RTS fans have been having a tough time of it, lately – a fact that Sandro Sammarco, the Principal Designer behind Frontier’s upcoming Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is doing his best to remedy.
In addition to giving Warhammer’s high-fantasy Age of Sigmar setting its first-ever RTS treatment, speaking with Sammarco, it became clear that Realms of Ruin was a response to an RTS drought in recent years. “Realtime strategy games are great,” said Sammarco, but “at the moment, they have been… underserved for the community.”
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is an attempt at a “modern take” on the genre, offering an RTS experience “across all of the major platforms”. Set in Games Workshop’s Age of Sigmar universe, Realms of Ruin follows fantastical armies, locked in battle as they compete for magical resources across The Mortal Realms. On paper, it’s an ideal setting for an RTS, full of large-scale clashes between diverse factions.
Console-friendly RTS games have been a white whale for the genre
Sammarco doesn’t want to “reinvent the wheel”, but he is adamant that modernizations are necessary: ”We want to make sure that it’s as accessible as possible, and that doesn’t mean dumbing it down. What this means is looking at what an RTS does, and looking to see if there are new ways, especially in terms of controls, to allow players to do all the things they need to do.”
In practice, this means little by way of departure from the RTS orthodoxy of point-capturing and rock-paper-scissors battle dynamics. However, Realms of Ruin offer something unique by placing a firm emphasis on bringing the much-beloved world of Age of Sigmar to life for the first time, while attempting to offer accessibility to players across Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC.
It’s a lofty goal. Console-friendly RTS games have been something of a white whale for the genre, with Sammarco himself calling them a “holy grail”. However, in my hands-on with an early build of Realms of Ruin ahead of the open beta on July 7, I found myself impressed by the controls on offer.
Command and Control
In addition to the standard mouse and keyboard controls, Realms of Ruin offers a brand new system known as DirectStep, designed to ensure that players on console don’t have to “fight the controls”.
The good news is that DirectStep is easily the best RTS control scheme ever to come to console. Though it requires a good few minutes to get to grips with, once you understand the fundamentals, DirectStep allows controller users to give commands quickly, offering an intuitive system by which to navigate its simple yet satisfying squad-based combat.
The good news is that DirectStep is easily the best RTS control scheme ever to come to console
The bad news is that despite DirectStep’s user-friendliness, controller users will still struggle to keep up with those on mouse and keyboard. Having played with both setups, it’s clear that my soldiers were far more formidable when directed by the traditional mouse and keyboard setup. In the PvP skirmish mode, my Xbox controller was something of an impediment and, while the game was playable and enjoyable with a controller, I couldn’t shake the sense that I was held back.
Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a problem, but Realms of Ruin places an emphasis on crossplay, which seems slated to put controller players at a significant disadvantage during PvP. Though the crossplay feature can be toggled, those so inclined can use a console-compatible mouse and keyboard if they so choose, meaning that this is no guarantee of a level playing field.
Going Gold
That said, DirectStep is far from the only feature that Realms of Ruin seeks to bring to the table. This is also the first time that Warhammer Age of Sigmar has received the full-on RTS treatment, giving fans a chance to immerse themselves in the setting in a whole new way.
The whole thing is “authentic to the world of Age of Sigmar”, said Sammarco, and Frontier has the pedigree to prove it. In order to get the flavor exactly right, the developers worked with prolific Games Workshop author Gav Thorpe to craft Realms of Ruin’s single-player story.
This is the first time that Warhammer Age of Sigmar has received the full-on RTS treatment
Following the superhuman Stormcast Eternals on their quest to bring order to the treacherous realm of Ghur, the story is intended to be more than “large-scale battles and bombast with no real meat to it.” According to Sammarco, Sigrun and her Stormcast followers are the subject of an “intimate story” offering a “bit of a character study. [We wanted to] create real living, breathing characters, not just suits of armor that happen to walk around and have reasons for killing each other.”
Though I’ve only seen one campaign mission so far, Frontier seems to be on track to realize this particular ambition. While unlikely to provide the exceedingly deep and rich narrative of the likes of Final Fantasy 16, Realms of Ruin seems to do right by its characters, allowing them to endow the fighting with some welcome context. The cutscenes themselves are reminiscent of 2007 RTS cult classic World in Conflict, and its surprisingly emotional take on an alternate-history World War Three.
Between the limited success of the DirectStep control system and Frontier’s commitment to realizing the Age of Sigmar setting, it looks as though Realms of Ruin has something unique to offer to fans of the genre as well as those who enjoy Games Workshop’s universe.
Though it remains to be seen if the upcoming game will rank amongst the very best strategy titles, Realms of Ruin certainly looks like one to watch.
Fans of Games Workshop's sci-fi setting Warhammer 40,000 are also getting plenty of treats this year, including third-person action romp Space Marine 2 and a Rogue Trader CRPG from Owlcat games.
