Small development team, big names behind it. This is the premise from which it arises Ascendant Studiosthe ambitious but small team of developers that has come together, led by the father of Dead Space and creative director of some Call of Duty, Bret Robbins. One was born from the idea of this handful of people interesting shooter and very pleasant: Immortals of Aveum. Released last August 22nd on PlayStation 5, where we put it through its paces, and on PC, this one FPS action it conquered us right from the main menu, and as we entered the adventure, our opinions consolidated more and more.
Our review of Immortals of Aveum
The main goal of the team was to combine the mechanics of the most glossy first person shooters with a fantasy setting fascinating, with a complex and well-groomed narrative sector. We have certainly found these pillars of the history of Immortal of Aveum, which made us catapult into a world dominated by magic, but equally torn apart by an age-old conflict, and which risks dooming the planet. Let’s get acquainted right away How’s Luna?the most mature of a group of foundlings, who live in the slums of Luciusuntil the entire neighborhood is destroyed by a ship from enemy kingdom, Rasharn.
Only when Jak finds himself alone (and we avoid the reasons for not anticipating too many spoilers), does the power of the triarchsie very rare wizards and able to control the three colors of Aveum magic. So the boy decides to train to become a Magus and side with his people. He therefore follows his training under the directives of the army commander, the charming and severe Clearto be able to master the Seal (a glove to conduct mystical energy) and control different magics.
Only at this time, Jak will be able to participate in the so-called Sempiguerra, in order to put an end to it and by defeating the mighty Sandrakk, thus avenging his friends…
Not open world, but works of spectacularization
We anticipate it, before we can deceive you in any way. Immortals of Aveum it is not an open world, On the contrary. And is this a bad thing? In part, yes, but if it has meant scaling back the focus on building a larger world to leave more room for a greater focus on gameplay, then so be it. We indeed could enjoy a complex and accurate game structurenot too dispersive and always with the focus clearly present.
Not surprisingly, to help us in the enterprise, we always have the arrival point that we must reach available, without the precision of even indicating the meters away, but this detail is not needed, since it is not an open world. The goals that the system prefixes us are all quickly accessible and without dispersion of attention here and there, with few secondary objects to collect, but essential to give us some more information about the game world.
All good then, or almost. The various scenariosof variable size, are separated by a short upload, but not built to perfection. We have a rather large hub available, full of rooms and NPCs to talk to, but we don’t have precise indications that can lead us to lose secondary activitiesbut still interesting. And that’s not the only technical flaw we’ve encountered.
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The lands of the world of Aveum, between clashes and treasures
In addition to a small neo that we have just mentioned, the difficulty in the gameplay also requires a minimum grinding, but without a real system that frames and supports this request. The gameplay itself asks us to often move from one arena to another, first on foot and then through portals, so as to explore far and wide the places that will often present themselves full of increasingly numerous and dangerous enemies. Immortals of Aveum is not characterized by only blood and attack: also exploration often offers us rewardsbut not excessive. Among chests, environmental puzzles, platform sections and extra challenges, there will be opportunities to try our hand at this activity as well.
Just by collecting resources and objects, we go to get rich inventory and talents of Jak, enhancing our devices and powers and also developing accordingly the skill treewhich branches out in three directions. It is precisely these enhancement capabilities that allow us to better enjoy the combat experience in Immortals of Aveum, where after several hours of play we notice a decisive change of register in the rhythm of the match. We are witnessing a barrage of shots to be launched against increasingly numerous and tough enemies, without forgetting the mini-bosses to be eliminated.
Thus we find ourselves in a pattern almost from run & gun, considering the ease with which the opponents will be able to defeat us. Not even in the final phase does the situation seem to improve, between arenas where survival is very difficult to opponents with barriers to break that require specific hits to destroy. And the enemies? Will they always be the same? Not at all: we will have to deal with many types of fighters, each to be defeated with different tactics, just as the bosses will ask us to always put in place different strategies. Also a great workout for the player and his skills development of plans of attack to set up and implement.
An (almost) impeccable graphic and sound sector
A game that works so far, net of some dirt here and there, but nothing embarrassing. And the Ascendant Studios team has put a lot of effort into the art and sound sector, where the latter won us over from the start. If ambition characterizes the video game from start to finish, it is no coincidence that the project was carried out in the final phase on Unreal Engine 5.1as well as supporting the Lumen and Nanite functionality. The first next-gen title to debut with these specifications, so that the performance of the graphics engine is even more fluid and without hitches. All true, or almost.
It’s easy to notice here too some hitch. If the game succeeds in the artistic creation of backdrops, scenarios and concept design in general, with suggestive and convincing panoramasjust as the characters approach photorealism in some cutscenes, we can’t praise the technical performance in the same way. The frame rate was shown to be quite variablealthough the action-packed battles are still well managed, but not so in the visualization of graphical glitches and bugs in some backdrops and in the overall rendering of the characters during the action.
At least it helps us dubbing completely in Italian and with subtitles that can be set if necessary. One of the many options provided in the large customizable menu within the game settings, as well as providing three different game difficulties, which will impact the difficulty of the clashes.
The Immortals of Aveum review in a nutshell
Ultimately, Immortals of Aveum is a title that deserves to be tried and to be part of your gaming library. An FPS that stands out for original graphic concept and for a well-conceived gameplay complexity and layeringWith the’only flaw to suffer from the “Icarus syndrome”: daring a little too much. The ambition has thus led Ascendant Studios to push themselves beyond the limits that the software has not been able to withstand, but not in such an insignificant way for the player. Let’s be clear: the matches are absolutely enjoyable and challenging, without too much distraction and loss of sight of the target. A challenging and well-studied title, only with a objective placed too much above the concrete performances. Overall, well done and satisfying.