The new Immortals of Aveum gameplay trailer wasn’t the biggest Summer Game Fest reveal. After all, it’s an unknown original title, not part of an established brand like Final Fantasy or Mortal Kombat. However, this latest look at the magical first-person shooter was an intriguing surprise, one that made me realize that more shooters should go the unconventional route.
Immortals of Aveum is an EA Original developed by Ascendant Studios. Although this is a new team, its members include veterans from massive shooter franchises like Call of Duty and Dead Space. You can see that pedigree in the AAA-style action setpieces. Getting a star like Gina Torres in your cast only adds to the production value.
Instead of mowing down enemies with shotguns and sniper rifles, your “guns” in this fantasy first-person shooter are more than two dozen colorful magic spells. Your character performs all sorts of hand gestures and rune summoning to whip foes with lightning or pepper them with fireballs. Sure, you could cast first-person spells in Skyrim, but Immortals wants to make slinging spells as energetic as any other firefight.
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Does swapping out guns with projectile spells dramatically change the gameplay? Not necessarily. Alongside its wackier spells, some of Immortals of Aveum's projectiles might as well be machine guns. Still, I appreciate that added layer of at least surface-level creativity. I’ve enjoyed plenty of shooters with boring realistic military guns. However, they shouldn’t have the monopoly on a gameplay formula as fundamental as “aim at something and blast it.”
Creative firearms helped a few shooters stand out in a crowded genre. The Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare games turned fruits and vegetables into soldiers. Splatoon’s paint-based shoot-outs became so popular that Square Enix is looking to rip it off with Foamstars. Spellbreak featured awesome long-range spell-based battle royale combat before it got shut down. High on Life’s main gimmick is its arsenal of gross, talking alien guns. Although BioShock and Overwatch include plenty of normal weapons, they mix things up by giving players abnormal powers.
Creativity isn’t everything. Shooters especially thrive on good game feel. But innovation, even just aesthetic innovation, always feels exciting. We won’t have to wait too long to see if Immortals of Aveum’s genre mash-up is crazy good or just plain crazy. The game launches on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on July 20.
For more, check out our picks for the best PC shooters. For more on Summer Game Fest, read our impressions of Mortal Kombat 1’s bloody, high-flying gameplay.