We’re getting back into 2023’s busy territory and it’s all setting off again from this week with two heavy hitters.

Having just got access to Immortals of Aveum, we’re not ready to cast a final verdict on this latest EA Original yet, which will follow. That said, we’ve played through a nice slice of the campaign and are delighted to say this one has potential.

The story seems quite interesting, the combat is refreshingly different – falling somewhere between Destiny, Bulletstorm and HeXen – and there’s some fun little mechanics to mix up the action with puzzles that don’t get in the way or wear out their welcome.

But the performance does not feel particularly great on PS5. In fact, looking around, it doesn’t seem to be a platform-specific problem either. And you wonder if there are patches to come, which wouldn’t be the first time this year for an EA game.

Immortals of Aveum has some slowdowns, there’s some washed out textures, others aren’t fully formed, and there’s something a little bit jarring about the proportion of the heads to the body. Oddly.

I was suprised to see no Performance / Ray Tracing and Quality Modes here, which makes me think we might get something in a later patch. And I do wonder how that will affect things down the line.

None of it has hindered progress too much, or affected me very much, but I do wonder how things will develop as I progress through the campaign. The boss battles I’ve experienced in early game, so far, haven’t been too bad, though some attacks have definitely struggled a bit compared to others.

For the most part, though, the game runs silky smooth. It’s fast and flows well – sometimes a bit too well as I even got a little motion sick from the pace of the action – and you’ll find yourself flying around the game’s arenas and platforms looking for hidden loot and items.

It’s another reason why we’re not rushing to overview this in full – similarly to how we looked at Jedi Fallen Order, Gollum and Redfall (which we’re still waiting for an update on, by the way)

And particularly because we see both the importance of this – we are all about letting new IP breathe and have a chance to shine – and because it’s sadly, surprisingly rare to get single-player driven AAA games with no multiplayer component. It helps that we can clearly see the potential.

The idea of an FPS magic caster instead of guns is an informed one, though, and the fantasy world created feels more alive than Forspoken. In Ascendant’s world of knights and dragons, you play as Jak, a young man who gets caught up in a war between two factions.

It’s not his fault, really, he’s just trying to lead an easy life. In fact, it’s his friend who wants to go out on the front lines and do the fighting, but things don’t always work out the way we want them and before he knows it, he’s on a crash course of training to be the best of all soldiers. Five years in the making.

Via an early training session, the game teaches you its semi complex mechanics – there’s a lot to remember between three magic types, some goop which slows down enemies, a lasso which lets you do a Scorpion and pull enemies close, a shield to block incoming projectiles and a few other additional, mana draining attacks. There’s even a ‘Blink’ ability in a nice shout out to the excellent Dishonored.

In action, though, it actually makes for a very satisfying spectacle. And when you do take on bigger enemies, you realise you have to learn fast to stay alive, particularly when certain attack patterns burn away over half your health.

Again, it’s early doors, but the game’s sense of humor does feel a little …off. It’s almost trying a bit too hard at times with some of its delivery and the flow of the narrative lacks a bit of emotional investment and impact. It could just be the way the characters come across, but I definitely feel like I’m in a bedding in period with the game, so not jumping to any rash decisions just yet.

I’m also just starting to make real use of the upgrade tree in my playthrough and have also been upgrading and switching out armor. So there’s an RPG lite element to the game as well, even going as far as to provide some optional conversational choices. Though so far I wouldn’t say those have any real bearing on the game.

Basically, aside from a bit of jank, the game is coming together pretty well. We’ll have a full breakdown over the weekend or early next week, but with today’s launch, I wanted to put together a little something to celebrate new IP, to tell you this game has real potential and I’m actually quite enjoying my time with it.

All I’d add is don’t sleep on this one yet, despite our crowded, busy gaming timetable. Even with a certain game about mechs releasing later this week. And a game all about stars dropping the next, this one shouldn’t be ignored.

Though I do worry Immortals of Aveum could have benefited from a little more polish and perhaps being away from a less crowded window. We’ll have to wait and see.