The developers will manage in a few months to surround themselves with friends, acquaintances and veterans of the environment wishing to join him, including former Telltale, and not to mention the newcomers who are determined to embark on board. An independent studio with a team worthy of large structures, with the desire to release AAA indies. Now followed by EA Originals, which is positioning itself here as a simple distributor, Robbins’ dream is finally in everyone’s hands, and it’s called Immortals of Aveum.
A magical Call of Duty sprinkled with Marvel. 100% blockbuster recipe
A magical FPS, a game at the crossroads between Call of Duty and a Marvel movie. Basically, a blockbuster that wants to offer an experience worthy of the greatest shooters, but doing things its own way. Direction Aveum therefore, a fantastic planet scarred by war, in the true sense of the term. Clans have been smashing for millennia for control of the Notch, a huge fault from which emanate the three elemental manas (red, green, blue). We play a certain Jak, a street kid who spends almost happy days in a small village hidden in the shadow of the rich. Of course, his tranquility is quickly shaken, the little one undergoes a deep trauma which triggers him with berserk powers and the ability to control not one, but all existing types of magic and here he is recruited into the army with the farm. intention to stop the war.
The scenario, seen, reviewed and re-reviewed, has the merit of bringing the player into conquered territory. No far-fetched plot, Immortals of Aveum prefers to build its characters around a common thread that everyone knows, and it succeeds rather well. Our handsome Jak quickly becomes endearing, even if he does not escape the cliché of the rebellious teenager who swings his little punchlines and the characters who revolve around him also all have a little “something” making them more than mere pixel sidekicks. It’s a pity that we can’t really forge more ties with them. Although dialogues are present, more numerous than in traditional shooters with a few choices to be made, we are not on an RPG either. We stay simple and effective. It is more than enough.
Plus, it’s pretty well written. It’s not a great drama full of poetry, but it’s rather light, sometimes a little bit funny even. On the other hand, if the acting in French and in English is not bad at all, the lip synchronization is totally wrong, regardless of the language chosen. As well as the not very natural facial animations. A fracture between a good idea well applied, and a technical mess that is felt throughout the game, all the time and above all, everywhere.
Immortals of Aveum, a journey that stings the eyes on PS5
Immortals of Aveum isn’t a bad bugger, quite the contrary, but it does have some serious issues, mainly technical. On the version tested (PS5), the game is not really attractive graphically. It’s a bit fuzzy, some textures are coarse as badly compressed. A problem that recalls the technical pitfalls of Wild Hearts on consoles, a game also distributed by EA Originals recently.
Still, the world of Aveum is extremely fun to explore. Throughout the adventure, rather linear in its approach, we visit open environments, most of them very colorful and pleasing to the eye. The art direction is quite good, although the character design remains questionable. You have to like it, it’s not really my case here, but everyone’s tastes and colors are different. However, I cannot say that there was no work or research. Immortals of Aveum has a lot of clearly identifiable influences, recent Marvel in mind, but it still has its own identity, and for that alone, the trip is very nice.
Speaking of travel, we will see the country. The planet is vast and the environments very numerous. Caves, forests, citadels, magic kingdom… we get our money’s worth and we enjoy rummaging everywhere. As a bonus, the game rewards exploration with plenty of secrets and treasures to unearth. Generally, it’s equipment or improvements (lifebar or mana), so we won’t spit on it. On the contrary, even, since if it’s fun to do a few simplistic puzzles here and there, it is above all the statistics that interest us.
We get to the heart of the matter: the magic arsenal
The game offers three different types of magic. If they have precise meanings in game (which we will let you discover), in fact they only serve as “types of weapons”. Blue is precision and piecemeal, DRM type (for FPS enthusiasts). Red is mass destruction like a shotgun or a big rocket. And finally the green is mainly focused on the rate of fire. Submachine gun or small missile, it’s up to you. Every magic needs catalysts to work, and when they aren’t items that will act as gadgets, they are gauntlets that the war mages that we are use to fight. And this is where the statistics of equipment found, crafted or purchased come into play. There are dozens of gauntlets for each type of magic. Ditto for the associated statistics and effects. Increased damage, rate of fire, capacity, additional effects on projectiles… see what works best for you.
If I were to popularize, you can find the magic equivalent of sniper rifle, submachine gun, machine gun, grenade launcher, rocket, missile and other shotguns. An arsenal that we will easily identify since the shooting sensations are almost similar to those of traditional shooters. It was here the will of the studio and it is perfectly successful. The shots are raining and the feeling is excellent. Another very important point, the fluidity of the action and the nervousness of the confrontations, here also essential to this kind of experience. There, on the other hand, it’s half fig, half grape.
The game is extremely fast-paced and will constantly call on your ability to think in the heat of the moment and use your full arsenal.
In addition to your three main weapons, you can count on devastating spells (shock wave, swarm of projectiles, etc.) or even artifacts that act as gadgets. A lasso to grab enemies and later propel oneself into the air, a light ray to stun enemies or counter spells or even a power to be able to freeze time or slow down enemies. I made you a non-exhaustive list, but the truth is that there are dozens of spells to combine together and the possibilities in combat are enormous. And that’s not counting the many passive skills to unlock as we progress which allow us, again, to become a real war machine and guide its gameplay. The icing on the cake, all this magical arsenal is useful since it is required for specific actions during combat or during exploration. Whether it’s reaching secret passages, knocking down certain enemies’ shields, or making other special opponents vulnerable. So yes, Immortals of Aveum is very nervous, sometimes even as much as a Doom Eternal, for example.
Not really AAA, not really AA… Immortals of Aveum is the in-between
As for fluidity, however, it’s not that on PS5. Most of the time, the game should maintain or approach its 60fps, but the framerate drops are numerous. In combat, or not elsewhere. What is curious is that they intervene everywhere without too much coherence. Whether or not the screen is loaded doesn’t seem to impact performance. Hoping that a patch will arrive soon, because between a not optimal fluidity and graphics below standards, it is not joy. Even if these concerns do not really impact the gameplay it would be fine, but unfortunately, it quickly becomes annoying. That the game is not fine is one thing, that it rows brutally when you need precision is another.
And it’s a shame because the feeling is excellent, we really want to like this Immortals of Aveum. The clashes are very dynamic and sometimes enemies arrive from all sides. It’s even a bit of chaos on the screen when the spells go all over the place. Readability even sometimes takes a hit, we’re not going to lie to each other, but it’s damn exhilarating.
The game also serves us some epic moments that I won’t spoil and sometimes successful boss clashes (but also sometimes bad ones). The OST isn’t bad, even if it doesn’t always hit the mark. If the themes are good, the music based on heavy bass during the fights, it’s not really my thing. Everyone will find noon at their doorstep. It’s not bad, but nothing remarkable.
Overall, Immortals of Aveum wants to do everything big, even very big, but we can see that it has its limits. There are some old school hints in some of his approaches. We feel them for example in the design of the sets, with panoramas that want to stretch as far as the eye can see, but do not necessarily succeed and end up sticking us with ugly textures under our eyes or almost low poly models at ‘horizon. Or when the game wants us to believe that small towns are crowded by throwing a hubbub of crowds into our ears when there are no more than a dozen characters on the horizon, characters who don’t even react not if you shoot them… little things like that which show that there is a kind of lack, an absent attention to detail that unfortunately Immortals of Aveum will never really manage to climb to the top of the basket, without ending up in the ranks of tight-budget AAs. The ass between two chairs therefore.
