As someone who has always enjoyed playing real-time strategy ports on console – going all the way back to Command & Conquer and Red Alert on the PS1 – Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin feels like a case study on what does and doesn’t work when you have to work around the limitations of a gamepad. During the cinematic-heavy campaign, there were times I was reminded of the methodical, scripted approach Blizzard pioneered with the StarCraf and WarCraft III – a design that works well enough on console when the player has more control over the pacing. The rest of the time – by which I mean a third of the campaign missions and every other mode: AI skirmishes, Conquest, or multiplayer – it often felt like trying to play a fast-paced, lane- and territory-control-focussed MOBA with a severe handicap.
Starting with the positives, there’s a cinematic 18-mission campaign, with four difficulty settings and optional mission challenges, complemented by AI skirmish maps and a Conquest mode – think a succession of increasingly tough skirmish maps with modifiers. With beautiful environments, detailed character models, and intricate unit animation, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin’s in-engine cutscenes do an impressive job presenting another grim, violent, yet often amusing and absurd Warhammer story. It’s full of contrived scenarios, improbable attrition rates, one-note faction leaders making poor decisions, and – more so than any recent RTS I can think of – it shamelessly functions as a glorified tutorial for basic commands, faction abilities, and game modes.
The Stormcast Eternals seek an artefact of power that may help them reclaim the Region of Ghur; the Ork Kruleboyz are in pursuit of the same prize to elevate the status of their Warboss; and a few flashback missions reveal how The Disciples of Tzeentch originally battled the undead Nighthaunt faction for possession of the artefact. It’s all stylishly presented and – if you can get to grips with the gamepad controls and gameplay basics – the campaign is decent fun and moves at a brisk pace, switching up factions, objective types, and introducing a few novel scenarios. There are times you’re just battling from point-A to point-B down branching corridors, claiming Arcane Conduits to build outposts and generate resources as you go, but there are a few missions that rely almost exclusively on heroes; one that functions as an unforgiving tower defence; one that features clunky stealth; several that have you battle over control points, and even gimmicky boss battles that add some twist to chipping away at a giant HP bar.
The campaign also serves to highlight what the control scheme and game design gets right. Much like the underappreciated Halo Wars 1 and 2, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin focuses on streamlined base-building, managing only two resources, and smaller skirmishes influenced by unit composition, positioning, and the strategic use of abilities – more so than sheer numbers. You can upgrade you primary building to recruit new unit types and unlock three-tiers of unit and outpost upgrades – many of which are mutually exclusive abilities or passive buffs to specialise units. Each faction also has two defence-oriented structures – a tower that deals minor damage but buys you time to muster your army, and a healing bastion to support defensive groups.
The controls are what you’d expect from a modern console RTS with one situationally useful addition – “DirectStep” control. The camera latches to your selected unit or group, it’s easier to aim and trigger abilities, and you assign movement or attack-move waypoints to individual units. It’s a smart option for managing small skirmishes but it decreases situational awareness and I found myself falling back on the emulated reticle controls. In the introduction, I mentioned Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin could feel like a MOBA, and that’s because it adheres to the rule-of-three design and forces you to multi-task. There are three unit types in the combat triangle (shields vs. bows, bows vs. swords, and swords vs, shields); often three objectives to clear out or three control points to hold; and there are typically three paths you need to defend around any Arcane Conduit. It should come as no surprise the d-pad is used to manage 3 control groups, pad with the last input used to quickly cycle through units within a group.
On paper and in practice, the controls and streamlined gameplay loop work well enough in the campaign – even on tougher missions that feel like skirmish maps with the AI playing by a general ruleset, rather than custom scripting. The problem is how quickly they buckle when you’re under pressure. In addition to juggling multiple control groups spread across a map, you’ve got to cycle units to access their abilities, deal with barely coherent formations, and interrupt dubious automated decisions. The challenge feels greater still when you realise how quickly the balance of combat shifts when something goes wrong – allowing other players or the AI to push you into a losing spiral. In Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, the less of the map you control, the less you can upgrade or reinforce your troops, and the less multitasking your opponent requires to contain and destroy you.
The most persistent issue is micro-managing your way around the combat-lock mechanic. Units engaged at melee range can’t disengage – unless they’re sent retreating back to your main structure before you can regain control. With no obvious formation behaviour and ranged units prone to outrunning melee units, you need to constantly assign individual attack orders based on type, then utilise abilities to further modify the flow of battle – usually by buffing your troops or inflicting an area-of-affect attack. You can alternate between move and attack-move commands, and you can define the firing-arc of ranged units, but to effectively micromanage just one army, you need to use all three available control groups. On top of that challenge, you’ve still got pathfinding issues and, despite several upgrades allowing you to focus on ranged damage, hybrid units are prone to engaging in melee once they get close – even if their target is combat-locked with another unit.
As a result, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin sits in a weird middle ground, demonstrating both smart design decisions that make a lot of sense in a console RTS – but it also demands a degree of manic multitasking simply not suited to a gamepad. Most campaign missions are either scripted enough or offer maps defensible enough that you can push out cautiously and regroup if things go wrong. However, that’s simply not an option on AI skirmish or Conquest maps, where even the low-difficulty AI can simultaneously contest all control points, harass your outposts, and spam abilities in battle against your primary force. It had me wishing for a pause-and-command option even if it was antithetical to the developer’s intent. An inadvertent positive is that a few multiplayer matches against other human players felt more balanced, as my opponents stuck to managing a single but mobile army I could frantically counter with my own.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin was played on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC and PS5.
