You need to admire Ascendant Studios for confidently diving head first with its debut sport, Immortals of Aveum. The fantasy flavoured, magic-based first-person shooter has the looks of an enormous summer time blockbuster, and in some methods it backs that up, however sadly it does not fairly maintain true once you look at it extra carefully. It is a formidable effort, however one that might’ve benefitted from a smaller scope.
It is a single-player motion journey that brings you to a world through which wars are waged with magic somewhat than firearms. The horrible irony is that it is using magic within the seemingly countless Everwar that is inflicting the Wound, an unlimited gap within the planet, to progressively develop. As the 2 warring nations of Aveum battle over management of magic, the floppy-haired Jak discovers a latent and uncommon capability to regulate all three varieties. He is shortly compelled to turn into a soldier and, 5 years and one haircut later, joins the titular Immortals to cease the struggle and heal the Wound.
It is a first rate premise, and refreshing to play a shooter that eschews weapons for one thing completely different. There are some likeable characters among the many forged, with actors doing a reasonably good job with an inconsistent script. The writing and tone put us in thoughts of Marvel films, with characters quipping and joking whereas discussing probably world-ending occasions within the struggle room. There are extra critical moments all through but it surely feels as if the sport does not fairly get the steadiness proper.
Whether or not you benefit from the story or not, Immortals is at its most pleasant once you’re put in management. The sport has an identical construction to God of Struggle Ragnarok; the principle missions are fairly linear excursions, however outdoors of these, you are free to discover the numerous and sizeable environments. Whereas separated by brief loading screens, every space has a definite look and comprises a lot so that you can uncover as you progress. All through the story, you may unlock new spells, gear, and talents that open up new paths and provide you with extra choices in fight. Revisiting earlier areas as you progress is worth it — you may discover hidden paths, elective challenges, and loads of loot.
This being a shooter at coronary heart, all of it feeds again into fight. You’ll be able to swap between the three colors of magic, with every performing as a unique projectile-based weapon. Put merely, Blue acts like a long-range rifle, Pink is a short-range shotgun, and Inexperienced is a mid-range submachine gun. There’s extra to it than that, after all — completely different enemies will necessitate utilizing completely different colors, for instance to interrupt corresponding shields. Along with common photographs, you may additionally achieve entry to particular, extra highly effective spells, akin to rocks erupting from the bottom or a blast to knock enemies again. As you unlock extra talents on the talent tree, every color additionally turns into extra complicated; some Inexperienced assaults can stack poison, whereas some Pink assaults can apply corrosion, making targets weaker briefly.
Typically this method works effectively, and firing off your assaults feels punchy and satisfying. Nevertheless, because the fight slowly grows in complexity and stronger enemies come into play, all of it type of unravels. It does not take very lengthy for fights to turn into very chaotic, the display screen filling up with an obscene quantity of flashy results that make it exhausting to see what is going on on. Enemy teams could be fairly giant, they usually’ll encompass you on all sides. At the side of hard-hitting assaults which might be troublesome to anticipate, your dodge working on a cooldown, and a defend that breaks fairly quick, and it may be very overwhelming, resulting in deaths that’ll have you ever asking what even occurred. At instances, it is visually too busy for its personal good.
You can also make fights a lot simpler for your self by partaking with facet content material; Shroudfanes are elective fight arenas that always reward you with boosts to your max well being and mana, and you’ll find new gear inside hidden chests in every space. On prime of that’s the gear crafting and upgrading system. This allows you to energy up your current weapons and gear, or craft higher stuff, which clearly makes you extra formidable in battle. Nevertheless, it is extra difficult than it must be. You will have many choices obtainable to you and it might truthfully really feel like exhausting work determining maximise your stats.
As soon as you have to grips with that, you possibly can not less than take a step again and respect the presentation. On the entire, Immortals is a handsome sport, with some picturesque environments and one or two memorable set-pieces being the spotlight. Even when the sport is throwing an obnoxious quantity of magical results round, it is capable of preserve a gradual 60 frames-per-second — most of the time. It did battle on a uncommon event, however sticks to its goal 95 per cent of the time. We’ll say we performed the sport previous to the arrival of its day one patch, which can embrace efficiency enhancements and bug fixes. Whereas we performed the overwhelming majority of the 20-hour marketing campaign bug-free, the sport did lock up completely in a single occasion, forcing us to reboot. Hopefully the patch will kind that out.
Conclusion
Immortals of Aveum presents us with an attention-grabbing new fantasy universe through which magic replaces bullets, however in apply it does not fairly hit the mark. Regardless of stable elementary motion, fight can shortly turn into troublesome to learn, devolving right into a dizzying swirl of vibrant results. Strong presentation and efficiency result in some visually arresting scenes, even when the story is not significantly memorable. It is a good first effort from Ascendant Studios, and the potential is totally there, however there is a feeling that the group bit off a bit greater than it may chew.
