The extra issues change, the extra they keep the identical. Within the opening moments of Warhammer Age Of Sigmar: Realms Of Damage, we’re launched to the savage realm of Ghurr — a land of violence, disconnected from the same old Previous World or 40K settings we’re used to seeing from Warhammer video games. But, the sport’s opening moments look largely acquainted: a plucky group of people battle limitless waves of Greenskin goblins, and scenes of loss of life play out throughout each inch of the battlefield. Ah, Warhammer — by no means change.
As a real-time technique recreation, Realms Of Damage takes a birds-eye view of the carnage. In our preview of its marketing campaign, Stormcast Eternals — immortal human warriors clad in golden armour — combat to safe a foothold for humanity on Ghurr, the place swamp-dwelling Greenskins named Kruleboyz name dwelling. This slice of the marketing campaign largely serves as a tutorial, which suggests we don’t get to see a lot of the story play out — however we do witness the facility dynamic between Realms Of Damage‘s Stormcast and Kruleboyz.
Sandro Sammarco, the sport’s principal designer, tells NME that the Stormcast are god-like “particular forces,” who’re extremely highly effective however few in quantity. In the meantime, the Kruleboyz are quite a few, however far weaker till they’ve an opportunity to unleash their stronger monsters. Throughout our hands-on with each factions in multiplayer, their strengths and weaknesses felt utterly totally different — one thing Sammarco says was an intentional purpose for the crew.
“There was a aware determination to have a stage of asymmetry, however general retain comparatively equitable forces. That’s been a very attention-grabbing problem — it’s type of just like the Holy Grail, actually,” says the designer, who notes that the sport is present process fixed stability tweaks to make its asymmetrical factions work.
“We’ve received this idea referred to as balancing excessive. You make every part cool, then you definitely simply begin dragging some items to be even cooler,” he provides. “Each unit wants a time to shine, or a second within the solar, even when they’re not probably the most highly effective unit.”
Within the three multiplayer matches we received to preview — two as Stormcast, one with the Kruleboyz — this philosophy bled by way of, with every part from hulking trolls to a fire-breathing drake wading in to combat. The purpose is to seize and defend the victory factors littering the map, till your opponent’s rating bleeds all the way down to zero — and though real-time technique video games like Starcraft and Age Of Empires have historically been tough for newcomers to crack, this felt far simpler to leap into.
The place you’d historically micro-manage a bunch of buildings to recruit troopers, right here a easy menu — opened from anyplace on the map — allows you to carry new fighters into the fray, whereas slower pacing means there’s extra time to contemplate and revise your technique. This implies there’s extra emphasis on tactical pondering than quick fingers, which opens the door to extra inventive methods than simply mashing two armies collectively: corresponding to Kruleboyz mounting a sneak assault on an unguarded useful resource level, or Stormcast routing Greenskin by plunging a fire-breathing drake into their archers.
As somebody that struggled with studying Firm Of Heroes 3‘s unbelievable multiplayer earlier within the yr, Realms Of Damage‘s simplicity was welcome — and as an alternative of constructing the sport really feel like a dumbed-down RTS, it made every match’s strategic layer really feel considerably richer.
Sammarco says the crew didn’t need to make a recreation “so quick that it’s a blur apart from the tiny elite gamers who can deal with that,” and wished to make an RTS that was usually simpler for newcomers to entry.
“Our purpose is to make an entertaining recreation for as many individuals as potential,” Sammarco defined. “It’s a fine-tuned stability, as a result of we’re not saying we’ll dumb it down — it could be like having a beat ’em up recreation with one button for all of the combos. As an alternative, we’re what an RTS is and saying…how can we get all of that with out taking something away, and make it as accessible as potential? You possibly can’t please each single particular person — there’s at all times a value to taking anybody path — however essentially our focus, firstly, has been on making it play as you’d count on an RTS to play.”
It’s not the one factor Realms Of Damage shakes up. Previously, numerous RTS video games have used their single-player campaigns as thinly-veiled tutorials that put together gamers for moving into multiplayer. Whereas Sammarco acknowledges the significance of tutorials in RTS video games and says their marketing campaign places “plenty of effort and time” into instructing gamers the sport, Frontier Developments wished to suppose outdoors the field for its single-player segments.
“We wish these to enjoyable, we’re not afraid to violate among the guidelines and go…no, this stage has a puzzle component to it. We do issues just a little bit otherwise as a result of to entertain individuals, you want an quantity of marvel that you’ll want to get in there. In different phrases, we simply need to inform a cool story.”
On the earth of Warhammer, that “cool story” can take many varieties. 40K is usually used to inform tales of unfathomably large-scale conflict throughout the cosmos, whereas final yr’s technique Complete Battle: Warhammer 3 reworked the Previous World right into a gory battlefield for the fantasy department’s heroes and villains. In Realms Of Damage, prolific Warhammer creator Gav Thorpe teamed up with Frontier to create a extra character-driven story within the Age Of Sigmar universe.
“We wished to inform a narrative that’s not a huge, bombastic Lord Of The Rings particular,” says Sammarco. “There’s room for that, and Age Of Sigmar does that very effectively, however we wished to do some bit extra of a personality examine. For myself, the motivations of characters — who they’re, what drives them — may be very compelling.”
Sammarco factors to the marketing campaign’s protagonists, a band of Stormcast Eternals — superhuman warriors whose souls are brutally reforged into one other physique once they die. “It’s a horrible, actually horrific expertise, and every time there’s just a little little bit of your humanity getting chipped away,” he factors out. “What does that imply?”
“On the coronary heart of it, it’s about this story about heroes and villains — what are the qualities that outline that, and the way do these qualities drag individuals towards their fates?”
Like Warhammer‘s Stormcast Eternals, Realms Of Damage has taken the RTS style away for a makeover. Some components, corresponding to its cumbersome micromanagement techniques, have been trimmed away. Others have been fleshed out — nearly each unit has its personal potential to make use of if the scenario arises, whereas the Kruleboyz and Stormcast every carry distinctive rosters to the sector.
From a marketing campaign mission and three multiplayer matches, Realms Of Damage feels unbelievable to play, however time will inform how deep these refinements run. Two extra factions and the remainder of the marketing campaign stay to be seen, however already, Frontier’s subsequent technique
An open beta for Warhammer Age Of Sigmar: Realms Of Damage will run from July 7-10, and can be playable on PC, Xbox Collection X|S, and PS5.
