Developer Frost Giant Studios revealed its upcoming RTS Stormgate's third playable faction today as the Celestial Armada. An ancient and advanced civilization, the Celesti??al Armada traverses the universe in massive world-ships ruled by the Sovereigns, immo??rtal beings. Frost Giant also announced an August 13 release date for the RTS Early Access to begin.

Essentially space nomads, the playstyle of the Celestial Armada looks rather unique compared to the two other factions. The Celestial Armada is built around the Arcship, a flying HQ that assists with the creation of new bases rather than utilizing builder units like the other factions. Similar to the Protoss from StarCraft, buildings constructed by the Celestial Armada will generate a ca??scade field that expands the possible building area for the facti??on.

Interestingly, the Celestial Armada does not have to worry about supply. This faction starts with the max cap of 300, and can build as many units as their resources allow. Primarily focused ?on buildings rather than units, the Celestial Armada also has to juggle maintaining an efficient power grid by building power-generating structures to support the many buildings it will construct.

Those wanting to try out the upcoming RTS early can do so by purchasing a Founde??r's pack for access on July 30, or wait until it releases for free into Early Access on August 13, 2024 on PC via Steam.

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I recently had the opportunity to get my hands on Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin and try out the Real Time Strategy title's Conquest Mode. In Conquest Mode, players progress across a map engaging in 1v1 Skirmishes against the four factions in Realms of Ruin.?? Each battle will involve unique modifiers that can buff or debuff the way the battle is handled in that skirmish. For example, in one battle my units had reduced vision, meani??ng they could not see as far when traversing the map. In another battle, all units moved faster, which made for some faster-paced gameplay.

Realms of Ruin participated in the recent Steam Fest that just ended, featuring a playable demo. In the demo, players could jump into a couple of the early campaign missions to get a feel for the gameplay. Demos are always great to get an idea of how a game will play. But to me, these two early missions didn't quite reflect the fun and unique RTS gameplay I experienced when I played Realms of Ruin.

The Age of Sigmar

I'm a huge RTS fan, growing up playing StarCraft, WarCraft 3, and Age of Empires. But Realms of Ruin is different. Instead of buil?ding structures and sending out workers to harvest resources, you will take over control points—called Arcane Conduits�and convert them to structures of your choosing. You have two resources,? Command and Realmstones.

Command is primarily spent to spawn more units at your main base, while Realmstones are mostly used for researching upgrades. The upgrades can be pretty basic such as increased damage or armor for a certain unit, or more intricate like changing the playstyle of a specific ??unit. Realmstones are also used to activate specific abilities on your unit??s, so you have to keep a balance of teching up and saving resources for battle. Both resources can be used to upgrade your Arcane Conduits to give them a specific purpose such as generating more Command or Realmstones, or even acting as a defensive structure or outpost to heal at.

Micro is not a thing in Realms of Ruin. When units engage in combat on the battlefield, the player loses control of the unit as they automatically fight their enemy. You can of course influe??nce the battle by using abilities. Each unit has its own unique abilities, so once you get used to the nuance of all your units, you can really min-max things even without the ability to micro. Also, every unit has the ability to retreat in exchange for spending some Command. When you push the button to retreat the unit will instantly become 'Unstoppable' meaning they can't be slowed or crowd controlled. They will then beeline it to your main base at a faster speed, where they can heal. It's a nice added element of strategic gameplay, as you never want to lose a unit!

Plenty of tools for Tabletop enthusiasts

For fans of the Warhammer tabletop, or even just customization, Realms of Ruin?? also revealed a handful of features and tools that will further enhance the Age of Sigmar experience.

First off, there is an Army Livery. Here players can customize and paint each of their units as well as create a palette for their entire faction. I was able to m?ess around with the Army Livery for a few minutes before jumping into Conquest Mode, and it felt like observing a handful of painted figures from the Tab?letop game.

A map Editor is also launching with Realms of Ruin and will be accessible in both the PC and console versions. Players can develop their own cross-platform maps as well as share them with the community. I didn't get? to try out the editor, but a brief video overview I saw showed off the ability to manipulate biomes, paint terrain, adjust elevati??ons, and place objects.

Perhaps the coolest feature for Warhammer fans will be the Scene Editor. Using the same tools from the Map?? Editor, players can create immersive scenes in the Warhammer universe, placing and positioning units exactly where they want while als??o choosing their animation frame. I didn't get to play with this tool either, but I did get to see some of the epic battlescapes created with it and dang were they cool! Super detailed and fitting to the Age of Sigmar name.

Fear the Disciples of Tzeentch

As part of the event, we also got the reveal of the fourth and final faction: the Disciples of Tzeentch. The brutal ma?sters of mystical arts and el??????????????????????????dritch warriors have some very unique units. According to Frontier, the faction plays a small but meaningful role in the campaign but is fully playable in Conquest Mode and Multiplayer.

The Disciples of Tzeentch join the other three factions: the Stormcast Eternals, Orruk Kruleboyz, and Nighthaunt. All of the factions in Realms of Ruin are inspired by their tabletop counterpart. Each faction has ten or so unique units with their own abilities as well as strengths and weaknesses. There's a lot of depth here. And while I was able to pretty quickly pick up on how to play Realms of Ruin, I can definitely see it will t?ake some real effort to master.

I had a lot of fun with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin. I think the unique spin they've put on the RTS genre ended up being a fresh experience. The lack of micro actually appeals to me as I've always been more of a macro fan. But I also like that you can ?still influence the battles based on unit selection and then how you make use of abilities in battle.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin launches on November 17 for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation® 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

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Lead the Stormcast Eternals and Orruk Kruleboyz

Frontier Developments has released details regarding the upcoming Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin beta.? The open beta event for the real-time strategy game will be available to every??one on July 7-10.

Those looking to join in the fun are encouraged to register their interest for the beta to ensure the?y get the proper details when they drop.

[caption id="attachment_390104" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Frontier Developments[/caption]

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin open beta details

Acco?rding to the beta page, this op??en beta has two main objectives.

The first is to test the stability and network performance of the game. The other objective is to test the game's multiplayer feedback on the balance of the two factions in the beta. These include the superhuman near-immortal Stormcast Eter??nals, and the swamp-dwelling Orruk Kruleboyz. Frontier Developments will be looking for feedback on overall economy and gameplay balance of the two facti??ons.

The team hopes this beta period can als?o serve as a network t?est. If a large number of players participate, the servers can be stress tested to identify potential bottlenecks or other issues to ensure a smooth and stable network come launch.

[caption id="attachment_390105" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Frontier Developments[/caption]

How to access the open beta

The first open beta will run from July 8th at 3AM PST through July 10th at 3:59PM PST. A second open beta event is on the? way with more details coming this summer.

Because Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin i?s cros?s-platform, instructions for downloading the beta client will vary based on platform.

• PC players can download the beta via the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin store page on Steam.
• Xbox Series X|S| players must search for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin â€?Open Beta on the Xbox Store.
• PlayStation 5 players will find the download by searching Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin â€?Open Beta on the PlayStation Store.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin has no release date as of now, but Front??ier Developments says it's "coming soon."

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What a week for Warhammer fans

If you thought a Warhammer 40,000-themed DLC for PowerWash Simulator or a brand new Warhammer MMO would be the only new game reveals from the Warhammer Skulls 2023 event, think again. Frontier Developments announced Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, a brand new real-time strategy game develop??ed in pa?rtnership with Games Workshop.

The game is set in the Age of Sigmar and brings the popular era of Warhammer to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam and the Ep??ic Games Store. Alongside this revea??l the studio also released a pretty epic announcement trailer.

//youtu.be/LFs5h-sgpFM

Conquer the Mortal Realms in the Age of Sigmar

According to the press release, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin takes place in the violent and savage Realm of Beasts known as Ghur. The single-player campaign's Age of Sigmar narrative is co-written by legendary Black Library author Gavin Thorpe. I personally find the Age of Sigmar to be the most detailed and fleshed-out era of the fantasy period of Warhammer, so I'm excited to see what direction the story takes. The single-player campaign also features a wide range of mis??sion types and modes as well as four distinct playable factions.

Although the history of RTS games on console has been rather hit-or-miss, Frontier Developments claims to have an innov??ative new RTS-interface called DirectStepâ„?to specifically enhance the experience with a controller. They claim the technology allows you to quickly cycle through squads and issue orders with the analogue sticks and a few simple button presses. PC players can of course play using keyboard and mouse controls.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin also has a "quickfire and exciting" multiplayer mode with matches designed to last 30 minutes or less. The multiplayer sounds very similar to Company of Heroes as you will nee??d to hold more Ar?cane Conduits than your opponent to drain their points faster than they can yours.

[caption id="attachment_381980" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Frontier Developments[/caption]

There's no release date yet for Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin but Frontier Developments says it will be coming soon. They have announced two multiplayer betas will be held soon across all platforms. You can register for them on the official website. According ?to the press release the first gameplay trailer is coming in June.

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Age of Minecraft

Minecraft the game and Minecraft th??e franchise are two di??fferent, yet equally fascinating beasts.

Minecraft needs no explanation. If you’re reading this, I’m sure you already have an opinion on it. But its many spinoffs haven’t necessarily stayed true to more than Minecraft’s overall aesthetic. Minecraft: Story Mode gave us a Telltale narrative adventure when that was the rage, and Minecraft Dungeons asked “What if Minecraft was Diablo?�Minecraft Legends is the newest game in this extende??d Minecraftian Universe, this time introducing the blocky world to the strategy genre.

Some may take umbrage with these Minecraft spinoffs, but I’m in favor of them. I never got invested in Minecraft proper; I just wasn’t in the right time and place at the height of its popularity. That said, mixing new genres with the Minecraft DNA is the perfect way to get people like me invested in the franchise. Coming in with a mostly blank slate, I genuinely didn’t know what to expect from Minecraft Legends. Fortunately, my time with the game has left me with a greater appreciation for both Minecraft and the strategy genre. It’s just Minecraft Legends itself that I’m on the fence about.

[caption id="attachment_373710" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Minecraft Legends (PC [reviewed] Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, PS4, PS5)
Developer: Mojang Studios, Blackbird Interactive
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Release: April 18, 2023
MSRP: $39.99

Minecraft Legends is a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game. The developers have shied away from this label, likely for reasons that should become clear during this review. That said, I can’t think of a better descriptor for what Minecraft Legends is at its core. You collect resources, build settlements, and rally small armies of disposable troops to launch attacks on enemies. If you’re familiar with the gameplay loop of other RTS titles, you’ll have a step up coming into Minecraft Legends.

The difference is that Minecraft Legends attempts to make this PC-specific genre click in a console environment. It’s not the first game to attempt such a feat (mention Brutal Legend in the comments for free internet points), but this nonetheless gives Minecraft Legends a distinct identity. To achieve this, you directly control a player avatar that not only issues all commands but participates directly in battle. The result is right in the middle of Pikmin and Age of Empires, with a dash of Minecraft’s core gameplay.

It's a sound mixture of ideas, and I really like the approach Minecraft Legends takes here. The controls take an hour to get the hang of, but the basics are easy to grasp in a handful of minutes. Additionally, if you’re familiar with Minecraft, two of the three main pillars of the game will come naturally. In fact, before we get into the game modes Minecraft Legends puts in front of ?you, we have to review these core mechanics in isolation.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw6f-tJKoao

The mining is good

It’s a bit silly to say out loud, but the mining and crafting in Minecraft Legends are its strongest elements.

Just like Minecraft proper, you want to find stacks of resources stemming from distinctly colored blocks. However, rather than smacking them yourself with a pickaxe, you issue orders to gather specific materials in?? an area. This will summon an Allay, a dedicated fairy-like unit whose sole existence is to gather things for you. If you’ve played other RTS games, this isn’t terribly different than sending a unit to indefinitely chop down trees. That said, ordering Allays around is instantaneous and oddly satisfying. Iâ€?™d often be en route to an objective and see materials I’d need on the ground, so I’d bark a command at an Allay without even bothering to stop.

There’s a nice element of strategy here. You can order an Allay to collect a literal mountain of rocks for you, but that will tie up one of your limited number of gatherers for several minutes. Meanwhile, if you don't order Allays around, you're missing opportunities to earn stacks of valuable resources. Whether you should hold Allays or use them all for passive resource gains makes for a natural risk/reward system, which fits well within Minecraft Legends. It's an elegant mechanic that the game absolute?ly n??ails.

[caption id="attachment_373707" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The crafting is good

Similarly, using your materials to craft buildings is also satisfying. When fending off enemies, Minecraft Legends closely resembles a Tower Defense game. You’ll have to protect your home base with a series of walls, arrow towers, and other buildings that will augment or heal your existing foundation. Like mining, crafting in Minecraft Legends uses its own pool of Allays. Issue?? an order for something to be built in one spot, and an Allay will build it brick by brick.

It's a great system, as it performs well in different contexts. In times of peace, erecting your settlement is fast and easy. You’ll spend a limited amount of time on minutia and focus solely on where you want things built. Similarl?y, when you’re under attack, you can frantically order Allays to patch walls and work on other constructions while you’re mid-combat. This adds a fun, frantic element to the defensive gameplay. When your units are struggling to fend off an army, it’s satisfying to slap four arrow towers around your army to provide some extra firepower.

There aren’t many building types in Minecraft Legends, but I don't see this as a negative. This is more of a Smash Bros. take on the RTS genre, so it doesn’t necessarily need the complexity that other titles have. Additionally, there’s still room for advanced strategies and player creativity with the tools provided. There do seem to be some balance issues, but I imagine Mojang and Blackbird Interactive will tweak things as time goes on. Unfortunately, Minecraft Legends has greater issues than its balancing.

[caption id="attachment_373709" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Going on the attack is�well�/h2>

The third pillar of Minecraft Legends is its attack phase. When you’re ready to take down your opponent, you’ll gather a small squad of units around you and charge headlong into battle. On paper, this looks nice. You have a concise selection of units to pick, ranging from healers to stun-focused melee fighters. Additionally, you can summon classic Minecraft monsters like Skeletons, Creepers, and Zombies to fight alongside you. Even with no attachment to Minecraft, I enjoyed joining for?ces with former enemies to take bigger baddies down.

Once you’re engaged in combat, your best course of strategy is to…well, kind of hang out. Unlike the Allays—which are conducive to multitasking—your best course of action with your army is to hold down your one attack button. Wiggle around to take out the extra small fry, and hopefully, your army will eventually win. This really slows the action down, as that satisfaction fr?om making snap strategic decisions largely disappears here. You do have to decide when to keep charging and when to retreat, but overall, there really isn’t much engagement here.

Even if your forces can comfortably overwhelm whatever they’re fighting, you still need to be physically present to collect the rewards they drop before they fade away. There are limited options to break up the tedium. Specifically, you can build a catapult that works very well if you're on the offensive. Still, this is one area where Minecraft Legends leans way too hard on simplicity.

[caption id="attachment_373708" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Am I herding cats?

Additionally, your army’s AI is imprecise. If you issue an order to attack a specific structure, your troops will generally rush it from wherever they’re standing. This is bad if you, say, built a ramp to help your group cross a chasm, only to watch 20% of your forces just fall off the side instead. Even when they do obey, they often act in particularly baffling w??ays. Healing units, for example, usually won't charge into battle if no one needs healing. This might sound smart, but when your front line starts immediately taking damage, they have no intuition to enter the fray and start supporting.

There were so many times when I ran around just to see where my units wandered off to. Even after ordering my team to specifically charge a building or settlement, I had to corral stragglers stuck fighting losing battles by themselves nearby. This gets even worse if you have a mixture of melee and ranged attackers on your team since it is all too ??easy to miss units when you want to regroup and charge forward.

This isn’t necessarily game-breaking. Aft?er all, in a competitive environment, all players are dealing with their respective AIs. I just never felt as in control as I’d like to be for a strategy game. You eventually get a feel for how your army moves, and you can strategically maneuver in ways to help them charge in the direction you want them to. That said, I can’t help but feel this shouldn’t ha?ve been a part of the game to begin with.

[caption id="attachment_373742" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Campaign pain

Minecraft Legends has three primary modes. All of them feature this same core gameplay, but with their own unique twi?st. Unfortunately, the adventure you are funneled into first is by far the weakest of the options.

Campaign Mode thrusts you into a larger map that tasks you with defeating armies of enemy Piglins. Minecraft Legends doesn’t need a more complicated story than that, but this threadbare plot is oddly expressed through many elaborate cutscenes. This sounds weird to complain about, but to avoid spoilers, I can't imagine anyone getting anything out of this. I understand the story is aimed at kids, but more on that later. Regardless, I'm not expecting Shakespeare out of Minecraft, but this isn't even Shark Tale.

If this were my only gripe with Campaign Mode, I’d be okay with it. The problem is the campaign takes Minecraft Legends' core systems intended for games lasting one hour and stretches it to over ten. There are flourishes thrown in here, but you’ll see almost everything worth experiencing shortly after it begins. The one ??bright spot is village defense missions, which work well because they play to the game's strongest elements. The rest of the story throws you against Piglin waves and bases you’ve already seen, just in bigger and more tedious numbers.

Every campaign features a procedurally generated world, which I can't help but consider a misstep. On one hand, I get that this is a more �em>Minecraft-y�approach. It also, in theory, makes the game replayable, especially since it supports four-player co-op. That said, when hour t??hree looks virtually identical to hour six, proced??ural generation doesn’t make the campaign look better. It just exposes how little there is to begin with.

[caption id="attachment_373711" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

It's not a tutorial

The bizarre part is the campaign doesn’t even make for a good tutorial. At best, it’s an open-ended playground for you to experiment with Minecraft Legends�/em> gameplay. But it doesn’t really teach you anything aside from the exceedingly obvious. Even a game as old as Age of Empires 2 threw you into different ??scenarios that tested your mastery of different aspects of the game. If you strictly judge the campaign against other co-op-focus??ed experiences, it still feels lacking in the end.