Review of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin – brutal real-time strategy

There aren’t many Warhammer Fantasy or Warhammer Age of Sigmar games. While the former brand already has several successful adaptations, in the case of Age of Sigmar, the community is more or less still waiting for a breakthrough game. The AAA strategy title Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, reviewed today, certainly had that potential. You can read about how she managed this, what she excels at and what her weakness is in the following lines.

Platform: PC (review version), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S.
Publication date: 11/17/2023
Developer: Frontier Developments
Publisher: Frontier Developments
Genre: Strategy
Czech localization: Yes
Multiplayer: Yes
Download data:
Game time: 10:00 – 15:00
Price: 1470 CZK (Steam)

The storytelling in Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is captivating

In strategy games, plot doesn’t often play a big role. Yes, they have it, but it cannot be said that it will represent something that would be remembered for a long time. In the case of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, the studio decided to rely on this aspect. The player is presented with an epic adventure consisting of eighteen chapters that you will have to go through during it. The plot puts you in the hands of members of the Stormcast Eternals faction, who travel to the kingdom of the Guru, where the struggle for life is the daily bread of all its inhabitants.

A seemingly inconspicuous quest quickly turns into an adventure of impressive proportions involving not only celestial warriors and goblins, but also undead and servants of demonic forces. To be honest, I didn’t expect the campaign in Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin to be this good. In the end, the reality is that I was offered a very strong story related to the writer Gavin Thorpe, who is behind, for example, the book “Blades of Chaos”, “Bringer of Malice” and a number of other works from the “Black Library”. However, the strength of the campaign lay not only in the narrative it offered me, but also in the way it was presented, in which I was able to see how effectively Tzeentch could weave his intrigues through which he was able to achieve good results. the act turned into a cardinal mistake with incomprehensible consequences.

As a result, the design of individual missions turned out quite well. It seemed to me that the creators managed to capture all the details very effectively so that the player would not get bored. While some missions are more of a classic multiplayer format, most have a lot to offer in terms of story. For example, I really liked the passage focused on guiding the undead to the goal, which I implemented in the skin of one of the servants of the demonic Tzeentch. In each of the events, in addition to the main task, there were also side tasks designed to test your abilities. The complexity, which was quite high by the standards of the genre, turned out to be fascinating, which is also one of the reasons why the story campaign in Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin as a whole is worth paying attention to.

Basic mechanics are easy to understand but difficult to master.

Over the course of the campaign, you will gradually master individual game mechanics. We can say that the main idea of ​​this work is not much different from what you know from other RTS. You recruit troops there, and then send them to meet the enemies. The main difference is that you won’t find buildings as you know them in Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin. The design of this part is quite simple. You have base upgrades and strategic positions that you’re working on, trying to turn them into strongholds for the next expansion. Personally, I probably could have imagined a greater emphasis on building, but that would have disrupted the pacing of the game.

And dynamic gameplay is exactly what Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin relies on. The clashes here happen quite quickly and each of the factions can see what they are betting on. Humans prefer durability, Orcs prefer speed, Wraith armies prefer numbers, and members of the Cult of Tzeentch work with magic. The high tempo constantly puts pressure on you, which you must not succumb to, because as soon as you give up control of the battlefield, you will lose. Each group has unique units known from the Age of Sigmar universe. A big advantage is the ability to customize individual models according to your wishes, which I really liked as a fan of painting figures.

I can’t complain about the look of the battles either. The Rock, Paper, Scissors combat system worked very well. Its imaginary complexity is given by the unique abilities endowed with representatives of individual armies. What I didn’t like so much was the concept of territories that the enemy AI was able to take control of in a short time, or reduce them (reduce mining capacity) so much that they weren’t even worth holding. Here this element could be addressed better or at least directly related to whether you have a building in that space or not.

Another element that I had problems with while playing Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin was the behavior of the units. While in other real-time strategy games your people can act without direct guidance, here you will have to constantly keep them under control. Because if you focus your attention beyond their reach and the enemy takes them for a walk, they won’t put up much resistance. In short, they allowed themselves to be shot to pieces. You often experience this bug with ranged units that don’t turn but hold their position regardless of what’s happening around them. I hope that over time the creators will do something else with the artificial one. The current format is relatively difficult for even more experienced players to understand.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is an obvious choice for fans of Games Workshop creations.

I must say that although I did not expect any miracles from Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, I ended up with a very good strategy. That said, Prim surprisingly delivers on story, fast pacing, multiplayer, and several unique factions fighting together on visually interesting battlefields. The basic idea of ​​this thing is decent, but from a gameplay perspective I don’t think it’s fully realized. So I’m not sure if it can justify its AAA price tag in the eyes of “casual” RTS fans, as some elements could have been implemented better.