Realm Royale is a free downloadable battle royale game that can be currently accessed on Steam for free. The graphics have been designed for Windows 7 with a RAM storage capacity requirement of 6 GB. The developer and publisher of Realm Royale are both Hi-Rez Studios who have also developed other popular games such as Paladins (it is worth mentioning that the game was before called Paladins: Battlegrounds), Tribes: Ascend, and Smite.
How to Download Realm Royale
Wondering how to get Realm Royale? To download the game click on the Download button at the end of the review. The game is available on Steam and since it is an early access title you can count on downloading frequent updates that enhance the game. The game currently is not available on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One and the release dates on these platforms are unknown. The version for mobile platforms: Android and iOS has not been announced either.
About Realm Royale
The plot revolves around a Champion and his multiplayer struggle in a chaotic fantasy world to survive all the way to the end of the hunt. A bonus addition to the scheme is that the players can personalize a new character and fabricate their own weapons. The game was released on 5th June 2018 with the genre of Survival, Action, and Fantasy.
Character Classes
At the beginning of the adventure, the player is required to choose from the different available classes namely: Engineer, Mage, Hunter, Assassin, and Warrior. All the classes tend to have their own distinct capabilities, skills, and assets.
- Engineer uses the weapon Plasma Launcher which can annihilate enemies in a single shot.
- Mage uses the non-mechanical powers to blast their opponents off with the fury of Fireballs. A favorite weapon is the Legendary Stone Spear.
- Hunter just as the name implies, is all about capturing the foes with the help of hunter traps and a Longbow.
- Assassin is the craftiest character with the ultimate power of vanishing into thin air and getting away from the sight of the enemies by their undetectable motion.
- Warrior is more of a battling type with blades and axes used to finish off their opponents. Quite understandably, the primary ammunition here is the Legendary Axe itself.
Realm Royale Gameplay
After you have selected your character of interest the next step is transporting yourself to the area where you want to begin your adventure from. A vehicle is present that takes you to the designated place you have targeted. The actual action starts after you land on the field. Your strategic goal is to find as much booty as you see on the ground. Also, you will find treasure boxes in the different areas of your field, containing guns and ammunition. These boxes are particularly crucial as without these you might feel defenseless against the hidden attacks.
Realm Royale also features a map that is the perfect guide to some of the most important landmarks. The map is divided and is split into different types of locations that have utterly distinct atmospheres and environments. Apart from the guide, the plan will also show you hidden spots of the Golden chests that encompass the Legendary Weapons in them.
Other than the elements that are already present in the plot, you create your own guns too. To recreate the legendary items you need to collect enough shards around you and load them into the Forge. You can collect these by utilizing all the unwanted loot. Potions also, are also very important as they help to restore your health or any form of injury and let you resume the adventure.
Realm Royale Detailed Overview
Realm Royale is a downloadable F2P battle royale game by Hi-Rez Studios. The game launched following the increasing trend of games that have been released within the battle royale genre. And while previously Hi-Rez Studios had once been criticized for making somewhat of the same game of a different popular title with small differences (Paladins and Overwatch), Realm Royale has its own quirks by which it differentiates itself from mainstream titles such as Fortnite or PUBG. Yes, at its core it is indeed a game where survivors drop into the world to eventually crown a single player victorious over others, but the mechanics to become crowned is what makes the game fun and not the same game with a different title. Admittedly though, the themes and art found in Realm Royale closely match the same fantasy and cartoonish feel that Fortnite has, but honestly, that’s about it.
Realm Royale Classes Guide
For starters, Realm Royale has character classes to choose from, not found anywhere else within the genre. More specifically there are five classes to choose from that all have their own perks and abilities.
Warrior Class
As the name would suggest, you want to get close and get to business dealing high damage at close range. Skills consist of gap-closing damage (Heroic Leap & Charge) to quickly deal combos a mix of throwable buffs for teammates (Flask of Healing & Shield Potion) and a slow debuff (Net Shot) for the enemy. The passive skill for the warrior is being able to regenerate health over time.
Assassin Class
With a little wit and creativity, be able to sneak up and surprise opponents to ultimately finish them off. Skills mainly consist of mobility spells making you teleport (Blink) or become both “invincible” and fast (Ghost Walk) for a certain period of time. Other skills distract the enemy with a smoke screen while pinpointing the enemy with a sensor drone. The passive skills grant the Assassin for faster movement speed on ground level.
Engineer Class
Be able to hold down any area with the Engineer and the inventions that come with the character. Skills consist of ways to create a defensive stronghold that allows the placement of shield barricades, gun turrets, and healing totems. They are crucial to any team in a firefight. Additionally, get a firebomb to throw at enemies and jetpack into the air for added mobility support. The passive skill grants armor regeneration over time.
Hunter Class
If you like the fight from afar, let the hunter class guide your way as range becomes your best friend while sniping opponents down. The Hunter has both mobility and close range gadgets for an unwanted situation. Dodge roll allows the Hunter to roll in the direction wanted which serves great for dodging; withdraw allows for a quick backstep that subsequently allows the Hunter to enter stealth. To capture lurking opponents, the Hunter has a proximity mine that explodes when anyone gets too close. Blast shot allows for great damage when fighting enemies mid-close range. The flare reveals players around the Hunter to seek and destroy.
Mage Class
A little flame never hurt somebody. But a hurling fireball out of the sky sure could. The Mage is a flexible class with balanced skills that can cater to any team or skill set at the time. Flying through the air with the skill soar can quickly scout enemies and provide better positioning. Fireball and explosive flask works just as well as their names sound dealing high damage and slowing escaping enemies. On the other hand, get out of troubling situations with ice blocks that make you temporarily immune and create walls that block movement.
So whatever class it may be, find what suits you the best and it’s never a bad idea to try something new. Even if you’re bad at it at first, a little practice and something fresh would definitely help to stay engaged with the game.
Realm Royale Weapons, Mounts, and Armor
Apart from the class system, some extra aspects that give the game life and make each playthrough even more fun are as follows. Being able to forge your own items or upgrade them during play gives a bit more player control as well as an added aspect of crafting that has also yet to be found in the genre. Additionally, players get a mount to ride on that serves as the vehicle of the game which I think to be huge, especially for the battle royale genre.
The player knockout system is also quirky in that you turn into a chicken before your actual death from knockout which gives players a small chance of revival if they are lucky enough to get away in time.
Realm Royale: How to Play It and Is It Better than Fortnite & PUBG?
The game also promotes a lot of team play because working with different strengths of classes in harmony can be extremely rewarding when played out well. All these extra events, including more classes to come in the future, could really push the game into a genre of its own that combines the commonly found elements of an MMO or RPG game into a fast-paced battle royale setting. Most definitely a game to watch out for.
As for a more personal review, I would like the time to compare Fortnite and Realm Royale having played both. First I would like to address my personal opinions on what I think both games did very well.
For Realm Royale, the class system really is the gem here as the things to try out and just having more depth to the character beyond the different skins you could buy really make the replayability a lot higher and more rewarding than getting good at doing the same thing repetitively play after play. I do not necessarily point the finger at Fortnite specifically but I have noticed that at a certain point with a lot of battle royale games, the only drive to play comes from playing with friends or following the hype around the games to continue playing.
However, being a more solo player towards almost any game, I found that playing solo regardless of any “hype” around Realm Royale or necessarily having to play it with friends was not needed to fully enjoy the game for what it was. Moreover, playing with randoms was equally as fun on Realm Royale as my time when I played with friends on either game because I felt a sense of responsibility to stick with my team because I had a role to play. The class system and a few other aspects give a little bit more to what the player controls in his/her game but not enough to ruin the fun of a battle royale game which lies much in the discovery and unexpected skirmishes.
On the other hand, Fortnite is also a very good game due to its “easy to learn but hard to master” learning curve involved. Core elements such as building are one of these “hard to learn” aspects that make the game more interesting and often lead to the explosion of creativity from players. Playing with friends on Fortnite, especially with the new cart update, makes it a blast at any time during the late night hours. The simplicity of the game also was a great introduction to the genre which I like to say is a major part of its success due to the ability to cater towards any skill level.
Now given the two success of the games, there is a reason why I think now that Realm Royale will be in for the long run over Fortnite. This is by no means being dismissive of Fortnite as a game because it is an awesome one, but rather why Realm Royale has more to offer at this point and due to the fact makes the game is a hidden gem. For one, Realm Royale is in the perfect balance between the figurative “difficulty level” of Fornite and PUBG.
Realm Royale offers clean cartoonish graphics and relatively simplistic controls that can be found in Fortnite combined with the class and item system that gives the added complexity that can be found in more hardcore versions such as PUBG. Thus, I feel as though the average player would enjoy Realm Royale and be able to grow within its community for a very long time as the game also set itself up for endless updates if they wished.
Coming back to the backbone of Realm Royale being its class system, Hi-Rez could pump out an infinite number of classes that will forever change the dynamic of how the game would be played and thus is able to create a competitive environment to meta seekers and those familiar as well as to casual players that just want some fun. Now while this is all based on speculation, the game as it is now still hasn’t been unlocked to its full creative potential and thus can become the next Fortnite, which I believe has started to lose some of its flair. But that’s for another time and place so I’ll bring it back to Realm Royale.
Interestingly, Realm Royale could also loosely be compared to massive MMO PvP battles. The difference being if everyone was your enemy except for one or two buddies all scattered across the world. Item finding and forging for new or better ones also can be related back as well. Realm Royale really does a good job, however, to give it that feel of it being a battle royale game nonetheless.
For a short comparison to PUBG, while not as extensive as PUBG in micromanaging weapons, Realm Royale does gives players a chance to edit entire loadouts including what type of gear that is being worn and their stats that accordingly benefit the player. The players in Realm Royale also have smaller weapons loadout slots that give more thought as to what weapons to use based on class, area, and situation.
That being said, it is not interactive as PUBG with surrounding environments like cars and buildings but does its best to create a world more “Fortnite-ish” for a lack of better description. To be fair, a mount at all times is fun to ride around. And while I try to make all these connections and comparisons these games have to each other like I had originally said, they are all different games played differently in the end so just reiterating that I am not trying to prove one game is better than the other. I will say that after playing a lot of Fortnite and PUBG, Realm Royale is a fresh breath of air that I needed.
Another interesting thing about Realm Royale is that it follows some of the characters from the previous title Paladins for those familiar. Being able to connect the heroes in between both worlds may also hint at what is to come in the future. Meanwhile, Real Royale is quickly gaining attention from popular streamers such as Ninja, a famous streamer known for Fortnite gameplay, and many others that have given Realm Royale a rather pleasant rating. Although it is unknown if Hi-Rez will just continue to chase trends or focus/capitalize on their success, if a little bit of care is given to Realm Royale, it may expect to go long ways to develop a strong player base past the popularity behind battle royale games.
Gather all your friends or find your team online from all over the world. Choose your champion with the right skills that fit you best. Ride into battle before the boundaries eat you up. Forge and upgrade your gear from loot scattered all over. Don’t forget to fly away when you’re a chicken. Most importantly, stay alive or die trying. Check out Realm Royale by Hi-Rez Studios free to download on Steam.
