Developer Ascendant Studios Publisher Electronic Arts Format PC, PS5 (tested), Xbox Series Release Out now
Look towards one of Aveum’s extensively artdirected horizons and you’ll see them: floating ley lines, threaded across the land like elemental twine. Not too long into Ascendant Studios’ FPS (that’s ‘firstperson spellcaster’), you gain the power to ride these streams of untrammelled magical energy, but not before one character has warned you that the process is likely to induce severe nausea. There is, then, a sense of anticipation and trepidation the first time we hold the Square button to latch on using our grapple. What follows, though, is a fleeting few moments of slow, automated airborne traversal; during subsequent trips, we’re encouraged to lean left and right to avoid colliding with scenery, but in each case it’s more like a leisurely glide than anything that might cause your stomach to flip. Or, for that matter, your heart rate to increase.