Immortals of Aveum

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Immortals of Aveum is a 2023 single-player first-person shooter from Ascendant Studios, published by Electronic Arts. It released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on August 22, 2023. The game combines magic combat with a linear story, offering about 25 spells across red, blue, and green elements and a talent tree with over 80 nodes. On normal difficulty, most players finish the main story in 12–16 hours; at the hardest setting, completion can run around 25 hours.

Plot in simple terms: After thieves Jak and Luna fail a heist and their friend Caleb is hurt, Luna dies in battle. Kirkan, the Grand Magnus of the Immortals, recruits Jak because he can wield all three colors of magic. Jak trains to draw power from the Shrouded Realm and joins the Immortals to defend Lucium during an Everwar as Sandrakk threatens to widen a magical wound at the heart of Aveum. Jak befriends allies like Kenzie and Rook and learns about a binding stone kept by the Pentacade that controls the magic powering Aveum. A twist reveals Luna is secretly serving Sandrakk. After a series of battles and betrayals, the Immortals pursue a plan to stop Sandrakk and the binding stone. In the climactic events, Devyn dies, Jak is defeated and later revived, and he ultimately defeats Sandrakk. The ending hints at peace with the Aelori and leaves questions about the binding stone’s fate and Jak’s future.

Development and reception: Ascendant Studios, founded in 2018 by veterans from Dead Space and Call of Duty, released Immortals of Aveum as their first major game. It was announced at The Game Awards 2022 under EA Originals and runs on Unreal Engine 5, leveraging the engine’s new features. The game was delayed from July 2023 to August 2023. Development was estimated at about $85 million, with around $40 million spent on marketing. Critics gave mixed or average reviews on PC and PS5, with somewhat more favorable feedback on Xbox Series X/S. Famitsu rated it 32/40 in Japan. The game faced technical issues and, due to disappointing sales, Ascendant Studios laid off about 40 developers in September 2023 (roughly 45% of the studio). About 30 staff remained on furlough by April 2024. Immortals of Aveum received a nomination for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project at the Visual Effects Society Awards.