Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin Review – Thunder Struck

Developed and published by Frontier Developments, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is a real-time strategy game set in the titular Warhammer Age of Sigmar world. In this action packed title you will lead a collection of armies from the heroic Stormcast Eternals to the sinister Disciples of Tzeentch, and the wicked Kruleboyz. Each faction has their own motivations and storylines, all of which cross and interact with one another throughout the game’s eighteen chapters. And in the title’s Skirmish and Conquest modes.

Being the first real-time strategy game set in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar universe and with such great-looking graphics and audio I have to say that I was really looking forwards to this one. As someone with a growing interest in the setting, I was excited to see what the developers could do. And I have to say that from a production and writing standpoint this is one of the best titles I have ever reviewed, but from a gameplay point of view, well, regrettably things are less so.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is out now on PC via Steam.

Story – Bring the Dawn

I feel that I should dispel any pretence here and just say that the story and writing of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is fantastic and it will be a hard task for any game I review this year to top it. The story and production of the whole title is brilliant. Yes, like almost every game based upon a Warhammer universe the story boils down to “We need to get a thing/stop the bad guys getting a thing”. However here it is built in a way that is compelling and engaging throughout. With memorable characters and some brilliant moments.

Realms of Ruin has great characters.

In Realms of Ruin, you will command three different factions over the course of eighteen missions. Their stories intertwine and collide with each other throughout. There is the Stormcast Eternals lead by Sigrund who are charged with collecting a powerful artefact to defend a city in the realm of Ghur. There are the Orruk Kruelboys who are trying to destroy the said city with a powerful spell. Meanwhile, there are a series of flashbacks where you play as a band of Tzeentch cultists as they try to capture the aforementioned artefact in the distant past from the Nighthaunt.

The Write Stuff!

If you have any experience with the Age of Sigmar (or even Warhammer Fantasy or 40k) you can kind of guess where some of these storylines are going to go well in advance. But once again it is done very well and I commend them for not going with something safer. And I also enjoy the fact that this feels like a smaller story in a larger world. Yet still has the scope and range within it to still be compelling and engaging. Goodness, I dare say that the reason why I stuck with this one for as long as I did was off the strength of the story and how it was performed and animated more so than the gameplay.

The Stormcast in Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin are well realised.

It is hard to say if I would consider this to be the best Warhammer story ever committed to a videogame. I feel the prologue story in Total War: Warhammer III is the best overall. But you can always make the argument that is just a short story. Whereas this feels more like a Black Library production. This is apt given that Gav Thorpe is a co-writer on this. It is most likely the best Age of Sigmar story in a video game. But given most AOS games look like cheap mobile phone games there is a bit of a gap in quality there. Well, less a gap, more like a universe of difference between this and its nearest competitors.

Gameplay – By Sigmar…

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is a real-time strategy game in the more modern sense of the word. I know that sounds like I am being snarky right off the bat but it is true. Whilst it does share ‘some’ mechanical similarities with Dawn of War (at least the first and its expansions) it ultimately feels rather MOBA-inspired.  The basic loop of almost every mission sees you guiding a small army to capture control points, build a structure on said control point to gain resources, create a defensive position, or heal nearby units. You then need to defend that point whilst taking more of them. In some missions, there are three key locations you need to hold. As soon as you hold more key objectives than your rival their score will start going down and vice versa.

This is the basic flow of the Conquest, Skirmish, and a handful of singleplayer missions.

Once all three are held, or their score reaches down, or you destroy the enemy muster point you win. This isn’t the case for all missions. Most missions forgo holding the three objectives bit. With there being some other more traditional RTS-style missions in place of it. However, the capturing of control points remains part of the core for the vast majority of the missions. I can’t say that this is a good combination. This loop is let down by how you build your army and the strange advantages that the AI has over you. I shall admit that the game isn’t terrible. As when it leans more into the RTS influences it is great fun. However, this loop of capture and control can get in the way of that.

Here We Go Again!

The core loop is easy to understand. And once it settles in it is functionally identical through out the campaign and the other game modes. The conquest mode will add an extra rule to spice things up. And the campaign will add extra twists here and there to deal with. But at its heart, it is the same “Go here, capture this point, kill those guys, retreat when you are low health and repeat” throughout. Whilst it is repetitive at least you know what you are getting into. And unlike the most recent Total War: Warhammer games you aren’t suddenly getting thrown into survival modes and boss fights late-game without having some prior experience in taking on those things earlier in the game.

There are some boss fight sequences here and there.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Realms of Ruin is one of those odd games to review. Where the heart of the gameplay is solid and enjoyable but it is let down by odd design choices that undermine the whole event. Design choices that feel like they either came about to avoid the usual traps and cliches of RTS gaming. Or to pivot the game to make it more E-Sports friendly. This isn’t the kind of title where you build up an army by spamming out one particular unit and swarming the enemy base. Or gather a wealth of resources and out produce your foe before dropping down a super weapon or two. But in avoiding those ends we are left with a game that feels at odds with itself.

Old World New World

In an RTS the solution to pretty much every mission is “Build up your forces and overwhelm the enemy”. In a MOBA the solution is to “work as a team, use your powers, and engage in the tug-of-war that develops over control points (or similar point givers)”. Combining the two shouldn’t be difficult. But here it doesn’t work. As you are put under the kinds of speed pressure that a MOBA has which means it is difficult to build up your forces. But you need the RTS solution of building up your forces in order to win the majority of the missions. So you need to be able to slowly build an army whilst quickly attacking to stop yourself from getting overwhelmed and losing your limited resources.

Heal, charge, retreat, repeat.

It isn’t impossible to get used to this difference in pace. And once you find the middle ground you can have fun. But it feels often like you are being dragged along against your will to play against your instincts of what the mission requires of you. And once you ‘crack the code’ so to speak, you’ll find yourself flying through the missions in a (upon reflection worryingly) quick pace. But even when you do get used to the pace I feel that there are two areas that I think cause Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin the biggest issues.

Back and Forth

First is that you have a very low unit cap; you can’t recruit that many units nor build a large army. And whilst it can be improved via upgrades it can take a while to get there. And all the while you are having to make do with having only one spawn point where as the AI has access to far more. Often leaving you rather outnumbered. Which leaves you either constantly retreating forces to heal up, or replacing them. Both of which undermine your momentum.

Run away! Run away!!

Within lore, it makes sense that the number of units you’d have access to would be limited. The Stormcast were going through something of a ‘bad patch’ at this point in the wider narrative of Age of Sigmar (but when aren’t they?). And with the Dawn Bringer Crusades underway and yet to go bad it makes sense that you’d have limited numbers to work with. And the story in this game makes it clear that you are supposed to be short on resources. But, whilst it makes sense in that regard, it makes the ‘tug-of-war’ feeling worse.

Back in the Fight

There are healing abilities and buildings that can help keep you rolling. But once again, to get the best of that requires a level of turtling that is hard to pull off. To win you need to keep pressing forwards. Narrative or mission quirks notwithstanding. The near-constant pressure you are put under does remind me of the first Command & Conquer game. Unlike many titles that would follow it there wasn’t really a break in the action to let you catch your breath.

Once you find that one control point the AI wants it is easy to exploit that.

The AI would send waves of varying sizes to your base to wipe you out. You had to be able to hold them back whilst building up your forces to take them down one way or another. Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin doesn’t let you build up a defensive position to do that. At least not without you finding that one control point the enemy really wants to gain/regain and you plonk a healing building on it and leave enough forces there to distract the enemy long enough whilst you dismantle their other capture points.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Combat

My second big issue with Warhammer Age of Sigmar Realms of Ruin’s roster is balanced by a form of Rock, Paper, Scissors system. Each unit is either Assault, Heavy, or Ranged. Assult beats Heavy, Heavy beats Ranged, and Ranged beats Assault. Oh, and there are also special characters that don’t fit into this system and do decent damage against all of them. Whilst on the one hand this system can help to add an extra layer of challenge to the game. And can help people unfamiliar to the setting understand the more esoteric unit options. It can lead to some rather abusrd situations. Where a band of semi-naked hobgoblins armed with scrap can take down a heavily armoured demi-god.

I lost a unit trying to take down a warmachine’s crew, because, of course!

This boils down some potentially interesting unit choices into “Does good against arrows”. Plus not all units are made equally. And I don’t mean that thematically or in terms of their tiers. Whilst some units might share unit types what they are capable of varies wildly. One sword category unit might have a ranged attack, others might have a stun attack, and others an area of effect move. As such the balance between them can vary drastically. I feel that this undermines any attempts to simplify and streamline the unit choices. Given how drastically different some units of the same type and tier can operate.

Variety in Violence

One of the areas deserving praise is the variety of missions in the Campaign. When it steps away from the MOBA/E-Sports style you are treated to some often challenging and dynamic missions. In one mission you might have to stealthily make your way to sabotage some key objectives. In another, you might be finding ‘volunteers’ for a ritual. Regretably the mechanics of the game can get in the way of some of these missions. For example, your debut Tzeench mission sees you setting up an ambush. However, you will be facing a rival who can respawn enemies at their location. Which makes targeting them and reducing their health difficult.

The stealth mission is one of the highlights.

Additionally, there is the issue that your units will not break off from close combat until either they or their target dies. Or failing that you order them to retreat. So there are often situations where your forces will not only target enemies they are weak against, but they can also ignore enemy heroes and objectives which can ruin your attacks. And given just how long it can take to build the forces needed to attack your enemy you can have so much hard work and effort lost in no time at all. This is a shame because when this game acts like a more conventional RTS it is fantastic. Proving you with almost all the thrills and spills that you had come to love from the genera. But I do feel there is something of an identity crisis at the heart of it that is hard to overcome.

Age of MOBA

It would be lazy to call Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin a MOBA-like or MOBA-lite. As the core of the game remains RTS-focused. With missions that are built around armies rather than heroes. But the MOBA influence is there and I feel that it gets in the way of the overall experience. Forcing you to play at a greater speed and pace than the mission really should need. It feels like the game has been made fast-paced so it will make it a more appealing E-sport. Both from an audience and potential player’s point of view. But I can’t help but feel that it lacks the depth that players would want.

I know that I haven’t mentioned the Conquest mode too much, but honestly, it is just a more organised version of the Skirmish mode. With an extra rule thrown in to add challenge. Aside that there isn’t much to write home about. I bought the game on sale. At a price of around £9.99. At that price I think that whilst the game is rough around the edges it is worth a punt for fans of Age of Sigmar or for people who want to get into the setting. But at the usual price of £49.99, it frankly isn’t worth it. And doesn’t offer much beyond the campaign. And has a core gameplay loop that feels at odds with itself. Warhammer Age of Sigmar Realms of Ruin could easily have been one of the best games I would have reviewed this year. But falls short in all the wrong places.

Graphics & Audio – Thunder and Lightning

As I said earlier on in the review I feel that the production value of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is fantastic. The graphics and audio are just brilliant. I mean goodness, this is a game that I played on medium graphics settings and it still looked brilliant. Beyond just that the developers have done a fantastic job of recreating the look and feel of the tabletop models both in terms of their designs and how they are animated. The original characters look brilliant with some inspired design choices along the way.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin’s character designs are fantastic.

The voice acting throughout is brilliant. And brings so much character to the cast that helps to make them more memorable. Sigrun has a slight rasp to her voice which makes her sound like someone who has spent most of her life barking orders to her subordinates and yet has an emotive coolness that hints that she may have been ‘Reforged’ before this. Strylka is another brilliantly well-realised character, with a great design and brilliant voice acting. Who finds herself flicking from this almost Rita Repusla Wicked Witch to this dominant and stern figure. And there is Dankfeer who is this great balance of being cunning yet brutal as all Morkers should be. And he is a great foil for the Stormcast.

UI Oh Why?

The Ui however I think is rather terrible. For a game where unit powers and abilties can swing the tide of battle significantly having them tucked into a small corner and with no way to tell what they do without waiting for the tooltip to pop up is rather maddening. It feels like the developers wanted something more minimalistic. Rather than the ‘traditional’ long bar at the bottom with unit stats and hotkeys. And whilst an argument could be made that would get in the way of the visuals. It still would have made the game significantly easier to navigate.

There is a glossary for the icons, but it doesn’t explain what any of them mean!

Additionally, the unit icons are far too small and can be hard to see in the full chaos of battle. Meaning that you can find yourself feverishly trying to find a needed unit to activate a needed power or to command them to retreat. Another minor issue is the strange black border that appears in the game around the edges of the screen. It adds nothing and feels like it is smothering the visuals. This makes taking decent screenshots and enjoying the battle animations a pain. And adds a level of visual murkiness which isn’t needed.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin was reviewed on PC.