Warhammer Age of Sigmar Realms of Ruin Review

With thanks to the folks at Frontier we’re bringing you our video and written Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin review. This tabletop adaptation looks to provide a digital Warhammer experience, and we’re covering our usual five-point quality check alongside a common-sense parent’s guide.

If you are wondering if Realms of Ruin is any good, or it it’s safe for kids, check out our comprehensive guide below. You can also find our review in under a minute over on Tik Tok, because we’re kinda cool and definitely very young.

If you like Warhammer or Xcom you should definitely check out Frontier’s Warhammer 40,000: Chaosgate – Daemonhunters.

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The Basics – What is Realms of Ruin About?

Available on: PC (Steam, Epic), Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5
Price: £49.99 (Steam, Xbox)
Type: Fantasy RTS
Download: 14.1GB (Steam) 12.5GB (Xbox Series X)

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin provides a lightweight, tactical Warhammer experience. Players will use a wide range of units from Sigmarine Stormcast Eternals, Orruk Kruleboyz, Disciples of Tzeentch or Nighthaunt factions.

Players will use all four of these as they trek through 18 campaign missions. The campaign provides some fairly varied battle maps as well as side objectives. Mostly, we’ll return to capturing two out of three victory points until we gain victory. Additionally, however, the campaign is a decent way to get used to each faction’s strengths and weaknesses with a decent narrative adventure.

The title also brings a conquest mode, allowing players to take on AI components ranges across a war map. Conquest mode also provides various situational buffs and weaknesses, to add some more variation to each army as you move across the map.

There is, of course, a decent multiplayer mode in here as well. Players will be able to take on public or private 1v1 or 2v2 matches. Sadly, it can be pretty tricky to get into public games, with a general lack of online players. In private matches, however, we’ve had some great matches against our fellow Bandits on pre-made and player-created maps.

There are a huge number of available customisations, including loadout and paint schemes for each army and their individual units, and an in-depth but intuitive map maker. This allows players to create their own battle arenas as well as personalised armies which they can take into multiplayer or conquest game modes.

Is Realms of Ruin Safe for Children?

Rating: Caution Advised.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Realms of Ruin is rated by PEGI at 16 and above, and by the ESRB at T for Teen. Warfare is, of course, the focus of the game, but even with this in mind there’s not really much in the way of blood and gore.

Getting close up means you can see the combat well, but even here it’s a fairly clean fight. The only things which bring us much concern are the more creepy and fearful character designs, which could be scary for younger players, and online gameplay which can bring interaction with other players.

We’re rating this one as Caution Advised for fear and online gameplay, and it’s one which we’re happy for our ten year old Micro-Bandit to play within private matches, but we’d likely not go much under that.

The Run Down – Our Five-Point Rating for Realms of Ruin

Gameplay – 3: Realms of Ruin provides a decent enough tactical experience for newcomers, but will not give the depth of tactical management for long-term fans of the genre. As units get locked into combat there’s not much in the way of management, outside use of special abilities, but this does make it easier to manage for those looking for a more chill experience.

Visuals – 5: Character and effect animations, overall lighting and environments in Realms of Ruin have been really well crafted. Even up close, things look pretty great as you march your army into battle either on pre-made or player-created maps.

Audio – 5: The voice acting and soundtrack in Realms of Ruin are likely the best we’ve heard in recent years. Cut scenes are well scripted and acted with some incredible talent behind main characters.

Narrative – 4: Realms of Ruin provides a decent story for those following the campaign mode. It hops around a little in order to allow players to take on all four factions, but keeps well to the Age of Sigmar setting and lore.

Replay – 3: Customisation really allows players to create their own armies and arenas, and there’s a lot of campaign, conquest and multiplayer to sink your teeth into. This has been impacted by a scarcity of available online matches

The Verdict – Is Realms of Ruin Worth It?

Pixel Bandits Sigmar Guide my Strikes Level for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is a respectable 7 / 10. The visuals and audio for Realms of Ruin are both absolutely outstanding, but gameplay feels a little too basic to cater to the needs of strategy fans. Each unit has strengths and weaknesses much like a game of Rock Paper Scissors, but it does feel like it could to with a little more depth.

Overall it is one I’ve had fun with, and it would suit anybody looking for a more laid back strategy experience, without the need to micromanage your troops on the battlefield.

As ever, to provide this review and common-sense parent’s guide, we received free copies of Realms of Ruin from the folks at Frontier.