Realm Royale

[Dufniall]

So a new Battle Royale game is out on the Switch, from the makers of Paladins. Hi-Rez does what they do best, namely copying a popular (type of) game, while adding some original aspects to it. 

It's free-to-play, but if you've played any of their other games you know they go quite hard with the Season Pass and Crates system. For me it's not a big issue, as all is cosmetic and if you play regularly you can unlock quite some stuff anyway. What's more important is that it is a very good version of a Battle Royale game. It is less jerky than Fortnite, and there is no building aspect. In fact, the basics are quite simple. You can carry 2 weapons, 2 abilities (like a dodge roll, a long jump, healing area, grenades) which are tied to a cooldown. You can collect healing and armour potions, and you can break weapons you don't need down into shards which can be used at one of the forges on the map to craft new items/weapons. 

The map is actually quite interesting and varied, something I found lacking in the time I gave Fortnite a go. You can hop on a mount anytime to cover some grounds fast. The dying mechanic is also quite funny. Gettting killed means you turn into a chicken, and you have about 20 seconds before you respawn as human. Being killed off while being a chicken means end of the game. But you have a reasonable chance to recover if you find some shelter to hide behind. 

There are 4 classes to choose from, all with some perks towards certain weapons and a different starting ability. All in all it plays well. The only real downside are the loading times. If you can play a nice long match it is not too bad, but getting knocked out fast means it feels relatively long to get back in the game.

So, who is up for some squad based Battle Royale action?