In 2019, few genres are quite as fickle and difficult to predict as battle royale. Plenty of games have attempted to grab a piece of this lucrative pie over the last couple of years, but for every Fortnite, PUBG and Apex Legends there are countless others that have failed to capture that same zeitgeist. Usually when a BR title stumbles into obscurity - or experiences a brief 15 minutes of popularity - they tend to stay gone. But not Realm Royale. Its time in the sun came last summer, and while its player base dwindled to Anthem levels, publisher and developer Hi-Rez Studios wasn’t ready to give up so easily.
Now in its Beta phase on Nintendo Switch (and every other platform for that matter), Realm has been slowly evolving its core systems in order to keep the mechanics that set it apart from Fortnite - easily the biggest BR draw on Nintendo’s current-gen hardware - while trying to make the whole experience more enjoyable. Because BR games can be the most frustrating experiences: spending 15 minutes looking for the right gun, only to have someone snipe you from a distance and force you right back to the start of the cycle. It’s an addictive roll of the dice for some, but an utter bore for others.
Realm Royale rewards skill, map awareness and tactical prowess as much as any of its contemporaries, but balances that by offering more ways to empower you as a player (especially if you’re a little less experienced with this kind of game). At its core, it’s still a BR title. 100 players launch from a wooden blimp and skydive down into one huge, open map. There are chests to open, guns and loot to equip and a shrinking eye that periodically forces players into a smaller and smaller arena. Even the cartoonish art style will remind you of Fortnite’s similarly colourful aesthetic.
But spend a couple of hours in its company and you soon realise Realm has far more in common with Paladins: Champions of the Realm (the game in which Realm originated as a BR mode) and a more traditional MMO. Instead of starting out with an avatar that’s only distinguishable by its skin or whether it can perform a prepubescent dance move, now there are four classes. You can still use any weapon and any special ability while playing as a Warrior, Hunter, Assassin and Mage, but as you progress each one you’ll unlock unique traits (such as the Warrior’s power to heal squadmates with a shout).
So, you can build a playstyle from the off, with a class that works for you, but you can still drop abilities and weapons on the fly, should the situation demand it. It’s the first clue that Heroic Leap (the internal studio at Hi-Rez working on Realm) is pushing freedom and agency at every opportunity. As we’ve mentioned, there are chests everywhere, but these don’t remain empty once they’ve been looted. Now you can run up to any chest and - as long as there’s been a brief passing of time before it was last looted - bag lots of goodies. It’s a generous approach within an unforgiving format, but that’s not where the looting ends.
BR games often come down to chance. Sometimes you find the weapon you want, you might be forced to battle with something you’re not accustomed to or maybe you’ll die in the first 30 seconds of a match. In Realm Royale, all that gear you don’t want can be broken down into shards. Shards are a material currency that can be used at forges, which serve as crafting stations across the map. Gather enough and you can build anything from armour potions to full weapons at these locations. The toss up is these items take time to build, and anyone in the vicinity can see you’re building them, so forging often turns into a makeshift scenario as opponents rush to grab your newly forged gear.
When you are eventually downed, you won’t be forced to crawl in the way so many other BR games opt for. Instead, you’ll be turned into a plump little chicken that waves a white flag of surrender while you attempt to run away. If you can survive for around 10 seconds, you’ll be revived into your human form automatically, so even less savvy players have a chance at redemption if they can evade further hits for a short period of time. It’s a silly little mechanic, but it’s a generous one, and it makes matches a little longer as a result. You can even revive your entire squad (if you’re playing squads or duos), so there’s a benefit to waiting around in the event of your own demise.
Of course, this being a Hi-Rez game on Nintendo Switch, it’s not technically free-to-play on the platform yet. Much like Paladins before it, Realm Royale will (most likely) become free-to-play in a few months, but if you want access now you’ll need to cough up for the Founders Pack. For that you do get a few special cosmetic items and some crowns (Realm’s in-game, microtransaction-driven currency). With cross-platform play in effect, you can also be assured that there’s a greater chance of finding a match, although Sony isn't letting PS4 players join the party. We played for about 8-10 hours prior to launch and found a match every time. There’s also a Battle Pass, which functions much like the ones in Paladins and SMITE, but you don’t have to buy it to get the most out of Realm, it just grants you premium cosmetic content.
The Nintendo Switch version also runs at a relatively smooth rate. It’s been optimised well, with much less texture pop-in than found in the current version of Fortnite. There is the odd moment of slowdown, but it was so rare it didn’t affect our overall enjoyment. Some visual imperfections - such as tactical blurring and rasterization - are more obvious when blown up on a TV in docked mode, but we found Realm to run well in either handheld mode or when hooked up to a telly. Jumping onto your steed (which you can access at anytime to cover greater distances at speed) does occasionally cause your avatar to glitch to one side, but even this is a minor issue for a game that’s still in its Beta phase.
Conclusion
Some might write off Realm Royale as a Fortnite wannabe, and occasionally it can feel like one if you choose to play it that way, but the core principles of its gameplay bring enough new features to help differentiate it from its BR fellows. The unique traits of its four classes make a big difference, especially to teamplay, while the combination of forges (and their crafting potential) and the ability to seek shelter when downed (as a chicken, naturally) offer a more complex, and ultimately more forgiving experience. It’s also still in its beta, so expect Heroic Leap to be improving it for years to come.
Comments 42
You’re right.
It’s Fortnite with chickens AND horses.
It's one of the only battle royales I've ever enjoyed, tbh. Emphasis on class customization is really nice, as well as having abilities. Fortnite is a cheesy, meme-filled mess that's boring as hell for me. I always hated the building mechanics as well. Realm just hit a sweet spot.
People calling it "Fortnite with Chickens" are just cowards too afraid to play something else that they might actually enjoy.
@Rafke Sure, it's Fortnite with better gunplay, movement and offensive/defensive abilities, classes w/ customization, and generally everything that makes it actually fun, unlike Fortnite.
I’m curious to see what a BR game is like without someone building a mansion in 3 seconds in front of me.
I really want to try this, but I do not play BR games enough to plunk down cash for the Founders Pack. Will wait.
I'm interested to try it but I'll wait for the founders pack to end.
I bought the founders pack and didn't get any crowns. got a few cosmetic items, like an avatar and spray... I was very disappointed that they haven't included the battle pass in the pack. such bs imho. but I like the game, they need motion controls tho
Will download this once it becomes free!
There is no way you are going to convince people this isn't just a cheap Fortnite clone without the massive popularity.
I downloaded this as soon as it became available on the PS4 and it felt really slow, but with classes and being able to forge your own items. It looks like the updates may have sped it up a bit fixing the only thing I really dislikes with it.
Then again Apex has come out since then and the gunplay is so tight in that game that this may feel like playing with peashooters in the wind in comparison.
Motion Control?
@JayJ yes, unfortunately quality doesn’t mean anything in the eyes of the general public. If something is more famous, it’ll be considered “better” and “the original”, even if it’s not factually true.
@clvr Pretending like this isn't just trying to cash in on the success of Fortnite is a losing argument. Whenever some big popular gaming fad comes along you always get loads of cheap imitators trying to get a piece of that. Not saying this is bad but it is always going to be looked at like that for a good reason.
@clvr That's why I really hate it when some gamers and fans think only the first thing that comes out is the best one. There's blatant ripoffs, and then there's an original take on a format.
@JayJ But what if someone never liked Fortnite, and would like a BR that's more user-friendly?
@Dakotastomp If someone likes this game that is great for them, I don't think anybody was debating anyone's ability to enjoy this game. The problem is when you try to pretend like it is somehow significantly different from the game it is blatantly copying.
@AlRa No motion controls as yet, but it is something the developer is looking into.
@JayJ I’ve never said that. This game is obviously a consequence of Fortnite’s enormous popularity, but this doesn’t make it a lesser product; just because it came after doesn’t mean it’s worse.
Also, BR was a thing prior to FN, so the same applies to FN, too.
Edit: every genre started as “X-clone”, because one game created a new style and others jumped on the bandwagon; looking at it decades later, though, you call COD a FPS, not a “Doom-clone”.
I really disliked how aggressive the micro transactions push was in Paladins does anyone know if this is similar?
@JayJ Pretty much every Battle royale game plays the same, just that some like Realm have a unique hook that Fortnite doesn't. That hook(forging, the class-based skill set, the chicken-reviving thing) is some thing that does make it very different from Fortnite and it's building system.
Like @clvr said, it's still basically following in Fortnite's footsteps, but it has enough differences to make it step out on its own.
@clvr Yeah I mean I enjoyed Saints Row games more than some GTA games so you have a valid point there when it comes to quality and enjoyment despite copying something else.
@Dakotastomp the thing about your argument is how you are just debating minor technical differences and trying to act like that somehow means it has not been copying something else. I mean just about everything about this game is directly copying Fortnight, you would have to be really into these games to spot what makes them different.
@JayJ Never said it wasn't. Realm copied Fortnite's success and gameplay and added their own differences to it. I'm not saying it didn't copy the format, hell, Paladins copied Overwatch's format for team shooters, but i'm just saying I don't see much wrong with them copying the formula and adding their own ideas to the mix.
Like you said, people are just going to see this as a FN knockoff because FN is popular, but then there's Apex legends which does a different twist on Battle royale in general, so there may be hope for this. It's all in how you look at it.
@reali-tglitch I just enjoy both, but Realm is obviously a lot easier for me and less full of 12-yr-olds calling each other the N word.
@JayJ exactly, that’s an excellent example. Also it doesn’t hurt that I’m currently playing SR3 on my Switch after loving IV on PS3 😉
If you cast your mind back to the PS2 days, open world games didn’t have a definition, and were simply “GTA-like” games.
Time defines how a trend evolves, and the more time passes, the more the trend plants its roots and permeates the environment.
When enough time passes, it becomes a genre
@Dakotastomp well I mean it's not just that, everything about this game seems to be heavily copy and pasted over from Fortnight. I am all for developers trying to change things up and show how this can be an entire genre but IMO they need to get away from copying the same exact approach and style that Fortnite had. I mean when you see characters diving out of a balloon airship into an island with cartoony graphics dedicated to battle royale it is hard to not immediately think of Fortnite. In fact this game looks so similar to Fortnite that I bet a bunch of people could easily assume it's Fortnite without knowing better.
@clvr Yeah I totally get where you are coming from. I hope these games can grow beyond the games they are trying emulate because Saints Row never really got into it's own until it stopped trying to copy GTA and embraced it's own unique identity.
Why did you have to put Fortnite in the title? Can people stop doing that when talking about battle royales that aren’t Fortnite
Hm, a "BR" game that has my attention... Once it's free and has motion control.
@SonOfVon that's too bad, hopefully once it's out for everyone, they will reward you for your loyalty
Said I wouldn't but I may grab it when the paywall drops.
If only to troll Xbox users by being a mute teammate with inferior ping. Lol @nintendo online.
@SonOfVon I got it too and considering when I bought it there were only 18 days left of the current battle pass they could have thrown that in also or some crowns to buy a skin or something.
I really enjoy the game though. It will be better once they add motion controls as using twin stick feels weird to me now after platoon's motion controls.
Battle Royales bore me. It's like you said, you spend 15 minutes looking for weapons, then get sniped or ambushed and start completely over.
For multi-player shooting games I much prefer classic deathmatch or team deathmatch like we had in Halo 3 and COD 4. I wish we had something like that on Switch that wasn't a mobile port.
@Heavyarms55 For shooters there's just Splatoon sadly ... I feel the same about BR games. I just like the classic TDM and CTF (always had a preference for the team modes) and there's nothing good
@LightBeam And I enjoy Splatoon a good bit, but it is wildly different from the shooter experience in Sci-Fi shooters like Halo or military shooters like COD or Battlefield or even team/class based shooters like Paladins or Overwatch.
I did try Paladins and it seemed OK, but just made me wish we had Overwatch on Switch.I know Warframe is on Switch but although people have assured me otherwise, the free-to-play aspect is a turn off.
Played this for a while on PC when the alpha was released
It didn't grew well, the devs did some dumb decisions and the playerbase dropped quickly. Even if I don't really like BR games, it used to be my "favorite" BR until Apex came out (cuz Apex is really damn good, the only good BR imho)
It got some good ideas, I liked the classes, the weapons + the system of forges where you can craft weapons, making such a huge noise that you will probably attract ennemies
There's still some good qualities to the game, it's still probably better than Fortnite ... Well, I'd say it's different
But it's buggy asf, there's a LOT of bots, because eh, they need to launch games quickly and when there's not enough people you need to get bots
Whatever, on Switch it could be a lot of fun if you are tired of Fortnite, but Fortnite is more polished and less buggy by far ... HiRez's games are known for being quite buggy
@Heavyarms55 Well Warframe is a shooter looter and you'll spend a lot of time doing the same thing sometimes, but it's one of the best games I have ever played and the best F2P on the market imho, no questions asked, but even if there's some pvp modes, the game is 99% coop based so I don't think you will like it if you are not searching for a "destiny"-like experience (even if Destiny isn't as good )
I play both Paladins and Overwatch on PC and yeah, OW is much better imho, would be such a blast to have this on Switch and being able to play it on portable mode
But yeah, concerning multiplayer FPS games there's a huge lack, same thing for racing games, let's just hope that it will get better with time
@LightBeam Yeah, I've heard a lot more people asking for more racing games on Switch though, especially fans of more "realistic" racers or F-Zero type super high speed sci-fi racers.
I have never played Destiny so can't really say much about it. I played a good bit of OW on PS4 and quite enjoyed it. It has been a while though and I would get back into it if it came to Switch. I might get back into it on PC when I get a new PC this summer. But I am one of the weird ones who prefer to play shooters with a controller. lol
Wonder how long it will take for the realm royale community to chastise switch players for being mute with terrible pings.
It took about 2 days of paladins crossplay for the rhetoric to spread around their forums. Switch players are the weakest link and no one wants them on their team.
It's one thing to offer an inferior online service, but to have your customer base be treated like dirt because of Nintendos shortcomings isn't fair.
The these guys patch their games to be playable with bots offline (and just disable xp to compensate), is the day I download them again. Really enjoyed Paladins, bought the founders pack even, but I only have wifi at home. So it went unplayed a lot, to the point I deleted it. Same with Fortnite (but my son loves that, so its still there. I just dont play it). These folks make good games, but I need a little extra care for the portability. Im in the minority tho.
This is actually more fun than Fortnite
@Itzdmo 1) Nobody cares about Switch players anymore.
2) HiRez is going to implement (if they did not so already in Paladins) voicechat into their games. You'll just need headphones with microphone that work with switch (you can find lists online)
Edit:
3) being on the Realm Royale Discord server and reddit, people there are actually quite thankful for new switch players. They are happy the playerbase will grow with yet another platform and crossplay and nobody really minds people playing on switch.
The chicken function alone makes it better than Fortnite and no building is just the cherry on the top.
I love realm royal but, it lags ALOT. I hate fornite tho. No hate to u guys!
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