Immortals of Aveum is a promising debut that doesn’t quite ascend to excellence

videogameschronicle.com:

You’re playing a Call of Duty level, and then a dragon flies overhead.

That was the thought that led Ascendant Studios CEO Bret Robbins towards Immortals of Aveum. Robbins, a veteran of directing Call of Duty campaigns, seeks to bring the action and bombast, tied with the tight gameplay of the series, to the fantasy genre with Immortals of Aveum.

And while there are some rough edges and dialogue that will grate on plenty, there’s a high-octane Hollywood blockbuster of a campaign to be found in Immortals of Aveum and gameplay that’s as fun, if not more, than any contemporary first-person adventure.

Immortals of Aveum is a first-person shooter wherein you play as Jak, a street orphan who we meet as he’s attempting to pickpocket a member of the upper class from the rafters of a theatre. However, following a tragedy, it’s revealed that Jak is blessed with the ability to wield three types of magic.

This discovery leads Jak on the path to becoming an Immortal, an elite member of a magical resistance bent on taking down Sandrakk, a tyrant that’s pillaged the world of Aveum in an attempt to wield absolute power.

Notice: To display this embed please allow the use of Functional Cookies in Cookie Preferences.

The game’s narrative is well-established, and it’s actually fairly light-handed when it comes to the sheer amount of lore that it could throw at you if it wanted. It sets up an entire magical world, the stakes, and the characters well, and doesn’t spend too much time taking control away from you.

There’s a grandiose feeling to the game’s story, which begins with a huge HBO-style intro that tries to frame Ascendant’s fantasy epic as a prestige narrative. The tone of the game feels somewhat incongruous with that, as does the