PlayStation Plus Just Quietly Added the Most Overlooked Shooter of 2023
Gunslinging, but with magic.
Before online multiplayer took the world by storm, there was a time when shooters were all about single-player campaigns, filled with massive set pieces and vibrant ideas that change how you interact with the world. Half-Life 2, BioShock, and Halo: Reach all fall into that category, and while it might not hit those same heights, Immortals of Aveum feels like a throwback to the shooters of yesteryear. While it’s admittedly a bit rough around the edges, the game has a kind of scrappy, ambitious spirit that permeates every part of the experience and feels especially strong in its fantastic combat. Immortals is easily the most overlooked game of 2023, and its additions to PlayStation Plus is the perfect chance to make sure you don’t miss it again.
Immortals takes place in an original fantasy world inspired by the “arcanepunk” aesthetic, which fuses magic and science together. You play as a young man named Jak, a thief and pickpocket scraping by on the streets of a city called Soren. It’s a classic underdog story, as Jak suddenly finds himself the possessor of immense power, and embroiled in a magic battle for the fate of the world.
Immortals’ story is entirely predictable, but it’s vibrant aesthetic and style still keep things interesting.
The story is by far the weakest aspect of Immortals, with a narrative filled with tropes and predictable twists. It’s a good thing, then, that it serves to lift up the game’s stronger more imaginative elements. Like those classic shooters, Immortals shines with its tremendous set-piece moments and potent combat that grows in leaps and bounds. All of this is tied together by a phenomenal visual style that really leans into vibrant colors and dazzling effects.
The core of Immortals is its elemental magic system, which gives you three distinct combat styles to swap between on the fly. Blue magic functions like a long-range rifle, red magic is basically your close-range shotgun, and green magic has both healing qualities and the fire rate of machine guns.
Combat in Immortals feels fast and frenetic, and the game does a fantastic job of incrementally adding new spells and abilities.
While each of these forms has a basic function, across the game you’ll unlock 25 different spells that both alter your elemental magic and grant brand-new abilities. For example, changes to your red magic will let you alter the shotgun blast, turning it into a massive exploding ball or bursts that can cover a massive area and hits a half-dozen enemies.
The additional “control” spells are what make things truly interesting, giving you abilities that integrally change how you interact with both enemies and the environment. Lash gives you a magical whip that can be used as a grappling hook, opening up new exploration options as well as the ability to draw in faraway enemies. Hover lets you soar above the battlefield, raining down destruction. Animate lets you manipulate parts of the environment.
All of these abilities are incrementally dolled out throughout the campaign, which gives this sense of Jak’s magic growing and evolving alongside his role in the story. Thrilling is the best word to describe Immortal’s combat, as everything plays out at a blistering speed, forcing you to swap between magic sets on the fly as you adjust to different enemy types. It often feels like a fantasy version of Doom, as you zip around the battlefield unleashing dazzling spells.
Despite the dull story, massive set piece moments help keep the pacing chugging along.
Those nail-biting combat encounters are made even more memorable by jaw-dropping set pieces, like fighting your way up platforms sprouting off a massive moving colossus in the middle of the ocean. It’s hard to look away from the over-the-top action Immortals constantly assaults your eyeballs with.
Immortals of Aveum is simply a fascinating game, a first project from a new studio that was clearly trying to punch above its weight. Its story and world oftentimes fall flat, but it’s one of the most thrilling and imaginative single-player shooters we’ve seen in years. Those rough edges are part of what gives Immortals its personality, and the perfect reminder that even flawed games are worth experiencing.
