Immortals of Aveum Review

ign.com:

Much like the waistband of MacGyver’s trousers, Immortals of Aveum is a gun-free zone. This may sound like a peculiar predicament for a first-person shooter to place itself in, but developer Ascendant Studios has made it work. How, you ask? Magic. And I’m not being facetious here; I mean, literal barrages of brightly-coloured bullets magically blasted from the fingertips of a bloke who really puts the war in warlock. An unexpected collision of traditional high fantasy adventure with slick FPS action, Immortals of Aveum boasts a wonderful backdrop for its classy combat and comes with everything I crave in a modern shooter: it’s striking to look at, sturdy to play, and it’s strictly single-player only.

There are times when Immortals of Aveum feels like Wolfenstein with wizards, and others when it feels like Doctor Strange has been airdropped directly into Doom. It’s a curious concoction but it’s one that works surprisingly well, and I’ve particularly enjoyed how different Aveum is to anything I’ve played in recent memory. The firefights are frantic and visually spectacular, the light platforming and puzzle work is generally satisfying, and the world itself is very well-crafted.

Aveum’s arcanepunk aesthetic is very absorbing and creates a world of interesting extremes; it’s a world where magic is ubiquitous and powers highly-advanced technology for war-torn societies still living a medieval-inspired lifestyle. This means wild flying machines and mindbending virtual puzzle rooms juxtaposed against gilded castles and ramshackle timber slums. It’s a cool clash of styles, and straddling multiple genres seems to suit Aveum’s ambitions as a first-person shooter with a twist.

We play as Jak who, in a moment of extreme stress in the