Immortals of Aveum Arrives Today, Combining a Cinematic Single-Player Story With Spellbinding FPS Combat

[TheLostSwede]

Today, Electronic Arts Inc. and Ascendant Studios launched Immortals of Aveum, a single-player, first-person magic shooter powered by the groundbreaking Unreal Engine 5.1 technology and set in an original fantasy universe. Developed by a new independent AAA studio made up of award-winning industry veterans and published under the EA Originals label, Immortals of Aveum puts players in a visceral and cinematic fantasy universe that combines modern characters and a story-driven campaign with intense magic-based action, world exploration and puzzle-solving. Summon your power, stop the Everwar, and save the realms starting now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via the EA app, Steam and Epic Games Store worldwide.

Immortals of Aveum tells the story of Jak (Darren Barnet), who discovers that he is a magically-imbued 'Unforeseen' and finds himself reluctantly caught in the middle of the raging Everwar. Recruited under the tutelage of the powerful General Kirkan (Gina Torres) and an elite order of battlemages called the Immortals, Jak must master all three colors of magic - blue, green, and red. With powerful magic-wielders and legions of soldiers on both sides of the Everwar, Jak and the Immortals must uncover the mysteries of Aveum's troubled past, if there's any hope for turning the tides of the Everwar and defeating Sandrakk, the powerful warlord of Rasharn and his mysterious lieutenant, simply known as The Hand.




"I founded Ascendant Studios with the goal of creating a first-person magic shooter that makes you feel like a powerful battlemage," said Bret Robbins, CEO and Game Director at Ascendant Studios. "We built a world-class team, learned Unreal Engine 5, and created an amazing combat system and story from scratch - all through the adversity of Covid. It's been the best experience of my professional life. With the help of our partners at EA Originals, we've been able to make our dreams come true and transform this wild idea into reality. We hope you love it!"

Immortals of Aveum thrusts players into visceral and action-packed gameplay, testing players' skills in fast, fluid combat that is easy to learn and satisfying to master. Legions of Rasharnian forces stand in players' way as they learn to unleash over 25 different unique spells, thoughtful combos and well-timed counters. Featuring a deep progression system with over 80 unique Talents, there are countless ways to build characters and even more ways to crush enemies. Players will be rewarded for experimenting with different playstyles and can expect an over-the-top, fast-paced experience where magic is at the core of both offense and defense.

Beyond combat, the world of Aveum offers a unique fantasy universe with rich storytelling, puzzles and unique locations. From the lush forests of Lucium, to the snowy peaks of Kalthus and lava caves of Calderas, explore over a dozen different biomes filled with vibrant enemies, side content, boss fights and more. Experience a thrilling story with larger-than-life characters, featuring voice performances by Gina Torres as General Kirkan (Firefly, Suits), Darren Barnett as Jak (Never Have I Ever, Gran Turismo), Antonio Aakeel (Slow Horses, I Came By) as Devyn, and Lily Cowles (Roswell, New Mexico, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War) as Zendara.

"Ascendant Studios have cast FPS conventions to the wayside with Immortals of Aveum," said Jeff Gamon, General Manager of EA Partners. "Ever since EA Originals began back in 2016, we have championed studios that are forging new ways to play, who aren't afraid to disrupt and are on a mission to create high-quality, exciting titles for players. All of us at EA are delighted to watch gamers put aside familiar weapons, pick up a Sigil and wield battle magic in this refreshingly new, challenging and action packed blockbuster from the talented team at Ascendant!"

Immortals of Aveum is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via the EA app, Steam and Epic Games Store for $59.99 USD (PC) and $69.99 USD (consoles). Players who purchase the Deluxe Edition for $69.99 USD (PC) and $79.99 USD (consoles) will receive a unique sigil, three rings, two bracers and three totems; all valuable pieces of gear in the fight to save Aveum. EA Play Pro members will get access to the Deluxe edition on the EA app.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[#22]

Can't wait for performance reviews TPU, will you deliver?

 

[ZoneDymo]

again....it just really does not look great, not even good, it looks average at best with a very unappealing world and very dated game mechanics.

 

[TheLostSwede]

again....it just really does not look great, not even good, it looks average at best with a very unappealing world and very dated game mechanics.

Not all so called AAA titles are good games though...

 

[mouacyk]

immortal meh

 

[oxrufiioxo]

The majority of this development studio is ex telltale games developers considering this is their first major games since Telltales closure it's not a bad first shot the thing that worries me is if this doesn't sell well they may not even get another shot.

I also feel this is another AA game trying to be pushed as a AAA game like Remnant 2 and pretty much every other UE5 game other than Fortnite that has released so far.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Not all so called AAA titles are good games though...

oh tell me about it, I would say the majority isnt, the simple "title" of AAA is some marketing nonsense that the industry for some reason upholds.

But I was more talking about the visuals and how the high hardware requirements dont quite match up.
I know this game is UE5 and supposedly uses Nanite and Lumen....but yeah it just looks meh at best.

The majority of this development studio is ex telltale games developers considering this is their first major games since Telltales closure it's not a bad first shot the thing that worries me is if this doesn't sell well they may not even get another shot.

I also feel this is another AA game trying to be pushed as a AAA game like Remnant 2 and pretty much every other UE5 game other than Fortnite that has released so far.

I think this game would be a lot better if they injected some of that Telltale knowledge, making it more Mass Effect/Dragon Age like with conversations and choices etc.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

oh tell me about it, I would say the majority isnt, the simple "title" of AAA is some marketing nonsense that the industry for some reason upholds.

But I was more talking about the visuals and how the high hardware requirements dont quite match up.
I know this game is UE5 and supposedly uses Nanite and Lumen....but yeah it just looks meh at best.

I think the confusion with nanite and lumen is although they do improve visuals the main benefit is for developers and making both lighting and level of detail transitions much easier the problem is the hardware hit is higher than normal manually done lighting and LOD although I will say in the majority of games even the best looking ones LOD transitions are pretty terrible.

Also developers can't massively increase the resolution of artwork because Nvidia continues to gimp any card under 1k hard in the vram department.

I think this game would be a lot better if they injected some of that Telltale knowledge, making it more Mass Effect/Dragon Age like with conversations and choices etc.

I never cared for any of their previous games but I know they had a pretty decent fallowing of users who did.

 

[Solaris17]

I think the confusion with nanite and lumen is although they do improve visuals the main benefit is for developers and making both lighting and level of detail transitions much easier the problem is the hardware hit is higher than normal manually done lighting and LOD although I will say in the majority of games even the best looking ones LOD transitions are pretty terrible.

Agree to be honest I think UE5 is amazing but from what I’ve seen it looks like they boot up the editor check the nanite and lumen boxes and then load there old assets and textures. Thats where I think the issues are, the engine can only help so much.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Agree to be honest I think UE5 is amazing but from what I’ve seen it looks like they boot up the editor check the nanite and lumen boxes and then load there old assets and textures. Thats where I think the issues are, the engine can only help so much.

I really want to see what the Coalition does with this engine the work they did on Xbox one a basically RX 7750 in Gears 5 is super impressive considering the base hardware target. I think they might be the developer that really shows off this engine. That may be wishful thinking but that is my hope anyway.

 

[Vayra86]

again....it just really does not look great, not even good, it looks average at best with a very unappealing world and very dated game mechanics.

Oh man that looks worse than Lichdom Battlemage honestly, at least in terms of how spellcasting 'feels'. Lots of flashy lights but no punch or oomph to it. More power is just more bullshit clouding your view only to go back to 'pew pew out of my hand'.

Will skip, this is a noob trap... and graphically I dont even care just the trailer there had me bored shitless already. On rails, limited skillset, guided tour, yuck

 

[John_Boh]

I tried it, only because I'm an EA subscriber, and... no one will ever give me back these two hours of time.
I won't go into the gameplay and story here (both mediocre at best for me anyway), but the graphics are gross at times. Let's start by saying that a AAA (or assumed) title in 2023 without any support for HDR speaks for itself, but beyond this I would say that the only thing that can be saved are the motion captures of the faces in some cases, but you don't see them very often in game anyway, while most of the textures are nothing short of obscene.
As for performance, with RTX4090 and 13900KS (5.8P/4.6E in this daily configuration, which is detected as "not sufficient to be able to activate all graphics options" according to the game menu) at least the game is completely free of stuttering (many poorly optimized games released in the last year are capable of severe stuttering even with this config, perhaps even despite high framerates, for example Jedi Survivor), even if the frame rate at 4K with everything maxed out, without a thorough investigation, it would seem settle on 50/60FPS with TAA, 80/90FPS with DLSS Quality and over 120 with DLSS Q+ FG, frame generation which however generates some ghosting with the pointer ui.
In any case, I really don't understand the comparisons with Remnant 2, which beyond the genre (and the absence of hdr there too) can't really be compared, and if this is a AAA Remnant it's a AAAAAAAAA, and sales confirm it, the amount of ubiquitous online players for coop and community support.

In short, I strongly advise against it, as sorry as it may be for a recent studio that could be crushed by such a fiasco, I certainly could never advise anyone to spend €60 on this game.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

In short, I strongly advise against it, as sorry as it may be for a recent studio that could be crushed by such a fiasco, I certainly could never advise anyone to spend €60 on this game.

Reviews seem very mixed with some liking it some hating it. This does have EA Access or Gamepass written all over it though....

 

[W1zzard]

Can't wait for performance reviews TPU, will you deliver?

Yes, spoiler: not a single card reaches 4K60

Gameplay and story are pretty decent though

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Yes, spoiler: not a single card reaches 4K60

Gameplay and story are pretty decent though

This engine seems to require upscaling to get decent framerates on any hardware even when Epic showed it off on a 3090 it was like 1080p60 internally upscaled to 4k.

 

[John_Boh]

...This does have EA Access or Gamepass written all over it though....

It's EA Play Pro, so you have to pay, it's not included in the game pass, not at the moment at least.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Oh man that looks worse than Lichdom Battlemage honestly, at least in terms of how spellcasting 'feels'. Lots of flashy lights but no punch or oomph to it. More power is just more bullshit clouding your view only to go back to 'pew pew out of my hand'.

Will skip, this is a noob trap... and graphically I dont even care just the trailer there had me bored shitless already. On rails, limited skillset, guided tour, yuck

I thought Lichdom Battlemage was okay. This game kind of just looks like a better graphic version of it.

I agree, it looks kind of boring. I mean, I can just go replay Lichdom if I want to build up spells and cast a bunch of them in combat.

 

[Denver]

At 4k you get a glorious 30 and 40fps on $1000 and $1600 GPUs, respectively...

 

[mouacyk]

I thought Lichdom Battlemage was okay. This game kind of just looks like a better graphic version of it.

I agree, it looks kind of boring. I mean, I can just go replay Lichdom if I want to build up spells and cast a bunch of them in combat.

That's exactly how it looked to me too. I still have yet to finish Lichdom. Just been using it to test overclocks with DXGI in Reshade since it's a Crysis engine title and pushes GPUs fairly hard.

 

[Soul_]

The graphics are so 2015. Why is it so demanding? Are they mining Bitcoin on the GPU while running it?

 

[ViperXTR]

I-It's just like Crysis 1 wherein the flagships are struggling to run it! Good times huh >_>
(except Crysis looks amazing)

Another UE5 game, fort solis, brings the 4090 to its knees, below 60fps at 1440p

NVIDIA RTX4090 drops below 60fps in Fort Solis at Native 1440p/High Settings

NVIDIA's most powerful GPU, the GeForce RTX 4090, has trouble running Fort Solis even at native 1440p on High/Max Settings.

www.dsogaming.com

 

[cvaldes]

The graphics are so 2015. Why is it so demanding? Are they mining Bitcoin on the GPU while running it?

I have no idea. I watched some gameplay on Twitch, nothing that I see that demands high hardware requirements. UE5 runs Fortnite on very modest hardware and still pumps out frames.

My suspicion is that the game is poorly optimized. Sadly, that wouldn't be the first for a video game.

I suspect that this game will fall off the radar when Armored Core 6 launches on Friday. By the time anyone figures out what's wrong with this game, few will care.

This is Ascendant Studios' debut title. Not sure if what I've seen today is enough to keep the operation alive.

 

[Vayra86]

I thought Lichdom Battlemage was okay. This game kind of just looks like a better graphic version of it.

I agree, it looks kind of boring. I mean, I can just go replay Lichdom if I want to build up spells and cast a bunch of them in combat.

I finished that game 2x. Its fun, nice crafting system which keeps the repetitive action lively.

 

[ZoneDymo]

I-It's just like Crysis 1 wherein the flagships are struggling to run it! Good times huh >_>
(except Crysis looks amazing)

Another UE5 game, fort solis, brings the 4090 to its knees, below 60fps at 1440p

NVIDIA RTX4090 drops below 60fps in Fort Solis at Native 1440p/High Settings

NVIDIA's most powerful GPU, the GeForce RTX 4090, has trouble running Fort Solis even at native 1440p on High/Max Settings.

www.dsogaming.com

I will say though that that game in various ways actually looks very impressive, the scene at 4:50, going down with that elevator, the mechanics of the elevator being visible and the rotating orange light, that does look preeeetty dang good imo.
Yeah, this game imo earns its heavy cost, that actually looks pretty dang impressive

 

[QuietBob]

You know the game is demanding when it struggles to stay above 30 fps in the main menu
This is native 4K maxed out on my rig: