Immortals of Aveum Preview – An Impressive Magic Shooter With Call Of Duty Credentials

Immortals Of Aveum was teased at the 2022 Game Awards with a trailer that seemed to be too heavily on teasing. A quick clip featured voiceovers of unseen characters speaking out of context about war, while also demonstrating a gauntlet. From the first person perspective, a character walks through a door into a battlefield. There are explosions and dragons overhead. Soldiers run with purpose. The character then lifts their arm into frame to show the gauntlet… and that was it. Four months later, Ascendant, the developer, has provided much more information about the game and invited me into its studio to talk with them and to actually play the game.

Call of Duty (magic) is the most concise pitch available for Immortals of Avaum. It’s a pitch any publisher would be eager to embrace and sell, but developer Ascendent Studios has the bonafides. Immortals’ creative director and Ascendent co-founder, Bret Robbins, worked with Sledgehammer as creative director on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Advanced Warfare, and WWII, and was also the original Dead Space’s co-director. “My time on Call of Duty, I got a, I think, pretty good eye for what makes for a thrilling set piece or a great action moment,” Robbins says.

This is how the game feels in gameplay. It’s a bit like Call of Duty but with magic attack instead of guns. Immortals of Aveum’s protagonist Jak, can use three types of magic, which is a rare feat in this world, and the gauntlet, called a Sigil in the fiction, helps him focus it. Blue magic can be used to perform long-range, sniper style attacks. Red magic works a little like a shotgun, dealing powerful damage from close range. Green magic is located in the middle and fires a string of magical attacks that can be tracked to the enemy. Jak can also access Furies which is a set of additional powerful attacks that are limited by the currency that he has acquired on the battlefield.

Along with magic colors corresponding to the different styles of magical weapons, enemies are also represented by the three different colors and take more damage depending on what you’re using. These are the weaknesses. For example, red enemies are more likely to be hit by red attacks. It was a relief to have an enemy weak point during hands-on. I find it difficult to remember how fast things can change.

I was able to play an early portion of the game that put me through the basic tutorial before dropping me into the sequence that plays out right after the Immortals’ Game Awards teaser, and was impressed with the fluidity. Intuitively I pulled the left trigger in order to aim for my targets based on combat and movement. However, that trigger triggers a Lash ability which allows you to pull enemies closer for a timely red magic blast. “Not including [aim down sights]This was a major decision. We talked a lot about it,” Robbins says, “Ultimately, it came down to the fact that we really wanted the dual hand spell casting where we had left hand and right hand and spell casting, and we want you to be able to use that really easily and fluidly.”

There are many opportunities to solve and explore puzzles in addition to the amazing magic shooter gameplay. Call of Duty is a great example of action gaming, however it’s not the only game that can be used to move around the story and advance the plot. “The architecture is a hub and spoke game. You’ve got a couple of large, non-linear exploration spaces, and you also have a headquarters, and then you have our more linear cinematic missions that branch off of those,” Robbins says. “An analogy would be something like the more recent God of War games.”

In between fighting, I discovered doors that required me to use different magic attacks to open them. I also solved a puzzle in which I had to place a huge statue’s hand so I could cross it. Jak also commented on a few doors that he didn’t have the skills to open yet. This implied there might be opportunities for him to do so in the future. Ascendant promised a single-player campaign. This was eagerly noted that it would not require any microtransactions nor require internet access to play and will only last for about 25 hours.

 

Ascendent also made sure that the game was running at 60 frames per second. While visiting the studio on an all-hands meeting, framerate was discussed by several departments. It was also determined what adjustments needed to ensure the game met this goal by release. “I feel like, for fast-paced shooters, 60 is really important,” Robbins says. It makes the game feel better and “come alive” according to Robbins. “This also maybe comes a little bit from my Call of Duty background, where hitting 60 was absolutely required. This frame rate is what I think makes games feel and look better. So, that’s what we’re gonna have.”

In the next issue of Game Informer magazine, you can read more about Ascendent Studios as well as our experiences. Immortals of Aveum will be available for download on July 20, 2015, via Xbox Series X/S and PC.

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