izigame.me

hey kid, wanna be an fps wizard?

IMMORTALS OF AVEUM is a 2023 first person shooter + looter (i'll get to that) that i think might be a little criminally overlooked. first of all, let me get this out of the way. yes, i know. there are quips. there's some jokes that aren't really that funny. i know. and i dont care.

i liked the story. it felt like most of it had things to say about war and perpetuating it and working on behalf of a magic war criminal against a magic war criminal. there's some stuff about bigotry and fascism that i dont feel is Fully explored and maybe should have been, tho i feel like that wouldve prolonged the runtime of the game. it's interesting to think about and makes you question whether or not jak is fighting for the right people on the right side and contributing to the continuation of both the war and class divide sort of and he kind of is doing all three of those things, the state he is fighting for is pretty terrible and classist and people who have magic rule over people who don't. this changes by the end of the story but again, is not very explored.

my favorite characters are the main villain and the cowboy wizard. their performances are very delightful and fun to watch, sandraak gives convincing arguments for why he should win the war sometimes, before giving you reasons on why he probably also shouldn't. neither of the sides feel fully morally correct, the acting ruler of the state jak fights for, who is also his mentor, is a pretty terrible person who doesn't have her story resolved other than she just leaves after being kicked out basically. i def feel like there are telltale-isms in its writing, which would make sense considering that a lot of people from telltale did work on this game! including michael kirkbride (famous for minecraft story mode, and some old rpg nobody cares about?? called morrowind?) i assume that kirkbride did a lot of lore writing, there's some good ideas there! i like the idea of the world facing actual consequences for bigotry and war (the extinction of a lot of animals and the main "end of the world type scenario", the wound (big hole) in the center of the world and the way to solve it is to overcome prejudices, that's cool.

in terms of gameplay, immortals is a wizard fps. you get three types of basic magic weapon as different types of magic, a handful of utility items like a grappling hook, a quick laser to stun enemies sometimes, and an item that slows enemies, along with aoe skills that use up a mana bar, and using them lets you use your Big Laser Attack that does big damage. oh and also a shield and dash. there are different weapon types (i think three for each type of magic if im not mistaken). i think it's a good foundation, an immediate comparison could be drawn to doom eternal, where the best way to deal with specific enemies is a specific approach, weapon, or ability. this kinda is bogged down by the loot mechanics. the talent tree is, fine, i think. id prefer just having that instead of the loot system. most of the alternate versions of the magic weapons are kinda not that fun to me, they could do a lot better with the actual utility and variety of them, the javelin looks cool, and works good at range, but just using your basic shrikebolt i think it's called is a lot better and can pump out more damage faster, it doesnt help that the javelin has a charge time and zooms in your screen every time you fire. but my main problem is kind of the way magic intersects in combat encounters, that 'doom eternal problem solving' type thing. for any special enemies, they can raise a shield that asks you to use a corresponding magic type to deal damage to. i think it's a good idea on paper, does not work well in practice. green and red shields are kind of insufferable, and enemies are specifically designed to punish you if you do not follow the combat flowchart most of the time, bigger melee enemies can be slowed but it is really easy to get punished for what feels like no reason, if you dash to the side, the charging enemies track you and you get hit anyway, the dash is really underwhelming btw.

there is metroidvania-like progression, but it was not very compelling. i didnt want to come back with new abilities most of the time because i just. didn't enjoy the looting system. the puzzles themselves are fine, though.

and fanes. think shrines from breath of the wild. it's kinda that, yeah. i think these are not really worth the effort as you can craft most of the gear you would want to get anyway, and most fanes feature enemies that are just straight up bullet sponges, and a lot of them. i did not think they were worth it and basically ignored all of them except for the first few i did.

bret robbins worked on this (worked on gex, and gex 3, and some other game called dead space.) and honestly? it's competent. this is a pretty good game! i like it.

okay. i think i gotta get to the real point i wanna make here. ascendant studios at the time of writing this, basically barely exists anymore. less than a month after immortals released, nearly half of the studio was laid off.

immortals released at a pretty bad time for something like it, baldur's gate 3 coming out shortly before, and armored core 6 releasing slightly after. immortals did Not sell. and i think that's kind of tragic. any potential there is for a sequel, and i think there is potential, will probably never actually come to fruition.

i think if this game released like. idk, a console generation or two ago. people wouldve probably eaten it up, maybe! if it released in a lull in 2023, maybe it would've sold better, but. it didn't. and the cost is the jobs of a lot of people, and scorn towards the people that made it for delivering a 'bad game', a '''''''bad product'''''''. immortals of aveum is forever consigned to obscurity and maybe even infamy, a lot of people here i imagine didn't even give it more than an hour after they heard the first line of quippy dialogue. there's a lot of good here, there's a lot i really like. and all that can be done is to just. say that i like it.

the cost of modern triple a titles is kind of fucking unsustainable. a game like immortals that dared to experiment a little bit is deemed a failure and people lose their jobs because of it.

the cost of failure should not be these peoples' jobs, i think. this doesn't deserve to be ascendant studios' first and last game. and it's a real shame that it is likely to be that.

i hate the fact that experimentation is so likely to just cause a studio to dissolve, i hate the fact that a majority of capital-G Gamers will see something slightly ""cringe"" and immediately write it off. immortals of aveum is not a bad game, there's so much good in there, and nobody will give it a chance. it will never get the chance to be what i think it could be. it breaks my heart. i will always have an appreciation for something like this, despite its flaws and despite its failure. i think more people should find an appreciation for 'bad games'. im really imploring you to check it out, if anything ive said here about the game seemed cool at all. you can get it on sale for like. twelve dollars. the only bad part is that it runs on unreal 5 so it kinda runs like ass sometimes but if you can deal with that or have a good pc then you'll be fine. idk how it runs on console i could not say.

please play more 'bad games'.