Realm of Rulers

Survival games are designed to keep you engaged for long periods of time, even if the gameplay mechanics do not evolve over the course of the experience. You usually start with a fairly weak character that has to grow and get stronger as the action evolves. However, it takes some creativity on behalf of the developers in order for the action to remain exciting hour after hour.

Realm of Rulers is an upcoming survival game that allows you to build your own town from scratch in the middle of wilderness, as well as populate it with other people and fight to defend it. Since the game is still in early access at this point, there are many things wrong with it, including lackluster level design, questionable mechanics and more than enough bugs for everyone.

The whole thing takes place in a classic medieval environment, sporting knights and the usual architecture. Your first task is to gather the necessary resources in order to build a settlement, which is basically a lot of wood. An axe and a pickaxe are given to you in the beginning, and the only thing you have to do is click whenever you are near a tree, rock deposits or various plants.

The other part of the game is about exploration, but unfortunately there’s not a lot to see at the moment. You can stumble upon small settlements here and there, which is where enemy knights wait for you, but the combat is simple atrocious at this point. It’s nothing more than simple clicking, and the whole thing feels impersonal and pointless, although there’s certainly potential.

Speaking of which, the graphics are powered by Unreal Engine 4, so the effects certainly look nice, and so do the textures. On the other hand, there’s not a lot to see other than grass, trees and the occasional building. More variety is needed in future versions, otherwise the whole thing gets boring way too quickly. The character animations are very sketchy right now as well, especially when it comes to combat.

In the end, Realm of Rulers has potential, but it’s far from a fun game at the moment, given the lack of polish in terms of gameplay mechanics and level design. Hence, it’s better to wait for a later version, or at least to keep an open mind while playing this one.