immortals, the city’s protectors who teach him to become a Triarch Magnus, wielding the power of the three forms of magic: Force, Chaos, and Life. Jak has the rare ability to wield all three, which melt alongside one another in combat.
In our hands-off preview, we had the chance to check out some early and late-game footage of Immortals of Aveum. The way you fling spells isn’t entirely like shooting a traditional gun as you would in Call of Duty, but Ascendant Studios is able to lean into that quicker magic given their history. They’re an independent studio led by Bred Robbins, a creative director who worked on the original Dead Space and several earlier Call of Duty campaigns, so it’s hard not to see where their influence lies from these previous projects
Rather than traditional guns and weapons, players will wield several types of spells using the three forms of magic in Aveum. The spells take time to wind up but can unleash devastating effects against an enemy. There are over 25 spells for players to learn throughout the campaign, along with 80 talents to augment their abilities, allowing players to create a unique playstyle depending on the type of magic they enjoy utilizing.
It was great seeing the difference between the start of Immortals of Aveum and what high-level play looked like. During the earlier footage, we saw Jak struggling with magic, only using one or two types of attacks as he ran through the campaign. However, when we jumped into the late-game footage, the person controlling Jak freely switched between the three types of magic, flinging them out in a steady, powerful rhythm. It reminded me a lot of the gameplay style of Ghostwire: Tokyo, but it leaned far more into the FPS genre — with a faster pace and more combat variety.
Although we did not get a chance to play Immortals of Aveum ourselves, the game looks extremely promising. It has an in-depth, linear campaign structure that feels like an intense Call of Duty adventure at first glance, with a handful of tricky puzzles that were solved with some quick magic work. That said, there’s a lot more to the breadth of this game that I’m looking forward to checking out and seeing what the developers created.
Whereas Call of Duty is your typical military shooter grounded in some type of reality, Immortals of Aveum embraces its high-fantasy, where players can explore 12 unique biomes, undergo numerous side quests, unlock exploration puzzles, and encounter diverse enemies. Sadly, we only caught a glimpse of the puzzles that could appear in the game and didn’t get too much of a chance to check out what the side quests would look like.
Fortunately, we’ll all get to check out Immortals of Aveum much sooner than we expected, with the game releasing on July 20, 2023. I, for one, can’t wait to start flinging magic around ourselves and dive into the world of Aveum with Jak.
