Well as luck would have it, right here comes Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin from the veteran staff at Frontier Developments.
This is a real-time technique recreation set within the Age of Sigmar universe the place you possibly can take management of considered one of 4 factions: the heroic Stormcast Eternals, foul Orruk Kruleboyz, spooky Nighthaunt, and… a fourth faction we’ll speak about later. Xbox (and console typically) isn’t normally the area of the real-time technique style, however Realms of Ruin is coming to consoles and boasts a brand new management system to assist controller gamers out. Frontier have been variety sufficient to ask us to preview the sport, so I slid right into a swimsuit of shiny gold armour and acquired caught in.
The first mode I acquired to take a look at was Conquest mode — this can be a single-player recreation mode the place you possibly can run a procedurally-generated marketing campaign of types the place you sort out a sequence of battles, every with their very own distinctive modifiers, guidelines, and restrictions. These mini campaigns then culminate in a difficult boss battle. As a fellow lover of all issues gold, I made a decision to play because the Stormcast Eternals for this primary run.
From right here I used to be launched to all of the acquainted real-time technique components that I’ve come to anticipate. I had a house base, on this case a Stromcast Realmgate, which I might use to summon in new items, and a few items to get me began.
There are two most important assets that it’s worthwhile to stability in Realms of Ruin — the blue one, and the orange one (the information reliably informs me they’re referred to as Command and Realmstone, respectively. Command is the principle useful resource that it’s worthwhile to summon primary items, improve outposts, and customarily play the sport. You’ll begin with a gentle stream of this arising, however you’ll earn extra by controlling extra outposts on the map. Realmstone is the flamboyant useful resource that it’s worthwhile to purchase upgrades and elite items. By default, you don’t earn any of this, so that you’ll must construct some Arcane Conduits on outposts to begin taking this in.
Having performed an unhealthy quantity of Dawn of War again within the day, all of it felt very acquainted and I shortly acquired into the routine of sending dudes out to seize management factors, build up my forces after which smashing them into the enemy drive. I loved the development of my drive, from fledgling warband to unstoppable campaign and there is a good quantity of strategic depth to your unit decisions. Many items have forms of foes they’re sturdy and weak in opposition to, so for those who simply spam one kind, you permit your self open to being simply countered. This means you are finest off constructing a “codex cowl” military, that features a little bit of the whole lot.
Now, I’m extra of a Warhammer 40,000 man myself, however I do know a good quantity about Age of Sigmar and it seems to be like Realms of Ruin is a shocking recreation of the universe. There are quite a lot of maps to battle throughout starting from wonderful cities to barren deserts, and the eye to element on the items themselves is prime notch too.
Realms of Ruin is gorgeous to have a look at too, each by way of environments and the items that you simply’ll be fielding. Every single unit has been painstakingly recreated from the tabletop fashions after which delivered to life with stunning animations.
The demo I performed was on PC, however as an Xbox aficionado I took the chance to take a look at the controller expertise and it was… fascinating. The recreation makes use of a bizarre motion system the place you snap chain actions collectively to create a path that your items will comply with. Presumably, that is in order that the unit can get began within the course you need them to go whereas your gradual ass joystick strikes to the precise vacation spot, however in apply I discovered the system somewhat irritating. It has its benefits for certain, however I desire the simplicity of the previous seize your items, level them over there management scheme. Fortunately, you possibly can simply press within the left stick to modify to a conventional reticule so that you’re free to play nonetheless you need.
After dipping my toes into the water with the Conquest mode, it was time to cannonball into the ocean of two vs 2 multiplayer. Myself and one other unfortunate content material creator have been paired up in opposition to two members of the QA staff. Luckily, they’d been informed to go actual straightforward on us. It was like having a charity boxing match with Mike Tyson — I acquired just a few jabs in, however I used to be beneath the distinct impression they might punch my head off in the event that they needed to.
Multiplayer works as you’d anticipate. It’s the identical recreation, however now it’s worthwhile to cut up assets along with your teammate. This means you possibly can’t simply turbo out and seize all of the outposts, as you’ll depart them and not using a functioning economic system. At the identical time, you’ll have to be watchful and assist defend them ought to they arrive beneath assault from each of the enemy gamers directly.
The Stormcast are a military of elite warriors, that means that my items have been costly, however I acquired what I paid for. A single unit of Liberators might wade by a number of nighthaunt items with out breaking a sweat. Later on you get even spicier items, together with the angelic Prosecutors and a few honest-to-goodness dragons. As it seems, there are few issues in life that may’t be solved with dragons, so our victory got here swiftly.
The subsequent recreation didn’t go so effectively. I took command of the Nighthaunt, a military of spooky ghosts that depends on sheer numbers to get the job achieved. Honestly, I discovered it tough to maintain up the sheer numbers of troops I needed to command. After shedding their first recreation, the QA staff had clearly determined they deserved one good punch. Good for them.
The remaining recreation although, that was the one. Both me and my accomplice took command of the newly revealed third faction within the recreation — the Disciples of Tzeentch. These tricksy demons are all about ranged injury and debuffing enemy items. This means utilizing hordes of disposable cultists to carry up the enemy whereas your twisted monstrosities mild them up with hellfire. Their centrepiece unit is a gigantic better demon, the Lord of Change. He may appear to be a giant hen holding a stick, however he’s an absolute beast. Once I acquired considered one of these unhealthy boys on the battlefield, it was throughout. It felt like I’d switched genres to a Kaiju film, as my large hell turkey stomped across the battlefield lighting up entire squads together with his highly effective magic assaults.
There are a few additions aimed squarely at tabletop gamers of Age of Sigmar. The first of those is the livery editor, which helps you to customise your military’s colour scheme. While livery editors are nothing new, I seen that you may preview virtually each unit in every faction, so that you don’t find yourself with a paint job that appears nice on one unit, however terrible on one other. All of the colours are matched with precise paints within the Citadel vary, which is a very nice contact.
The different superb addition for wargamers is the scene editor. This makes use of the identical instruments as the sport’s map editor, however as a substitute of making battlefields, you possibly can create dioramas of battles in progress. Units will be customised and positioned into particular animations to arrange wonderful battle scenes. I didn’t get an opportunity to play with this throughout my demo, however from what I noticed, it seems to be implausible and I can’t wait to make use of it. The identical goes for the Map Editor, which seems to be fairly intricate from what we’ve seen, however we didn’t get an opportunity to test it out on this demo.
I loved my time with Realms of Ruin and I can’t wait to play extra when it launches subsequent month. It’s not going to revolutionize the real-time technique style, however Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is a lovingly crafted and well-executed recreation. It’s primarily going to attraction to current Warhammer followers who will get the largest kick out of seeing their tabletop miniatures delivered to life, however the foundations appear stable sufficient for it to tug in a wider viewers too.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin launches on November 17 on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC.
