Immortals of Aveum

[Maryokutai]

 

So this has a demo out, presumably on every system, and it's relatively chunky at around 90 minutes to two hours. Turns out it's pretty neat and I actually bought it on a whim after the demo ended.

 

One thing I noticed right away is that despite there being lots of discourse about it, most of it was so focused on its technical side that I never really knew what kind of game it actually is. So I was a bit surprised to find out that it's not a linear run & gun shooter, but more of a story-driven adventure with (very) slight Metroid elements, platforming sections, a couple of (easy) puzzles, a skill tree and some downtime sections where you talk to NPC. Not saying a straight up shooter would have been worse than this cocktail but the fact that there's more to do than just click on heads was a welcome surprise. I also really enjoyed its opening act – the story is a relatively trope-heavy YA mix of different things, but it's surprisingly engaging IMO. 

 

On the gameplay side, while it's not all shooting, the shooting part is still the meat of it, with every aspect of the skill tree boosting your combat prowess. As the Avatar Unforeseen, you can wield all four elements three magic types, which means you have the funky equivalents of a rifle, a shotgun and an SMG build into the gauntlet on your hand. Per magic type are three subtypes and there's a bunch of other stuff like Overdrive and more powerful spells filled by a mana gauge. It can feel a tad overwhelming at first but you'll soon learn to wield them properly, pick out snipers with blue magic (rifle), pull in supports to finish them off with the red magic (shotgun) and slow down brutes while pumping them full with green magic (SMG). I do want to point out though that it's a very static game in the sense that all the horsepower of the console is being used to make it look as pretty as possible. There are zero physic toys available here, the world is purely decorative. I'm not too bothered by this but it does feed into the discussion that hardware resources are being used for ultimately irrelevant things today. 

 

Speaking of, visually it's really stunning, as expected. I think there have been a few patches since release that increase the native resolution and make the upsampling a tad less aggressive. It does look sharp, but I'm only on 1080p, so hardly a high-end benchmark situation. But it also runs a but sluggishly at times and can only really hold the 60fps target in closed-off spaces. Which I think is the exact opposite at what it was at launch, when it was locked to 60 no matter the cost. Probably would have preferred that to be honest, but at the end of the day it's not a dealbreaker for me. 

 

But so far, so good. I wish the demo had come out a bit sooner, because I think it might have helped selling a few more copies and avoiding the unfortunate downsizing of the developer. Getting greeted by this when booting it up feels really bittersweet now:

 

 

 

[DANGERMAN]

I think this really suffered from being the 3rd or 4th magic shooty game this year. The performance issues and generic main character really damned it. Shame because in the preview stuff this looked the most interesting 

[Maryokutai]

Yeah, and it was also a year filled with sequels to some of the most beloved IPs in the world (Mario, Zelda, Resident Evil, Spider-Man – a bit nuts actually).

 

But the more I play this the more I get the feeling that the developers and the marketing team weren't at the same wavelength. Or maybe I missed some crucial promo material, I might have to look up some trailers in a lunch break or something. But every 30 minutes this throws either a new gadget or a new environment at me that I absolutely did not see coming based on the information I had prior and around its release. And even the main character isn't as shitty a douchebag as the trailers suggested. He's not particularly interesting, but also fundamentally inoffensive. Your bona fide MCU protagonist, basically.

 

I dunno, I enjoy it, it's a cool game. And despite all its current flaws, UE5 does some pretty impressive things, like how the light bounces around the stone walls on the left in this picture:

 

 

(You can't turn off any HUD elements, which seems like a big oversight considering how intrusive some it is.)

[Maryokutai]

I finished this earlier today, it's surprisingly chunky and took me close to 30 hours to complete, though you could shave off some of those if you don't backtrack for secrets like I did. I enjoyed that part though, because it feels very much like Metroid Prime at some points. So much so that I wonder if Ascendant has some Retro veterans working for them. The double jump feels just like Samus' Space Boots and there's an area towards the middle of the game that could just have come out of MP3 Corruption. To nobody's surprise I liked that the most (also had a very nice theme).

 

It does take inspiration all over the place though. The way the world is being portrayed as a place that is being lived in, despite it geographically being impossible to live in, reminded me a lot of God of War 2018. It's very much a videogame world that doesn't make sense, houses and cabins being placed on top of cliffs where you can only get with a double jump and a grappling hook. I think in GoW's case it was deliberate, in this case it might be a byproduct of a studio trying to do everything at once. I just mention it because I saw other people mention it as a negative, but it couldn't have bothered me less. I enjoy levels just being levels and being nice to look at.

 

In fact, a lot of stuff you could hold against it -- and which I will mention here just for an air of objectivity -- didn't bother me too much. The performance is very wonky, as mentioned, as of the current update. Considering it initially ran at a stable 60 at the cost of resolution, I wonder why they didn't just add the current version as an optional quality mode. Then there's the writing, which has MCU written all over it and seems to target your average 15 year old. Most dialogue is plagued by forced humour and some voice acting feels too modern and too local (why does the exiled magician speak like a Texan and why are there so many f-bombs?). It started to annoy me bit towards the end because I still think the opening level found a way better balance than the rest of the game, but as this isn't a movie and the protagonist ist mostly quiet during exploration, it wasn't as bad overall.

 

On the gameplay side, it's a mixed bag. I think the shooting feels good, at least depending on the weapon used. Light magic has very satisfying hit feedback, green magic feels very empowering if used for crowd control. Red magic -- ironically the shotgun of the bunch -- lacks a bit of visceral punch and I sometimes had trouble properly evaluating its range, because unlike a shotgun it doesn't shoot pellets, it's more like a blast in front of you that doesn't do anything beyond its radius.

There are some visibility issues, which is why I think some people on here, mostly the sly ones and those with a reduced amount of limbs, would hate it, but the difficulty level is so low (on normal) that I was okay with occasionally having to tank a shot just to make out its source. Towards the end the game also tends to send a bunch of melee units to rush you down, which resulted in me just spamming the most powerful spells to dispose of them. It can be a bit messy in those moments, but the more balanced encounters are genuinely fun to play in my opinion.

 

One last minor nitpick I have is that some movement options feel a bit arbitrarily limited. For example, you can't float and then dash and you also can't dash multiple times in midair. I wonder if those are some last-minute bandaids they applied to avoid sequence breaking, as they most likely didn't have Nintendo levels of QA available. It's too bad though, because it would have made movement inside and outside of combat more fluid and dynamic.

 

But yeah, really none of that really impacted my enjoyment, this was all in all a very fun game. I was also really surprised how it doesn't take any shortcuts, there's barely any filler content, there are lots of different biomes and visuals (the usual videogame stuff -- forest, snow, lava). They also thought of a lot of QOL things, like respeccing your character from the menu, good teleporter placement if you decide to fast-travel, you can still wander around the world after beating the game or restart in new game +. And all of this without a hint of DLC or microtransactions. I think it's a bit unfair how this has been put down by both the press and consumers. It's a really solid 7/10 kind of game, the one you'd see all the time in the PS360 generation or the one before that. Not perfect, but very enjoyable. This having failed as badly as it did does send out all the wrong signals towards EA IMO. But I'm glad I played it and it'll get a spot on my goty list.

[Maf]

I played the tutorial and might be done already. It looks amazing, but the first hour is so story heavy and the story/characters/writing is so shit. Like so shit. It was starting to make me a bit angry. The characters talk like Marvel characters via Netflix and they lay their world on so heavy and direct and there’s nothing to it. It’s like really? REALLY? This is taking a whole ass hour for this.

 

I remember one time watching a video/podcast from a game publisher talking about pitches. How they sometimes have people come in and show off this 1000 page bible of lore and background they’ve come up with, etc, and how bad that is to start a pitch. You need to show what makes the game unique and fun before delving in to the fictional politics and rules for your magic world. 
 

I am begging, BEGGING, video games to do the same for their games. The opening hour is you pitching me on the game. Show me why playing the game is fun, and if I get interested on the most basic level I become open minded to the rest of it. The first hour of this game is CoD style following someone around, then 2nd rate CoD style set piece where a bunch of stuff is happening around the level while you sprint through it, cue perfunctory, predictable character tragedy, then shooting magic pip, pip. 
 

The shooting is fine. Blue magic is rifle, red magic is shotgun, green magic is sub machine gun. It’s ight. 
 

The one thing that worries me as I did my usual rebinding the keys to something useable I noticed there’s about 8 different magic spells that all have their own button, which by default are on the number key row. Err, that’s going to be problem because I can’t use those at all and I can’t find more keys for 8 different things. Maybe they’re not all necessary? 😅

 

I dunno. I only played an hour but what a laborious, bland and lifeless hour it was. Very off-putting. 
 

The audio is badly mixed, too. I even switched to headphones and tried to mess around with the sliders but the voices all sound slightly muffled no matter how I changed the different levels and the music sounds kinda good but like it’s playing underwater 
 

Un. Im. Pressed 

[Maryokutai]

To each their own of course but the biggest MCU person in the forum going after this for being what is essentially an interactive version of any run-of-the-mill MCU movie is an interesting take. Personally I thought the usual MCU flaws (basic writing, predictable plot) can more easily be offset in a videogame because it's not all there is to it, compared to a movie where engagement with the plot is one of the biggest factors for enjoyment.

[Maf]

But there’s essentially no gameplay in the first hour. Video game stories/characters are generally dumb but if I have fun playing I get in to what’s going on. This game’s opening hour is not bad, but super boring and uninteresting. Follow the dot, listen to people talk. Not just aiming that at this game, but I think game’s often make that mistake and I really dislike it. 
 

Marvel also has varying levels of quality. This is more like a Captain Marvel as opposed to Iron Man. Not only is the dialogue poor but it’s delivered by boring people. The world/story reeks of Netflix level generic as well. 
 

I don’t know. I guess I would say pretty much everything about the beginning is uninspired. And even though I know games shouldn’t be judged by their first hour, it’s left me pretty uninspired to keep playing it 

[Maryokutai]

So the patch is finally out that adds FSR3 and Vsync, which can be turned on independently in the options. The good news is that FSR3 does smooth out the performance quite a bit and that it hits its 60fps target more consistently now (on Xbox, presumably on PS5 as well). I can't tell whether or not it looks better, but the wonky performance has been the bigger issue as of the latest update, so you can kind of deal with that now. 'Kind of' because the bad news is that it adds a truckload of screen tearing, which is probably the reason why that Vsync option came as part of the bundle. And the second bad news is that Vsync adds very noticeable input lag.

 

So in short there's still really no optimal version on console unfortunately. If I'd play it again I'd probably stick with the standard mode and the wonky framerate without tearing, but people who aren't too bothered with screen tearing are probably better off activating FSR3 (or if they have a VRR TV).

 

On a bit of a downer note, the official patch notes reveal that they partnered up with an external studio to develop this update. I'd like not to read too much into this, but if they had to downsize that much then I fear we're approaching the end of the line here.

[Maf]

DF seem positive on the frame gen addition overall. Looks like some super ugly pauses in cutscenes which is unfortunate. But overall looks like the action stays over 60fps which is great. Wasn’t clear if the resolution is boosted on the console version. 
 

The only thing I didn’t get is they seem to say frame gen with v-sync on is the way to go? Wouldn’t that stop VRR working? Didn’t get that part

 

If I play this again I’ll stick with PC, but looks ver promising for consoles + frame gen. Like this isn’t perfect, but it’s the first game to do it so it’s looking good, I think,

[Maryokutai]

I don't know about the technicalities but the input lag with V-sync on is extremely irritating and I wouldn't want to play it like that. 

[DANGERMAN]

I've played through this over the past couple of weeks, and it's fine. Not to get full DF but the frame rate boost with a VRR display helps this a lot. It still drops at points but it feeling like 60fps most of the time, even in combat really helps it. It's a better game now. 

 

My biggest criticism is that it's about 8 hours of game stretched to 20. There's a lot of down time, which I'm fine with, but the combat encounters are so drawn out. This is true of most things, but it would be so much better if it was Doom. There's points later on where some fodder enemies go down in a shot from your red magic. Usually though you're just chipping away at an enemies health, dodging, putting up your shield until it dies and another wave spawns in. Made worse that it's taken cues from online games like Destiny and enemies spawn in at the same points regardless, so even if you've quick travelled in and their spawn point is on top of the portal. 

 

I actually quite like the main character, possibly because there's a gulf between him and his character model. He's smirking like a Dreamworks character constantly, and he makes stupid decisions purely to extend the narrative, but the performance is actually pretty good and likable. 

I absolutely hate Devlin or whatever his name was, I felt a bit sorry for the actor 

 

The bit I've been struggling with is how to word that this game failed. You'd say that it didn't deserve to, that it's actually a pretty solid game, and it is, it's fun at points. Thing is, I wouldn't ever finding myself recommending it. Not that I think it's bad, I don't, it's fine, but it's a slog, I don't think I could tell people that this is worth 20 hours of their time unless they have nothing but time. So it's hard to say that it should have been a success when I can see why people looked at it when it was £70, didn't buy it, and I agree with them. 

 

That last bit probably reads harsher than I mean it, it's a well made game, I'm just not surprised it didn't sell 

[Maf]

Speaking of DF they said this game gets better around level 3 and had the same problems I did at the start. Maybe I should push through a bit more to see if the game livens up any 

[HandsomeDead]

I played a bit of this, maybe 8 hours worth and I'm struggling to go back.  I agree with Ben mostly.  All the elements are there for a great game but it's just not coming together for me, which is something I get with a lot of games.  I think that's why it's strange it's so unsuccessful because the issues I have are the same as a few games that are very successful.  I think a games success can be very arbitrary sometimes.

 

I can't put my finger on why the exploring parts aren't working for me either.  It might just be the music.  Better music could have gone a long way for this game.

[Nag]

I started this today, only really got past the (prolonged) tutorial but so far I'm quite liking it... that's probably helped by the fact I've not played a fps in, what seems like, some time.

 

Playing on PS5 and I've not changed any settings and so far it seems reasonably solid... the shooting feels nice... my set is VRR compatible but I'm not sure what effect that's having as VRR is a little ropey on PS5... either way not a bad first impression. 

[DANGERMAN]

Now it's got frame generation, the VRR should be pretty solid. I felt like I had a handful of times where I felt the frame rate tank, but it was pretty rare considering how long the game is 

[Nag]

I don't think that's on from the off... I'd have to check. 

[DANGERMAN]

If v-sync is on turn that off, the VRR is doing that job 

[Nag]

 

Clean up wasn't so bad... around 20 minutes grinding for the last few ascension points and I'll be glad to never see another one of those refracting beam puzzles but overall pretty painless. 

[Maryokutai]

Did you beat the optional bosses as well? That's where I drew the line, seemed like you had to make a custom build for each one.

[Nag]

Yeah... but once the story was done on the (now second) hardest difficulty you can just drop it to easy and steamroll them during clean up.😂