August 2023 was an interesting month. It saw the release of one of the year’s most praised games Baldur’s Gate 3, and it also saw the release of one of the year’s most forgotten games – Immortals of Aveum. In April 2024, PlayStation plus members were given Immortals of Aveum as part of their monthly essential games offering. I immediately downloaded it and gave it a try, eager to see if the game truly deserved the criticism it received. To my surprise, the game got off to a good start, and I put in around 3-4 hours of playtime. However, the issues soon started cropping up and I uninstalled the game the same day.
Now, as we approach the game’s one year anniversary, I wanted to see if I could give it another try. Would I find the game bearable enough to finish it this time? And the answer is, not yet, but I think that’s partly because I continued my in-progress game rather than starting fresh, meaning I have lost touch with the game’s mechanics. This game has design issues that make it really difficult to keep playing after a long break. I will probably start a fresh game sometime after this video goes live, because I feel this game does have some merits, and I want to see it to the end. For this video, I wanted to summarise the story behind this game. A lot has already been said about Immortals of Aveum by a lot of people, and I doubt I can add anything new to the discussion. That said, I feel that talking about these things from time to time will keep the conversation alive about the direction in which the video game market is headed. Today I wanted to talk a little about my experience with the game, and also take a look back at the background for this game’s development, how it was received at launch, and what happened after the launch. The summary of the video is this: Immortals of Aveum may be a flawed game, but games like these is what the industry needs right now. I’m talking about a linear, single-player AAA production that doesn’t have any microtransactions or any extra monetisation model beyond the initial asking price. The studio which made the game is on life support right now, and I sincerely hope they pull through to bring another, hopefully smaller project to life.
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