Immortals of Aveum Preview (PC)
I was recently fortunate enough to sit in on a preview stream for Immortals of Aveum, a fresh new IP from Ascendant Studios. Ascendant Studios was formed by Bret Robbins whose past works include Dead Space and Call of Duty among others… but it was during his time working on Call of Duty that he says the idea for Immortals of Aveum began to form in his head. Describing it as essentially a game where the player is a gunslinger only instead of a gun you wield magic… from what I got to see I’d say it could be described as Magepunk… a mix of magic and technology with a stunning aesthetic and what promises to be a fully fleshed out world and mythology.
On that note of aesthetics, the visuals are absolutely stunning! But not just beautiful worlds realised with fantastic detail but the character animations are looking extremely detailed. Often there are certain elements of characters that really let down that sense of immersion and the most familiar one is arguably when a character is speaking (especially when that character is clearly human/oid). I would have to imagine Ascendant Studios opted to do at least two motion capture passes here… one for broad stroke movement and one for dialogue because the detail in the facial animation means we can really enjoy the performances the actors have worked hard to put in to their characters (there are some familiar voices/faces here too so it’s nice that they get their complete performance in the game).
The key gameplay revolves around ley lines and three distinct colours of magic, red, green and blue. Each one has it’s own style of usage and the player can mix and match to suit their play style (or whatever challenge they are being faced with). I didn’t get to see a lot, but what I did looked pretty full on and with a story that promises to be quite compelling, I can imagine getting heavily invested in Immortals of Aveum. The main focus of the game is single player and though no muliplayer is currently planned… there was a hint that it might be added in the future. Personally I’m more interested in the evocative story telling that seemed to be on offer here and am really looking forward to jumping into the campaign as soon as possible.
Ascendant Studios is definitely looking like a powerhouse team, Bret obviously brings his impressive skills to the company but the rest of the team is essentially a who’s who of some of the best in the industry so keep an eye out for not only Immortals of Aveum… but I suspect we could see some great titles coming from this studio in the future!
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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