Realms of Ancient War Reviewed By Luke "Lukaz" Withoos

Rating: 70% (Ratings Key/Explanation)

The Action Role Playing Game genre (ARPG) has been a staple of PC gaming for decades. The Diablo series and the Torchlight series are examples of how this genre can be executed smoothly and with great precision.

Over the years though, there were many ARPG titles that received mediocre acclaim in Australia and overseas. One such title that springs to mind was Silver, which was released approximately 13 years ago.

While the game had a very clear Asian influence, the game was smooth and comfortable. Today’s review is about the title RAW: Realms of Ancient War; a title that compares similarly to Silver and the enjoyment I found with it.

RAW is set in an ancient realm; consisting of four regions that represent the elements earth, fire, wind and water. The races of man, dwarf and elf are prevalent in all four regions; however all three are focussed clearly in their separate realms.

A war broke out many years ago between the four regions that has since ended and has a lasting peace for the decade that has followed. Upon this 1 year anniversary, it is found that much is left unresolved since the peace was founded. A chaos that spread across the land at the commencement of this peacetime prevails and our protagonist hero must stop the chaotic forces from flowing into the realm.

While the cut scenes and story are quite well written and well rendered, I did feel that the story itself while original in many ways was quite stale and lacked something to make it stand out. Sadly, this trend seemed to be somewhat standard for the rest of the title.

I relate this game back to Silver due to the very simplistic system employed in the title. While there is a skill tree, the abilities are minimal in the lower levels; and if you are a wizard, as I played, you basically only use two attacks for the entire game.

The classes are very standard; Wizard, Rogue and Warrior, however the ranged attacks seem to take prevalence in the title. Wizards and Rogues seem to have an easier time; with the ability to pick off most targets at range with great ease; however this presents very little challenge as almost all targets are annihilated before they even get close.

This leads me to a few small complaints I have about the AI. While it isn’t easy for a developer to create an AI for the enemies, there did seem to be a few issues with the AI in this game. Hitting single targets with attacks at range did not alert nearby enemies; enemies that are interacting with scenery (such as dwarves that are mining) take considerably more time to react to the presence of the player when they get closer and; pathing was quite unstable at times, causing enemies to get stuck on the scenery.

The inventory system is very basic; which is unfortunate. You must click on each item and click “sell” when at a vendor, rather than having a right-click-sell or a drag and drop mechanic built in. Stacks of items such as potions have issues where they change positions and you must sell one item from the stack at a time. This makes vendoring quite complicated and irritating.

I have played a lot of ARPG titles lately (including Diablo III and Torchlight II) and it is difficult not to compare RAW: Realms of Ancient War with these other AAA titles. In comparison, RAW is a title that has many of the elements that put it on par with the standard that is expected from an ARPG.

Unfortunately, having said all of this, RAW doesn’t have anything that makes the title stand out against the crowd. It is a solid game with a logical story and very good character animation; however its flaws do bring it back to a calibre I expect from a title such as Silver; a title that is 13 years old. I won’t lie, I was disappointed with this title when I compared to other games from the genre; however I did find it to be really solid and enjoyable.

I do hope that there are future instalments of this title from Wizarbox as it does have a lot of potential. Future instalments could see improvements to enemy AI, the inventory system, and even possibly some of the character balance. This IP has a lot of potential due to the solid storyline and solid gameplay mechanics, and with a few tweaks, I believe that Wizarbox have a really strong title that is able to compete with the larger titles from this game genre.

Don’t take this as a bad thing though; remember that the first Guitar Hero title required a lot of work to make it even remotely playable; but it doesn’t change the success of the series. Wizarbox have done very well with this IP and I have enjoyed it greatly.I see great things for Wizarbox if only very small alterations are made to improve the small complaints that I have.

For their fourth IP in the last 5 years, they have done very well and I commend them on their work. I look forward to more from the studio in the coming years.