In a world ruled by Diablo, budget titles like Torchlight, Path of Exile, and Crimson Alliance have demonstrated that despite living in an over-saturated market, there’s still room for games that push the boundaries of innovation to deliver a crisp, unique, and enjoyable experiences for you the player. If there’s a story to be told, an adventure to be had, it’ll happen. Even with a budget that could fit in your back-pocket.

Wizar Box’s Realms of Ancient War attempts to forge its own adventure by following in the footsteps of the top-down-RPG-elite. But there’s just one problem. There is nothing that sets RAW apart from every other game this genre has spewed out. There’s no originality. There’s nothing clever. There’s not one single instance where you sit back and admire what you’ve just witnessed.

It’s a flat experience that never peaks.

RAW opens with an uninspired way of telling a story; pictures with some guy reading the text. The story has something to do with elves, four Kings, and war. Oh, and spiders. For some reason, there’s spiders everywhere. Walk past a wolf in a forest, there’s spiders. Stroll into a mine, there’s spiders. Trek through a desert, guess what? There’s spiders. Every few steps, you’ll be ambushed by an army of spiders. No matter where you are, there’s spiders, everywhere. And it’s purely just for the sake of having some enemies to fight.

The spider infestation is made worse by the inability to tell when an enemy dies. When getting ambushed (by spiders most likely) you swing your weapons in a bid to dispatch your foes as quickly as possible. Herein lies the problem. You keep hacking even when they’re dead or better yet, you think they’re dead and when you go to walk away, they’re still alive and carry on attacking you. Imagine being surrounded by ten-or-so enemies, you’ve killed half, but you can’t tell who’s dead and who isn’t. It’s like this for almost every single encounter from start to finish.

The clearly overlooked and under-tested combat makes RAW utterly un-enjoyable. Black wolves, in a dark paletted forest. How are you supposed to know when they drop unless your head is glued to the TV screen?

This isn’t the only area where combat is lacking. Spells feel hollow, bows feel slow (and like an elastic-band roped around a twig), and the dual wield feels painfully weak. There’s no skill to combat. It’s just hammer the attack button and occasionally use a stamina-based attack until your bar empties, which after the first few mobs (of spiders) becomes repetitive, dull, and lifeless.

Another gripe about the combat I found was that you can’t launch into stamina attacks directly after a regular attack. You hit attack, and then have to finish the attack animation before you can cast a heal or launch a more forceful power-move. This one second delay may not be an issue for some, but for me, it’s the difference between escaping a fight with a win, and dying/cursing those who beta-tested the game.

There’s so many things wrong with RAW that either the quality control testers missed, or were simply ignored. For example, the character selection isn’t nearly varied enough. Following the first cut-scene, you decide whether to play as the generic mage, the generic brute, or the generic token female rogue (because every RPG needs a hot female rogue …). Each character has its own starting area and story. Although the stories are devoid of any imagination and do next to nothing to further the plot. The brute wakes up in his hometown after being ill for a bit. He’s better now though. Exciting stuff, right?

One area where RAW could have really shone, and justified its asking price, is the ability to posses enemy monsters. Certain enemies appear with an icon that alerts the player that they can be possessed. In principle, this could have been a major hook. ‘Destroy Enemies With Their Own Hands!’ could have been a serious tagline. Instead, it’s so poorly implemented that it’s not worthwhile or fun. The big monsters, that have no issue eating half your health, seemingly become weaker when you posses them. And to top it all off, the attack animations don’t work properly. So you end up having to hack and slash at double your usual pace because the game is ignoring your commands.

What’s the point?

If Diablo is the blueprint for how to make an isometric hack and slash, then it could be said that Torchlight is the blueprint for how to make a different game, same genre, on a lower budget. In turn, Realms of Ancient War is the blueprint for how NOT to make a game, period.

RAW is a game based around half finished ideas. There’s co-op. For two people with no online option. There’s possession. But it’s not all that great. There’s hacking and slashing. But after ten minutes of play, it’ll become a chore.

Games aren’t awarded points based on effort or potential. No gamer on Earth would be happy to pay money for ‘A good attempt’ or ‘Better luck next time’, so how in the world can Wizar Box justify £10 for this? For the same price you can pick up Torchlight, Crimson Alliance, or even D&D: Daggerdale. All of which are vastly superior in every way possible.

Save your money, or buy something else. Just don’t buy this.