Heading online to watch Ascendant Studios’ first Immortals of Aveum preview, I didn’t know what to expect. Aside from a reveal teaser, we’ve had little to no information about the debut game from Ascendant Studios. What we did know was that it was a cinematic single-player game with magic, and that EA would be publishing it – that’s about it.
However, after seeing and hearing more about the game, my expectations are high. From this first look at Immortals of Aveum, it seems like a unique blend of Ghostwire Tokyo and the recent Doom games, both of which are some of my favourite titles of the past few years. However, what makes me even more excited is the fact that Bret Robbins, former creative director for some of Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty titles like Advanced Warfare, is the man in charge.
Calling it an inspired mix of a few games is unfair though, as Ascendant Studios is definitely set on making it different enough to warrant a resurgence of battle mage-like games. In an interview with me after the event, Robbins says that “we aren’t making just a magic Call of Duty, we’re making something pretty unique”.
Comparative to Ghostwire Tokyo’s contemporary setting, Immortals of Aveum is set in a world much different to ours. From the snippets of gameplay I saw in the new reveal trailer, Immortals of Aveum’s setting looks as spectacular as its gameplay. I was instantly drawn to the armour of the opposing forces, which looked like a unique blend of sci-fi and fantasy, which made me want to learn more about the world of this new IP.
While the world of Aveum looks to be fascinating, it won’t be an open world title, which is actually a breath of fresh air during a time where open worlds seem to be the main selling point of plenty of games. “I didn’t have an interest in making an open world game”, Robbins says. His experience of directing Call of Duty campaigns seems to be put to good use in Immortals of Aveum, using scripted and high tension moments instead of a large open playing area littered with markers.
That doesn’t mean that the game won’t offer any exploration. I’m just as fascinated and hopeful to find out more about Aveum and what its history is, and scouring the world will certainly feed into that. Robbins says that the game offers “enough exploration that you can spend a lot of time in this world and find a lot of things off the beaten path that are interesting.” He compares the game’s structure to the critically acclaimed God of War reboot series in terms of how exploration and the world works, which if anything excites me even more.
While worldbuilding might be an exciting aspect, I am keen to learn more about the main narrative. Players will take the role of Jak, originally a street orphan who is known as an Unforeseen, someone who gets their magical abilities when they’re older. Specifically, Jak is known as a Triarch, who has access to all three forms of magic that can be wielded in Aveum following a traumatic event. Played by actor Darren Barnet (who I am a huge fan of, may I add), it seems like Jak has a happy-go-lucky and cocky attitude about him, which could be played off well against the moody, doom-and-gloom situation of the Everwar, which is the battle being fought in Aveum over the control of the world’s magic.
Considering the strength of the EA Originals portfolio currently, I have a lot of faith in the vision of Immortals of Aveum, and hopefully, as the Immortals of Aveum release date approaches, we should find out whether this debut game matches the inspiring vision of the studio behind it. That being said, anything that mashes God of War, Doom, and Ghostwire Tokyo together is probably worth a play regardless, right?