Magic, intense battles and a fairy-tale world: a review of Immortals of Aveum – the first AAA game created on Unreal Engine 5

Immortals of Aveum is Ascendant Studios' debut magical first-person shooter title. The game takes place in a completely new fantasy world, Aveum, where war has been going on for decades. The main character of this story is the young man Jak, who one day discovers magical abilities and joins the elite order of battle magicians to finally end the war. The strongest aspect of the game is the gameplay. Instead of conventional weapons, we have various spells that can be combined with each other, so during battles the player will not have a second to rest. Immortals of Aveum also stands out because it is the first AAA game created on the Unreal Engine 5. However, it was not without its drawbacks. Despite the interesting world and premise, the plot does not stand out in any way, and the length of the game further enhances this feeling, because it takes about 12 hours to complete the entire game. Therefore, to understand whether the game is worth buying, the editors of gg will tell you about all the main points of Immortals of Aveum that are worth knowing.

5 reasons to buy Immortals of Aveum:

• Dynamic gameplay
• A new world that gamers have never seen before
• An arsenal of spells and talents that can be combined
• Great visual created on Unreal Engine 5
• You're looking for a game to fill the void before the fall releases

3 reasons not to buy Immortals of Aveum:

• Not the most interesting plot and characters
• For you, a shooter cannot last more than 10 hours
• You find it difficult to play shooters on a gamepad without aiming assistance

Quick transition:

The magical world is shrouded in war and secrets

The game begins with a brief explanation of what is happening here. There is a mysterious wound at the center of Aveum that is growing larger every day, threatening to consume the kingdoms. But the rulers ignore this. They are only fighting for control of magic in an eternal war (everwar), and there is no hope to be expected from them.

Introductory cutscene that describes the basis of the game world

After this, we are introduced to the main character of the game – Jak, who, together with his friend Luna, steal money from ordinary people while watching a theatrical performance. The heroes return to their home, where, besides them, three other smaller children live – the girl Babs and the boys Fife and Caleb. The children are very worried, because today Luna turns 16 years old, and according to the rules she must be taken into the army of Lucium. Even Jak doesn’t want this, but Lana has been preparing for this for too long and dreams of becoming a warrior. But before that, we need to celebrate his birthday, all that remains is to wait for Caleb. Very soon Caleb returns, even bringing a gift, but there is one “but”. He was wounded in the stomach, and now the guy needs to be treated quickly. Jak and Luna go to buy medicine in the wealthy district of their city, Seren. Only they are not going to steal, not buy. The heroes find themselves in a luxurious mansion and find a magical bracelet there, which is called a “sigil”. With its help you can cure Caleb. Only now the young men are caught by the guards, they begin to run away, and at that moment Seren is attacked by Rasharn, another army that is fighting against Lucium.

Happy Jak and Luna, who have not yet guessed what awaits them

Jak and Luna are trying to get home as quickly as possible. Only an “incident” occurs, and Jak is left alone against Rashan’s army. But at that moment something happens to the guy, and suddenly it turns out that he has unique magic. Having defeated his enemies, a mysterious woman comes to him – it turns out to be General Kirkan, who is part of the Order of the Immortals and recruits Jak into the army of Lucium, becoming his mentor.

General Kirkan begins to teach Jak the craft of war

5 years pass, and Jak is already an experienced warrior who is actively fighting against the army of Rasharn for the sake of peace. From this moment the main plot of Immortals of Aveum begins.

During 5 years of training and battles, Jak has matured greatly and become an experienced army warrior

And if the beginning of this story is intriguing, then it becomes not so interesting. The authors tried to make unexpected plot twists, but some of them are easy to read. The plot of Immortals of Aveum cannot always keep you close to itself, because the game's timing is not short, and the story does not turn out to be so rich and concentrated. Although there are, of course, good moments. Especially towards the end, where the game becomes more “corridor”, and the story begins to gain new momentum. The plot of Immortals of Aveum is by no means bad, it's just ok and sometimes “clichéd”. The bad guys want to destroy the world, and we, such heroes, will stop them. Also, the main character was nobody, but became one of the coolest in this world. Now ask yourself how many times have you seen this? And this makes you sad, because you have to come up with something new. Having such a world where many interesting events have happened, this story simply does not reach the potential that only the last episodes of the game draw out.

Characters who were not fully developed

It's not easy with the characters either. Not everyone liked Jak, but this is individual. Yes, in some places he resembles some star young football player, who is all so pretentious and constantly jokes, but he still changes. The main character didn't irritate me and that's good, but he doesn't have anything unique that would make me remember him for a long time. I just didn’t like that they didn’t show us how in 5 years he became such a tough fighter. In Horizon Zero Dawn, we were at least shown a scene for a few minutes where the main character was training. It was possible to do the same here, because it feels like during those 5 years he didn’t have a single obstacle in his way.

But most of the characters are not so well developed. There are no more than 15 main characters here, but again, the extended timing does not focus on them, but on other aspects of the game. For example, there was one scene in the game where Jak and his friends were having fun, and you want more of this, so that empathy and affection arise. I missed moments like this here. Although there were two cool people that I really liked. They're charismatic and interesting, and that's exactly what I want to see in games. But I didn’t like the antagonist at all. An evil uncle who walks around and thinks about himself: “I want to conquer the whole world and rule it.” Thank you, I’ve already seen enough of this both in games and in real life. Let's come up with something new. And this is paradoxical, because there are interesting characters here. Why such a failure with the main villain of the game turned out is not clear.

All the characters have an interesting design, but only a few characters were able to reveal their personalities

A really interesting game world

The authors managed not only to describe the interesting world of the game, but also to explain the events that take place here. The main thing is to listen carefully to the dialogues so as not to miss anything. Here you will find the reasons for the eternal war, and a description of important places, and a story about how magic originated here, and a lot of interesting things. And in order to at least superficially understand the lore, you don’t need to collect notes from the map. Important information is updated independently in a special journal, which is more reminiscent of Jak's personal diary. And this has its advantage: we are not reading the story of a sage who wrote this thousands of years ago, but we feel the emotions of a person who is learning all this with us. It is clear that the developers paid attention to the historical content of Aveum. And that is why the plot part can be described as “unrealized potential”, because there is interesting lore, but the result is a clichéd story about the struggle between good and evil.

The mysterious and magical world of Aveum

How to play it?

And now the most interesting part of the game is the gameplay. It can be divided into two components: exploration of locations and battles with opponents, and the latter is implemented here at a decent level.

Fight using magic, talents and weapons

Jak has three types of magic that will help him throughout the game:

• Blue – analogue of a rifle. Has a small supply of shells and is ideal for hitting at medium and long distances.
• Red – analogue of a shotgun. Has a small supply of shells and is ideal for close-range engagement.
• Green – analogue of a machine gun or machine gun. Has a large supply of projectiles and is ideal for hitting a large number of small enemies.

For each magical weapon, Jak has three gloves that must be switched between each other

At the same time, our hero has several talents that also need to be actively used. For example, he can pick up stones from the ground to break an enemy's shield, perform a super blow, or fire a green beam that will attack for several seconds. These abilities must be used wisely, because they have their own color, like each enemy. Therefore, there is simply no point in launching green magic on a blue opponent. But if there are too many enemies or one big one, then Jak can activate an ultimate power that fires a beam for 5 seconds. It is suitable for all enemies, but to activate it, you must first kill several enemies to gain strength.

One of the talents that creates an analogue of a blast wave

In general, the projectiles for weapons are endless, so there is no need to run around and look for “magazines”. But talents require energy that runs out. To replenish your supplies, you need to find special cubes around the world, but they are very easy to find. The situation is similar with our health. It does not regenerate and we need to look for crystals that heal us.

Shield is another ability. You will always use it. It works against all enemies and does not require energy, but has its own health reserve

There are also three tools that help on the battlefield and beyond: a whip to pull an enemy or yourself; green balls that slow down objects; and a red mirror, which is needed to solve puzzles and can freeze the enemy for a second.

An example of using one of Jak's tools: you need to shine a mirror on a special object at the right angle to open the bridge

What's wrong with the enemies?

There are not very many types of enemies here. If the game were smaller, this would not be felt so much. However, what adds diversity is that almost everyone needs to find their own approach. If a stone creature is coming at you, then you need to aim for its head in order to kill it faster. If the enemy uses defense, then it must be broken through in order to attack further. And such decisions do not turn the game into a shooter, where you have to shoot mindlessly. You constantly analyze the situation on the battlefield. There are many enemies in the arena, each with their own abilities, so you need to understand how to quickly and effectively deal with them.

There are also boss battles. I liked them the most. Most of them are unique, and some have abilities that others do not have and this also adds variety.

In general, the combat system turned out to be very exciting. You need to shoot, use talents and tools very quickly. Sometimes there are situations when even weapons will not help, and you have to come up with something new. And it is the combat system that makes you stay in the game, and it is the best and strongest aspect here.

How to improve your abilities?

Jak's abilities and arsenal can also be improved. To improve your abilities, you just need to kill enemies, go through the story, collect items, and for this you will be given experience. If you have collected enough experience, you will receive one point, which can be spent on improving blue, green or red magic.

Skill tree where you can improve your abilities

You can also collect gold and essence (blue, green and red). These two currencies can be spent in special stores. In them you can buy the best weapons, tools, rings and bracelets (the last two only affect the hero’s characteristics). And if you don’t want to buy anything, but only improve your arsenal, then this can also be done. There is nothing unusual about this; We have already seen this in many games, but it is well implemented here and the main thing is that the game does not force you to spend hours collecting this gold and essence. Just go through the story and you will have enough currency to become stronger. Some items will also be obtained after completing missions. Gamers always like it when developers don't say, “collect a million candies for this item,” but make the process easy and relaxed.

A store where you can upgrade or improve your arsenal

Exploring the world, which is optional

The game has a semi-open world, which is divided into several locations. If you've played Star Wars Jedi or God of War 2018, then you'll be familiar with the concept. Various chests, secret rooms, puzzles and other activities are scattered around the world. But there are no additional tasks here. The most that can be found are portals with challenges, but this game does not need additional quests. In general, all these activities have one goal – to give you new weapons or resources, everything. And here you don’t have to run for hours to clear the location 100%. It is enough to sometimes look into the corners and open all the chests that you see. If you see a puzzle and immediately understand how to complete it, do it, and you won't be short of resources or running around with a level one weapon. And here again a paradox arises. The game doesn’t seem to be a “corridor” game, you can run as much as you want, collect everything in the world, discover all the secrets, but on the other hand, Immortals of Aveum does not make you want to do all this. Therefore, making a Metroidvania shooter is not the best idea, but more on that later.

An example of a secret room, opening which will reveal a chest with a gift

What about optimization, visual and audio support?

I played the game on PlayStation 5 and had almost no problems with optimization. In some places, in some locations, fps dropped to 50-40, but these are isolated cases and it lasted no more than 3 seconds. But in large arenas with a crowd of enemies, where the epic immediately began, the fps dropped to low values ​​for the first 5 seconds and only then returned to 60 frames. Therefore, it would be good for the developers to release 1-2 more updates that will completely remove these problems. I also didn’t encounter any serious bugs, and the game never crashed. Only once did Jak fail for textures, but starting from the checkpoint fixed everything.

Beautiful and detailed Aveum, created on Unreal Engine 5

The visuals are another strong point of the game. Immortals of Aveum is the first AAA game created on Unreal Engine 5. And the developers managed to make a very beautiful game. All locations are detailed. Everywhere you can see various objects and small details. This is especially noticeable in the first city, where the developers immediately want to show how they worked on the graphics. There are a lot of objects scattered everywhere, some of them begin to move because they are affected by the wind, and there is plenty of that here. The facial and lighting animations are also well implemented here.

One of the examples of a detailed location

I also liked the variety of locations. Here you will see forests, volcanoes, caves, mysterious purple arenas, various cities, luxurious palaces, mountains, winter landscapes and more. So there can be no questions about the visuals, and Ascendant Studios tried hard to make it all look beautiful.

Magical locations of Aveum

Various audio accompaniment

The sounds are also okay. All shots, opponents, objects, heroes sound good. Also liked the music. Here you will find dynamic, epic, dramatic and calm compositions. They all sound at the right moment and enhance the atmosphere in the game.

What I didn’t like?

A significant disadvantage of the game is that it did not need to be made in a semi-open world. It's still a shooter. I understand that the authors wanted to do something unique, but remember at least a few outstanding story-based shooters (Doom, Call of Duty, Wolfenstein and others) and how many of them had a semi-open world? Moreover, the game was created by Bret Robbins (Bret Robbins, creative director of Call of Duty, and he knows it better than anyone. A good shooter is one that has interesting gameplay and story. There are no problems with the first one, but the story in the game is lame. If the authors had abandoned the idea of ​​a semi-open world and made a “corridor” shooter, then they would have had more time and resources to improve the plot and characters, because these aspects are the weakest in Immortals of Aveum. Therefore, if Ascendant Studios makes another shooter, let it be without a semi-open world, but only with spacious locations and cinematic moments. Because with the desire to create a metroidvania shooter, the potential of this game, especially its story, was lost somewhere.

Five things to know about Immortals of Aveum

• Immortals of Aveum – the first AAA game created on Unreal Engine 5
• The visuals of the game give beautiful landscapes and detailed locations
• A dynamic shooter offers a wide range of talents, magic, where you have to analyze the battlefield
• The developers managed to create an interesting lore that you want to understand
• The game suffers most from its weak plot

For those who want to know more

Gratitude

The editors thank the publisher Electronic Arts for kindly providing the game for review