The Age of Sigmar
Storm into the realm of Ghur, with Warhammer’s latest installment to the real-time strategy genre, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin! Take command of one of the main factions vying for control of the foul realm of Ghur. The Stormcast Eternals, Sigmar’s favoured and our “good guy” faction. The Orruk Kruleboyz, seemingly incompetent “bad guys” who constantly clash with the Stormcast Eternals. And finally, the malicious Nighthaunts guarding an ancient secret held deep within the realm of Ghur. Does Age of Sigmar live up to its name?
For Sigmar!
As with any Warhammer game, each character, reference and/or voice line is potentially oozing with story and exposition. For any people not familiar with Warhammer’s Age of Sigmar fantasy setting, not to worry, you still have plenty of story to sink your teeth into. Better yet this title could potentially ensnare you into the colossal hobby of Warhammer! You’ll start off the game with a tutorial playing as the Stormcast Eternals (the human) faction. You’ll be quickly brought up to speed with the realm of Ghur, its inhabitants, and your primary objectives there. Many of the characters are one-dimensional, easy to predict and all around mid. But let’s face it that’s not why you’re here!
Realms of Ruin is an insanely good-looking game, especially for such a decrepit realm like Ghur. A lot of care is put into making the battlefields feel foreign to any human. Even more care is put into making all the non-human factions (or filthy Xenos for my 40K fans out there) feel menacing and otherworldly. Props to the environment team at Frontier Developments plc for bringing the Age of Sigmar to life!
Real-Time Bash-ery
But more importantly, the gameplay. Realms of Ruin feels like a tight real-time strategy (RTS), that nails all the core concepts. To break it all down to its very basics, you have heavy infantry, light infantry, and ranged infantry. Light infantry deals a tonne of damage, meaning they lack any sort of armour. Heavy infantry are heavily armoured, slow, and pretty bulky. Finally, ranged infantry are lightly armoured and terrible in melee but can dish out a ridiculous amount of punishment at range. Most of the combat revolves around using these types of units effectively, but that’s probably not what’s going to sell you on Realms of Ruin!
The real draw is the special units and heroes you get to command throughout your conquests! Unfortunately, I have only really played the Stormcast Eternals, so I can only comment on them in this review. But, my favorite unit is the Stormdrake Guard a flying beast that dishes out damage in the air and on the ground. While mostly playing as the Stormcast Eternals, it was super fun having a Thor lightning vibe playthrough, calling down reinforcements from the sky and watching melees dissipate with a huge crackle of lightning.
Outside of special units, much of the combat will have a melee focus, which does provide some chaotic, picturesque moments. Each unit has also been given a generous amount of attention, as they have unique abilities and actions. For example, the scout units of the Stormcast have the ability to remove the fog of war within a large circle. Lesser RTS games would just give the scouting units longer visibility, but Age of Sigmar gives you a tremendous amount of agency in making battlefield choices.
The Realms Beyond
I think that Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin offers a lot for an RTS title. It offers an even greater package for fans of both RTS games and Age of Sigmar fans. There is plenty for both camps, so with that in mind, I unequivocally recommend diving into Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin!
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