Immortals of Aveum Is A Magical Blend of Genres To Create Fun Gameplay
Immortals of Aveum is an interesting magic fps game. It has a vibrant world but doesn’t give players an incentive to really explore. The story follows Jak, an orphan who is born into a world of war. He is a “lightless”, someone without magic, who is pushed by circumstance to discover he can control all types of magic. It doesn’t take long to discover that Jak has been conscripted into a war where all sides are more concerned with being the winner.
There are many spells available to players. Different enemies take more damage with either blue, red, or green magic. It makes players continue to cycle between the three throughout the game. Players will have to switch their basic attacks with stronger types to be the most effective. The enemies have some variations, but combat difficulty mainly comes from special enemies spawning at once. Different magic types may be needed in the same fight. This can easily become overwhelming since players have to sit through the weapon animation of switching types.
Immortals of Aveum is more than a straight run and gun game. As players progress there are more environmental platforming puzzles. Depending on how well a player does, this can drastically slow down the pacing. There’s also a mechanic that uses the world’s ley lines like ziplines. And players must turn to avoid obstacles or get reset. In first person this can potentially be nauseating. Thankfully the game doesn’t center all travel around this. Turning the sensitivity down and disabling blur effects helped somewhat, but even walking had a dizzying effect.
Though the Immortal’s story starts off self aware of its chosen one trope, that ends after one conversation. Jak never truly fails. And it makes the end anti-climatic since there’s no point where it feels like this might be a risk too far. There was a brief moment where it seems as though the game would subvert that expectation. Only for Jak to be the only one who can fix things. And while there are minor characters who criticize both leaders, their observations are passed off as banter before they’re sidelined. Even once finding out about the morally questionable things the “good” leadership has done, by the end everything is the same. But the Aelori get a sliver of land after being branded demons for thousands of years, so it’s all fine now.
Immortals of Aveum tries to do a lot. It’s an fps combined with a platformer and immerses the player in a war that feels active instead of just set dressing. Its story is where the game is weakest with a lot of the dialogue also feeling out of place. Jak specifically comes off extremely childish then wise as needed. The narrative also appears too afraid of making a sympathetic villain. So Jak is only exposed to Lucium’s commander Kirkan, and other Immortals, for most of the game’s runtime. It doesn’t give a lot of room to digest Jak learning that everything he’s been taught since childhood is wrong before the credits are rolling. Immortals of Aveum is an entertaining game, as long as a strong narrative isn’t a must.
