When we speak about the classic real-time strategy games, you might immediately come up with Blizzard's biggest hit Warcraft III. However, you might not know that Warcraft III had to delay its launch for several months until 2002 not only for further polishing, but also to avoid the most outstanding RTS game that comes out in 2001: Battle Realms.
It's not too unreasonable to say that Warcraft III's success was made on the ground of Battle Realm since the RTS genre is quite new in those early days. And if you're the 'old' gamers that are seeking the nostalgia of the classic titles, here's good news: Battle Realms will come back very soon!
The developer Ed Del Castillo has announced this with a trailer for quite long ago, 2015 to be exact. However, not until now that we finally have clearer looks on the game's relaunch. But before getting into the details, we invite you to see that trailer again!
Overview on Battle Realms
To the point that even Blizzard staff have to say that Battle Realms feels better than the current version of Warcraft III, you can already expect how good this relaunch version will be. But if you're new to the gaming industry and haven't heard about this game yet, here's a brief overview on the game:
Battle Realms is an RTS game with its unique concept taking inspiration from kung-fu movies and Far Eastern Asia's mythologies. You can expect a lot of Asian values to feature in this game, such as Yin and Yang, Ninja, Monk or Zen Masters.
From the starting point of a small village, you'll have to lead the peasant here to develop it into a mighty clan of frightening fighters. In order to do that, you'll have to send your workers to collect resources and use them to train your peasants into fierce soldiers with ultimate sieging forces. The micromanagement in this game is not all over the place, so you don't have to worry too much.
However, it's not mediocre either, since Battle Realms features one of the strangest troops developing mechanics in the industry. To be more specific, your soldiers won't jump on their mounts immediately out of the cage, as they'll have to start walking on their foot first. Your task is to lead them to find the wild horses, capture them for taming, and then finally bring them to the stable.
Now that you've already raised your mounts, you can finally allow your soldiers to ride their warhorses, as well as give them equipment for the battle. Once you're ready with your powerful upgrades, unleash them to your foes' territories.
Speaking about the battles, your cavalry will also function differently on the ground you are standing. Specifically, your troops will deal more damage if you're on the high ground, and if you're in an unfavorable position, you can command your army to hide behind trees to force your enemies to get closer.
Other features and release date
With this re-release, the developer aims to make Battle Realms viable for modern PC, ramping its supported resolution up to 1600 x 1200 maximum. Furthermore, the only expansion of the game - Winter of the Wolf coming out in 2002 to tell the story of the Wolf Clan will also be integrated with this launch.
The Early Access version of the Battle Realms will be available on Steam on December 3, and will very likely to stay there for a year with nearly the same complete level with the 2001 version. It will feature the single-player campaign mode as well as a 2v2 multiplayer mode in this early stage too.
Even better, as the developer - Ed Del Castillo only sold this Early Access version on Steam in with half of the price that the full game will be at launch, so you can't miss this chance.