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. 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.
  9. 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
  10. 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.
  11. 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
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