Posted in: Electronic Arts, Games, Video Games | Tagged: Ascendant Studios, Electronic Arts, Immortals of Aveum

Experiencing First-Person Magic: We Preview Immortals Of Aveum

What's it like mixing first-person shooter mechanics into a world run by magic? We got to preview some of Immortals Of Aveum.

Electronic Arts have been hyping up their new game, Immortals Of Aveum, over the past few months as a first-person shooter taking place in a world full of magic. While that sounds awesome on the surface, it does make you wonder what a game like that would look like coming from them and developer Ascendant Studios. All of the trailers so far have looked really awesome, but we really haven't had a chance to try that out and see if it lives up to the hype. That all changed last week when Electronic Arts invited us out to their Campus HQ to try out a proper demo of the game. We sat down and played through two chapters of the story, and this is what we thought.

WARNING: While we won't give much away, we will be talking about the game and some of the plot. So if you don't want to know more, this is your one warning to skip to the end.

The game has a pretty basic plot on the surface, as you play a magic user who has been recruited into the army of a large faction that is trying to push back the armies of another faction that seeks to dominate the planet of Aveum. Within this world, there are technically five factions, with three of them basically being side-plot material while the other two duke it out for dominance and the fate of the planet. For lack of a better term, you represent the good guys in all of this, as you were found on the streets by your mentor and trained to become a soldier in their army. You are taught that there are three types of magic in the world that are connected through ley lines, which you can see blanketing the sky. They are represented through three different colors being blue, red, and green. You will use these different types of magic through a device on your arm that changes for each color. Each one has its own flair for power, or to put it another way, each one represents a different type of gun and ammo used to hit your enemies.

Throughout Immortals Of Aveum you'll find new components for these weapons, as well as new spells, artifacts, and abilities found in chests and hidden areas, which you will apply to yourself to make you stronger and more capable of fighting enemies. Which you will need to learn to master as you'll take on everything from foot soldiers to army officers to deadly dragons. Over the course of the game, you'll have the ability to upgrade the device on your arm and improve your ability to control certain colors, which acts like an RPG upgrade system. You'll have to choose what you do wisely as all three magic colors have different types of arm weapons that channel and focus your attacks. Some help out in very specific scenarios, while others are amazing at being an all-around weapon to take people out. But you'll also discover certain enemies only react to certain types of magic, so you're going to have to get good at all of it.

Enemies are challenging in their own right as they have the ability to be the best or worst things happening to you at any given moment. Sometimes it's great to have them around as you can clean house and collect a ton of gold (which you can later use at the market) or shards (which you will use to improve your weapons). But other times, they are basically here to be an annoyance that you'll need to overcome on your own. Which you'll need to get used to a lot as there is no co-op, and any help the game provides is weak. But once you get the hang of how everything works out, you'll have a blast with it. For example, one of the powers you learn with the blue magic is a sort of grappling hook that grabs the target you're aiming at and pulls them toward you. Once you are holding them, you can quickly swap over to the red or green to fire a ton of shots into them with whatever spell you desire to make quick work of them while they're stunned and also getting hit from behind. Another fun aspect is that all three of these act like different types of guns, with blue being your standard pistol, red being a shotgun, and green being a sniper rifle. If you get good enough at it, you can take out enemies from a far, or charge in and start blasting them to bits.

The story for Immortals Of Aveum has a weird kind of tone to it. While there is some backstory, it feels like you've been thrown into the middle of a fight that you're not entirely invested in. The characters certainly are as they pontificate about why the other side being in charge and ruling over us all is a terrible thing, but at a certain point, it lacks urgency. We're going to give them the benefit of the doubt since it's just a demo and we haven't experienced much of what's happening in just two chapters. But there certainly is a vibe of everyone being in a panicked state except for the main characters. Even the enemy forces you come into contact with later seem pretty chill for being in the middle of a war that's been raging for decades. Maybe being Immortal and having the stature of being omnipotent over everyone else on the field has just bled their emotions dry, but it also seemed like everyone had somewhere else to be except for the main character.

And that kind of becomes a recurring theme in Immortals Of Aveum, as the characters and the story feel a little underutilized. There's definitely a bit of "what's a magical term for RPG" going on in here when it comes to the writing, and a few of the characters feel pretty two-dimensional and have goals that simply don't line up with anything else your army represents. Again, we're stressing that this is a demo, and we didn't get to see a lot of pieces in the storyline as they didn't want spoilers getting out. So I'm kinda hoping the full version of the game will make what we saw feel more complete or make a bit of sense.

Throughout the demo, we were introduced to a specific villain named The Hand, who, for lack of a better term, is the right-hand guard to the main bad guy. Over the course of the game, we were introduced to them, and even fought them at one point. Their exact motivations are unclear, but what I do know is that they are pretty powerful when you fight, and they challenge your skills at every turn. They are one of the many bosses you'll encounter in the game that have their own unique playstyle to them. Practically every enemy comes with a health bar that you can monitor above their heads, except for the bosses who have the standard full-screen bar to see it no matter where they are on the map. When we took on the massive dragon in the game, we had to learn the patterns of which it fired, and were able to beat it in the first try after taking a little damage and using a special crystal or two that helped us regain health. The game clearly provides fun challenges that you can figure out, if you're smart enough to do so.

One of the cool aspects that isn't talked about enough is the puzzles and rewards in Immortals Of Aveum. Over the course of walking through levels, you'll see areas in which the three colors of magic appear in crystals. You'll be able to use your weapons to figure out the puzzles in every area and unlock places that hold special treasures. Half the time you're just getting crystal shards, but the other half you're getting either near gear to equip yourself with, or new specialty spells (like the one you see above) that will help you vanquish your enemies faster. There is no fast route to completing these, you'll just have to examine and use your wits to figure out the puzzles and claim your reward. Some of which you'll clearly have to come back later for as there are numerous puzzles that require high-level spells you're seriously not going to be able to use until you get higher in level.

Overall, this was an amazing experience, and I'm very happy I got to try out Immortals Of Aveum in advance. I was kind of on the fence about the game ahead of time because it felt like it was promising a lot that might not have worked. And while it does have flaws and isn't perfect, what I did get to play felt fun and made me wish I had a full day to play through it. I didn't even get to the market area to spend my gold, which I had so much of, I didn't know whether it was enough to mess around with or if everything was just in an unstable economy. This is a pretty cool blend of two different genres into a single title, and I look forward to trying the full version out when it is released on July 20th, 2023.

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