Realm Royale

Battle Royale games have started to flood the market the way MOBAs did a few years ago, probably because there is a certain thrill to know that you start on an island together with 100 other players and you battle, hide and scavenge until you're the last one standing. Of course, most battle royale games focus on the shooting aspect of the game, letting them feel like FPS' with a few RPG elements. If you're a fan of Paladins and Fortnite, then you will love a game that feels like the birthchild of the two: Realm Royale.

The same developers that brought Paladins and Smite to the gaming market have sunken their teeth into the Battle Royale business, and they seem to be holding firm on to it with this title. The game has all the graphical nuances and the feel that paladins have while boasting a whole new gameplay experience.

Unlike the previously mentioned titles, you do not have a selection of characters with predefined abilities to choose from.  You can choose between a few class archetypes that all have access to the same spells, although admittedly some do have an advantage when wielding certain weapons or using certain spells. This means that even a heavy tank can use a cloaking spell, but it cannot match a rogue in the way it can take advantage of it.

The game follows the same premise of skydiving all the players on the same massive island where they eventually have to bust each other's heads in. You use whatever happens to drop from the chests you find on the islands, as well as whatever loot drops from a player that you kill. The problem is that even if you do choose a class that suits your play style, you never actually know what equipment or spells you will find along the island, so a true Realm Royale player will have to learn to be adaptive more than anything else.

Finding a weapon that is inferior to the one you have or a spell that you don't like is not a complete loss since you can disenchant it into a form of currency. This currency can then be used at a forge to create an even more powerful piece of equipment. However, forging a weapon takes time, and enemies that know the map will surely be around, waiting for fr targets to be drawn to it.

Combat isn't all that fast-paced, so beginners shouldn't feel like this is an elitist game, and even death can be avoided in a certain way. Every time your health bar drops to zero, you turn into a fat waddling chicken. You gain control of this chicken, and if the enemy manages to kill you within 20 seconds, you are dead for good, otherwise you will be respawned. This near-death experience can only happen three times per match, so you should watch out as the numbers dwindle more and more.

Unlike other Battle Royale games out there, this title also caters towards team coordination, since Realm Royale is the first Battle Royale designed to be played in four-person Squads. Help your team by dropping a Healing Totem, or plant a Sensor Drone to reveal incoming enemies. Each class has strengths and weaknesses, but by working together, the crown royale could be yours.

At the beginning of a match, there will be 100 players on the island, and the chests will mostly drop items of the lowest quality. However, the game announces whenever the number of survivors reaches a certain benchmark (90, 80, 70), and you will inadvertently feel the adrenaline rising as you realize that everyone that is left is the top of the crop. Weapon drops eventually become better and better, but this also means that the enemy is getting better weapon drops too, so matches get progressively harder as time passes by.

Realm Royale has all the elements that make Battle Royale games so thrilling, with the bonus of crafting equipment and team play, turning this title into the perfect mix of Battle Royale and MMORPGs available.