How Immortals of Aveum brings literal magic to the first-person shooter genre

gamedeveloper.com:

The upcoming AAA "Magic Shooter" from EA and Ascendant Studios brings a new fantasy world to life.

Revealed at The Game Awards 2022,Immortals of Aveumis an action-RPG first-person shooter from new developer Ascendant Studios, founded by former creatives who worked on Dead Space series, Telltale's The Walking Dead, and the Call of Duty franchise. As the next game in the EA Originals label, which has increased its scope in recent years with Wild Hearts, the upcoming first-person "magic shooter" aims to hit the same highs as other spectacle shooters while also rethinking first-person combat.

Ahead of its upcoming July 20 launch, we got a chance to see a deep dive into Immortals of Aveum, with game director and Ascendant Studios CEO Bret Robbins detailing his insights on making the game. Moving away from modern and historical warfare, the upcoming "magic shooter" embraces the high-fantasy and over-the-top spectacle of magical combat. While it has roots connected to established shooters like Call of Duty, it's worlds apart and seeks to counter with a new take on first-person combat.

First-person shooters are a well-established genre that tend to focus on a particular strand of games with soldiers or stylized characters who wield various firearms. This was an inviting concept to continue with, but according to CEO Bret Robbins, a different idea came to fruition, which served as the basis for Ascendant's debut game.

"I was reviewing some work during early production, which was a typical Call of Duty level. There was a big battle scene happening, lots of gunfire, a helicopter flying overhead, RPG shells blowing up around, typical chaos out of a Call of Duty level; but then I stopped, and then I thought, 'What if that helicopter was