Realms of Ancient War

 PC
User Score
4.5

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 51 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 51
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 51
  3. Negative: 25 out of 51

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  1. Biggs27
    Oct 14, 2012
    3
    Nice looking game, nothing else going for it. You have 3 generic characters to choose from (warrior guy, Rogue Lady, and Mage guy) none of which you can customize or even name. so you take your clone character into the generic story in which you adventure in a land with no name, fighting monster with no name or description, even the so called boss monsters only have super inventive namesNice looking game, nothing else going for it. You have 3 generic characters to choose from (warrior guy, Rogue Lady, and Mage guy) none of which you can customize or even name. so you take your clone character into the generic story in which you adventure in a land with no name, fighting monster with no name or description, even the so called boss monsters only have super inventive names such as ,Elite captain or Giant spider, then you can enjoy conversations riddled with obvious observations on what just happened and engrish sentences.Sometimes when traveling through ultra linear dungeons you might bump into someone like "old dwarf" who tells me some nonsensical sentence then rewards me with and item called "dwarf ring" lol. i even got "reward ring" as a quest reward one time,those are magic items you get when not finding the same leather cap 48 times over (don't worry they're different colors sometimes). There are also misc items you find such as "skull" with the description of "a skull".Another non feature of the game is the skill tree, skill palm tree is a more apt name as really you just assign your points down the obvious linear path not really branching off to other choices as there are no real choices in this game on any level,run through and spam attack anything in the way,that's your ability.As for going to town to sell, forget it, haven't seen anything like that, you just run into merchants that are awkwardly standing in a corner of the dungeon,guess the monsters must not mind them.All in all spend a few more bucks and grab torchlight 2, as this no depth game will appeal only to the most brainless adventurer.… Expand
  2. Ilumm
    Nov 7, 2012
    2
    If you are looking for a hack&slash, this isn't a hack&slash. This is a frenzy click-fest with items and some skills.

    The only thing I can compare it to is diablo 1 (one), a 15 year old game which had more of everything in it (better story, better designed items and interface, more challenging). More can be written here, but it is nor worth my or your time. If this appeared before D3    If you are looking for a hack&slash, this isn't a hack&slash. This is a frenzy click-fest with items and some skills.

    The only thing I can compare it to is diablo 1 (one), a 15 year old game which had more of everything in it (better story, better designed items and interface, more challenging). More can be written here, but it is nor worth my or your time. If this appeared before D3 and T2 then it might have had a chance because you would have played "anything". This is what the game is best characterized by: worst than anything else on the market now but better than nothing (and solitaire...maybe)...    … Expand
  3. Chirpe
    Oct 17, 2013
    3
    Do you enjoy generic storytelling? Are you a fan of mediocre and slightly glitchy gameplay? Are you sexually attracted to the word "bogged"? This game is for you then! (You have a weird fetish by the way.)

    Story: It feels like they used dozens of generic placeholders while meaning to replace them with a real story before launch, but they never got around to it. You know the type of    Do you enjoy generic storytelling? Are you a fan of mediocre and slightly glitchy gameplay? Are you sexually attracted to the word "bogged"? This game is for you then! (You have a weird fetish by the way.)

    Story: It feels like they used dozens of generic placeholders while meaning to replace them with a real story before launch, but they never got around to it. You know the type of placeholders I'm talking about, "For reasons unknown"-esque. When the playable character speaks, their personality feel extremely off. Boo. 2/10 They also reuse phrases and words; The word "bogged" apparently is the creators' favorite word.

    Gameplay: The gameplay is decent, but certain skills feel a bit off; Perhaps the fault lies with the unchangeable controls for certain skills rather than the skills themselves. (Having to hold shift for a brief period to charge, but with no indication on when a spell is fully charged makes it awkward to use these skills.) One of the few nice feature is the ability to [minor spoiler] possess foes [/spoiler] but the limitation is only certain enemies and at certain times, which makes the feature something that could have made the game special to offset the story, but nope.

    Graphics: Some levels look as if it was designed by a brilliant artist, while some look like they... well... They look as if they blew their budget on the other levels and had to get an unpaid intern who just wanted something to write down in past experiences for future job applications. The levels are also some of the most generic places you will ever see.

    All in all, If you're the type that focuses more on the Diablo-esque gameplay instead of a game's story and the game is on sale below $5, meh, make that for ¢99 you might want to pick it up.    … Expand
  4. Klewer
    Dec 23, 2013
    4
    At its core this game has pretty good action gameplay with different skills and weapons. The lack of any kind of engrossing story or NPC interaction quickly loses your interest and after a while the highly repetitive gameplay make this a chore to finish, especially with many better alternatives.
  5. FractalDactyl
    Oct 18, 2013
    3
    One of the worst dungeon crawlers to date.
    It misses in all of it's aims, but namely the calling of a dungeon crawler-at least one hook.
    The Pros- 1> Giving this game any rating below 50 allow me not to insult anyone, and give an accurate review. 2> Gives me an excuse to use my thesaurus and look up antonyms for "riveting." Cons- 1> Poor controls; cannot customize them. 2>    One of the worst dungeon crawlers to date.
    It misses in all of it's aims, but namely the calling of a dungeon crawler-at least one hook.

    The Pros-
    1> Giving this game any rating below 50 allow me not to insult anyone, and give an accurate review.
    2> Gives me an excuse to use my thesaurus and look up antonyms for "riveting."

    Cons-
    1> Poor controls; cannot customize them.
    2> Camera angles, and bouncing characters.
    3> Lack of any meaningful story
    4> Poor itemization.
    5> No meaningful description of stats, and their uses.
    6> Absolutely no character customization as the game all but requires you spam AoE skills (on every class) to avoid certain death whilst surrounded by monsters.
    7> Almost no range in monsters-when my player character commented "Again?!" I saw it as a sign.    … Expand
  6. maximusje
    Oct 23, 2013
    4
    Despite my low rating for Realms of Ancient War I have to say that I did enjoy the game from start to finish. The game is a simple hack and slash RPG, easy to play, not much thinking required. You could draw a parallel to comedy movies: you have comedies with very deep storylines and you have these college comedies that only involve the regular booze, sex and love. Then you also have RPGsDespite my low rating for Realms of Ancient War I have to say that I did enjoy the game from start to finish. The game is a simple hack and slash RPG, easy to play, not much thinking required. You could draw a parallel to comedy movies: you have comedies with very deep storylines and you have these college comedies that only involve the regular booze, sex and love. Then you also have RPGs where in games like Diablo, Path of Exile and Torchlight you need to put much thinking into the skill build (or item build concerning Diablo 3) and can enjoy a rich storyline. Realms of the Ancient War fits in the college comedies category: it is an RPG that requires no thinking, just hack and slash. The game is short enough to get away with that.

    The best part of the game is that it is not too short and not too long to keep it enjoyable and the level design is fairly nice. The game does miss points on storyline though. Characters and regions do not even get a name, you have "Northern king", the "king of the North", "Eastern king" the "king of the East" etc. Also it is impossible to 'grind' levels in this game, because it seems like you only receive XP in the latest level. It is also not worth it to bother much with items, because the items seem to be in certain set tiers. There is no rare loot, there are just these item tiers. Eventually you'll have to upgrade and you just buy the set from a shop. Nothing in this game really rewards you, only the progress of the storyline. Furthermore there is no after-game, there is nothing to continue with when your character completes the game. Therefore, again, it is not worth it to bother much with skill builds or item builds. Finally a small negative point I have is that in the Steam version of the game, you can only complete all achievements if you are able to connect an xbox controller, so for me, having no controller, even hunting achievements was not worth it.

    To summarize, the game is enjoyable but lacks all depth that you can get from other RPG games. Fortunately the game is short enough to keep it enjoyable for one playthrough. 15€ for the game is quite a lot though seeing it has no replay value.    … Expand
  7. jeding
    Nov 3, 2013
    2
    It looked promising. It sucked. First of all. Well I can't list many because I just played one hour and I uninstalled it. If you want a good hack and slash buy Torchlight or Torchlight 2. Its worth the money and don't buy it or don't think "I like all the games everyone say is because me and my friend played it and stopped playing it in like one hour.
  8. ZazaTR
    Oct 29, 2012
    5
    RAW feels like a stripped down of version of previous games in this genre, with incredibly reduced loot, stat, skill system and total linearity. Also add lack of area map of any kind, very few different kind of monsters and walking back great distances to complete side quests. There are no portals to travel, no clever tricks to employ, nothing - you just walk straight, killing mobs andRAW feels like a stripped down of version of previous games in this genre, with incredibly reduced loot, stat, skill system and total linearity. Also add lack of area map of any kind, very few different kind of monsters and walking back great distances to complete side quests. There are no portals to travel, no clever tricks to employ, nothing - you just walk straight, killing mobs and hoping that another horde spawned behind your back won't kill you while you are dealing with adversaries ahead of you. There always *that* haunting feel that devs tried to make this game as unlikeable as possible.

    Still, I give this game 5/10 because it might come in handy when taking a break from more complex games like Torchlight 1 / 2    … Expand
  9. Heattoge
    Oct 11, 2012
    5
    Bad things first Gameplay is boring, level design aren´t so good, Graphics and game things are outdated , too weak character enemies kill you easily.

    Good things Local co-op is really good thing if you want to play with friends.

    Game isn´t bad if you play with friends but if you play alone this game world can be really boring
  10. eyEZix
    Oct 11, 2012
    9
    Pulse pounding action! i can say as a fan of this genre and not lightly i might add that this is easily one of my favorite games of this year. Some may argue that there are way too many games of this type and i could agree but they dont do it right. R.A.W has the feel and playability of T2 and the snazzy looks of DS3. In other words this game is fun and im glad i pre-purchased. btw i likePulse pounding action! i can say as a fan of this genre and not lightly i might add that this is easily one of my favorite games of this year. Some may argue that there are way too many games of this type and i could agree but they dont do it right. R.A.W has the feel and playability of T2 and the snazzy looks of DS3. In other words this game is fun and im glad i pre-purchased. btw i like both of the other titles i mentioned i must add that this one has a feel all its own. The somewhat visceral gameplay and an immersive atmosphere take away the grind completely. Im looking forward to playing more.… Expand
  11. Amigos
    Mar 17, 2013
    10
    This is no a Diablo III and no a Torchlight, but this is a simply and very good action RPG and good gameplay. Yes good gameplay and good graphics and animation.
  12. Wulfgar
    Oct 13, 2012
    10
    A real GEM!!! i cant wait for a sequel... really nice game!!! amazing graphics, nice weaponry and good looting system, and other little things that make this game really wonderful! the story needed a to be a bit more dark, buuut i guess its ok! Torchlight fans, just go play your game instead of burying gems in the sand. ok i didnt like Torchlight not one bit, not even if they gave it to meA real GEM!!! i cant wait for a sequel... really nice game!!! amazing graphics, nice weaponry and good looting system, and other little things that make this game really wonderful! the story needed a to be a bit more dark, buuut i guess its ok! Torchlight fans, just go play your game instead of burying gems in the sand. ok i didnt like Torchlight not one bit, not even if they gave it to me for free...i guess people nowadays look for cheap thrills... Just give "small" games a chance!… Expand
  13. Spiralyguy
    Jan 3, 2013
    6
    Really not a bad game if you can pick it up on the cheap. The interface works, the graphics are good enough, I don't think it deserves the harsh reviews it's getting. Sure it's not D3, but it actually seemed more fun then Torchlight for the short while it lasted. I played through it in about 8 hours, it was worth the 5-10 bucks or whatever on steam.
  14. csabber
    Nov 3, 2013
    5
    Inspired by games like the Diablo franchise or Torchlight, Realms of Ancient War is an old school hack and slash dungeon crawler with very limited depth and breadth that is hard to overlook even tough it isn't a triple-A title. The story in the game is not the worst we've seen so far, in all honesty it's fairly interesting and one of the stronger points of the game. The game starts yearsInspired by games like the Diablo franchise or Torchlight, Realms of Ancient War is an old school hack and slash dungeon crawler with very limited depth and breadth that is hard to overlook even tough it isn't a triple-A title. The story in the game is not the worst we've seen so far, in all honesty it's fairly interesting and one of the stronger points of the game. The game starts years after the so called Ancient War which divided the land to 4 territories (East, West, South and North...duh, imagination at its best). The Northern King proposed truce so he invited the remaining kings to the Hero's Garden. Something went wrong because the Northern King was never to be seen again and the rest of the kings became soulless zombies. Yes, clichés after clichés, but it's not all that bad. The game contains some witty dialogues and turns.

    We can pick from 3 unnamed characters: wizard, warrior and rogue. Each have different styles but they aren't that different that any would change the gameplay significantly. Each class has it's own skill tree, where you can level up your attacks. There are 1 level and 3 level skills. Skills open up gradually. The first group right after the beginning of the game, the second after you reach lvl 10, the last after lvl 20. However, there are two problems related to your skill management. First, in every stage you can gain exactly one level. No matter how much you fight or how many side quest (there aren't that many) you complete. You can only get 1 skill point in each stage. That makes the whole level grinding procedure useless and dropping all the challenge. You will get your skill point no matter what.

    The second problem comes with the use of your skills. You have only 4 skills at your use at a given time. Two of them are to be activated with the mouse and two with keystrokes on the keyboard. You can program these skills to the aforementioned buttons. If you want to use other skills you have to use the alternative set. Essentially you have 2 sets of skills, which can be changed at any time with a button push. Easy enough, in theory at least. Practice is a different beast. Remembering which skill you have assigned to which button in which set is pointless, painful and horrible. When a dozens of foes are attacking you there is no way this system can be use properly. Using this method is understandable on consoles where there are limited buttons to use, but on a PC it's unacceptable. This is where you realize that 4 skills/attacks are well enough to complete the game.

    At least the fighting and hack'n slashing is exciting. You are continuously attacked by tens of enemies, making the game challenging and intense. Sometimes it is hard to hit smaller enemies, like spiders which live everywhere, rain forests or volcanoes it doesn't matter for them. Graphically the game doesn't excel, but it's not bad either. For an XBLA title it's passable. Not are the audio tracks though. Audio effects are horrible and repeating. Listening to the same 3 grindings throughout 8-10 hours when you hit enemies is annoying. The music is on par with the rest of the audio. You get one passable song which plays when you start the game, the rest of the music tracks during gameplay are just pointless burrs.

    R.A.W. is a below average hack and slash game that tries to build upon it's great predecessors of the genre but fails in every possible way. It's chaotic, mediocre and boring. A game that is hard to recommend when you can get a dozen of it's kind cheaper (or even for free). If you can finish it once there is no point starting the game ever again.

    Rating: 45/100; Replay Value: 1/5; To Beat: 8-9 hours; Played on: normal.    … Expand
  15. kalipso
    Oct 23, 2013
    7
    Not a bad game at all hugely underrated. It may feel unfinished and run-of-the-mill, but overall it plays smoothly, the combat is rewarding and I particularly liked the setting and music.
  16. BlazingTiamat
    Jun 16, 2014
    7
    Solid action RPG with nice atmosphere. Certainly not perfect, but does keep the game interesting to beat the main campaign mode at least once (7-8 hours). Looks good, sounds great, plays well, and, what is also important, is not overloaded with stats, skills or abilities. Definitely underrated in my opinion.
  17. pokrishka
    Dec 7, 2015
    0
    While it might seem cool at first for 2 players local coop it will quickly become extremely boring and way too long. I suggest you skip that and coming from such a fan of local coop who would give a shot to almost anything in the niche - it ought to mean something.
  18. NooblordFocker
    Jul 18, 2014
    0
    To be fair, a game deserves a 0 only if it's barely functioning or not functioning at all ("Big Rigs"), however this "game" along with it's ilk ("Iesabel", "Secret Service") are a special case. They are mostly functioning, hence they can also serve as entertainment ( just like any other game) and, to be fair, most of them don't even try to rip you off with DLC, DRM and the like. But theyTo be fair, a game deserves a 0 only if it's barely functioning or not functioning at all ("Big Rigs"), however this "game" along with it's ilk ("Iesabel", "Secret Service") are a special case. They are mostly functioning, hence they can also serve as entertainment ( just like any other game) and, to be fair, most of them don't even try to rip you off with DLC, DRM and the like. But they have absolutely no purpose to exist. Everything "Realms of Ancient War" offers has been done before and executed far better. If I was asked to name the most generic hack-and-slasher, this would be it. There is nothing about game that is particularly bad, the most accurate word to describe the game's quality would be mediocre: 3 classes (Rogue,Warrior,Mage), a story that exists just for the sake of it ( I don't even remember what the plot was about as I am writing this review), generic characters, you click on the generic monsters to slaughter them with your generic weapons to collect generic loot and complete generic quests. While the ARPG isn't the most innovative genre, at least most hack-and-slashers posses at least one unique quality, but not this game. The only thing remotely original is the visual design in a few areas, that's it. "Realms of Ancient War" is a waste of code and money, nothing can justify it's existence. People need to stop being so lenient to generic games.Bland garbage like this deserves nothing more than a 0/10.… Expand
  19. DrR0b3rts
    Dec 20, 2013
    8
    One of those titles that are not AAA quality but are actually more fun to play than most of the big names. Has a really good feel with a controller, great art style, and I liked the streamlined progression system compared to the overly complex, smoke and mirrors pathways of other games. Crazy not to have an on-screen map, but it is very linear.
  20. YntoCCabile
    Jun 16, 2014
    1
    Hack'n'slash game with pretty bad game play. You can choose from 3 "heroes" and then follow the linear story. Inventory, skill tree and saving system are not helping this also.
  21. badbd518
    Jul 31, 2014
    7
    this is a n fun CRPG its simple to learn you can use the xbox 360 contoller to make the game contoll a bit more easy and the game looks nice i wish that there was more video settings that was a let down only low-med-high there needs to be more like aa support etc and yeah so that Was an hughe let down but the game is fun it plays nice it runs great on my system and my pc is an med-high endthis is a n fun CRPG its simple to learn you can use the xbox 360 contoller to make the game contoll a bit more easy and the game looks nice i wish that there was more video settings that was a let down only low-med-high there needs to be more like aa support etc and yeah so that Was an hughe let down but the game is fun it plays nice it runs great on my system and my pc is an med-high end gaming pc and i get over 100+ fps with this game i give this CRGP an
    75 / 100    … Expand
  22. o1nk
    Aug 6, 2023
    4
    Очень сложно игре выходить релизиться в 2012 году, одновременно с Diablo III и Torchlight II, но это не самая главная проблема.
    Однообразные бои, отсутствие классических механик для данного жанра, скучный и неинтересный геймплей - это все RAW.
    К сожалению испытание временем не пройдено.    Очень сложно игре выходить релизиться в 2012 году, одновременно с Diablo III и Torchlight II, но это не самая главная проблема.
    Однообразные бои, отсутствие классических механик для данного жанра, скучный и неинтересный геймплей - это все RAW.
    К сожалению испытание временем не пройдено.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
39

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 7
  3. Negative: 5 out of 7
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Nov 30, 2012
    30
    It's hard to find any reason to play R.A.W. – possibly the most un-inspirational click-fest of this year. Boredom has a new name. [Dec 2012]
  2. Absolute Games
    Nov 9, 2012
    40
    R.A.W. is aeons away from both Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2. Even finding a new shiny trophy is not fun here.
    Read full review
  3. XGN
    Oct 30, 2012
    35
    In every review the main question is 'why would the consumer buy this?' For R.A.W. Realms of Ancient War that is a question hard to answer. Yes, it is an action RPG like great titles such as Diablo III and Torchlight II. But no, we wouldn't recommend this game to anyone.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »