Realms of Magic

Realms of Magic would sound like an old-school early console game pioneering fantasy themes into a playable medium. You can argue that's partially true, but this title is tailormade for the demands of the modern gamer. Bar the nostalgia factor; this fantasy epic harnesses various gameplay styles to create a compelling, open-world survival game.

Realms of Magic takes on the stature of a 2D action RPG with its pixelated, activity-filled world. However, players will not only be embarking on quests and combating foes. They'll be writing their own stories, building a lifestyle, and surviving against those who want them out of this world. It's a massive effort to create a holistic fantasy world experience - but does it work?

Old Kingdom, New Vibes

Players dropping into Realms of Magic believe they've entered a classic side-scroller where hours of your life would be spent combating foes of exponential difficulty. The reality is that the game is an incredibly ambitious attempt to fuse RPG mechanics with a massive, open world, where you have complete freedom to play as you choose. You can be adventurous, gather and build, enjoy a profession, or perform weird magical experiments on the world's wildlife.

The premise of Realms of Magic is pretty straightforward; you land in the mythical Old Kingdom with secrets to uncover and quests to fulfill. Other than that, there doesn't feel like an ultimate objective binding your actions together. Getting started feels challenging as there's no direction, and the pixel art is tired, but sticking with it can be rewarding.

Realms of Magic succeeds in its ambitions of giving players an infinite number of activities in this vast, 2D open world. You can venture out to kill enemies and gather loot, go on quests to discover more about the world, or live a more peaceful life as a professional. Whatever you choose, there are numerous skill trees, collectibles, and assets to build - your task is to be the ultimate warrior of the Old Kingdom.

But does that provide players with enough motivation to enjoy the game? There's plenty to love in the high levels of customization, the vast world, and the freedom to do just about anything. However, Realms of Magic does struggle with its engagement, given the sheer amount of things to do and visuals that could probably be a little more vibrant than they are.

Over-Realm-ed

It's always the core issue with highly ambitious open-world games that tends to lose focus. Developers favor giving players infinite possibilities, where eventually, nobody knows where to start amongst the plethora of options. Realms of Magic struggles a bit on that front, where there's just too much going on and may overwhelm casual players - not to mention that much content is prone to more bugs!

Round-Up - Pros & Cons

Pros:

• The near endless possibilities of gameplay can bring countless hours of entertainment.
• The high degrees of customizability are welcome
• The world is massive

Cons:

• The gameplay feels cluttered with all the different play styles
• Unintuitive for more casual players
• Visuals aren't very inspired