Stolen Realm Has Stolen My Time… (and I'm fine with that)
I, like many people, do a lot of my socialising online these days, usually via gaming. While there are a bounty of co-op games out there in the world, it’s generally a lot harder to find ones that cater to more than four people. Thankfully, aimlessly scrolling through Steam sales can occasionally yield a truly hidden gem, and in the most recent sale I stumbled across Stolen Realm.
Editor’s note: Jason has promised me this will be a short, 300 word write-up!
Stolen Realm is a turn-based tactical RPG that sees you and up to five other players go through a series of battles, events, and whatnot, as you try and finish off different quests. As you go, you’ll find new loot and get to level up and get to change your stat layout and your skills. It’s a proper RPG, with an inordinate amount of content to get through, and it’s still only in Early Access to boot.
What makes it so satisfying, aside from being able to play with a larger group, is the combat itself. While things start off fairly basic, with movement abilities often being free, movement itself being limited per turn, and then actions using up AP points, everything starts changing together into increasingly complex motions as time goes on.
I decided to start off as the Monk, because I simply love to punch things (although I’ve mostly been using a giant two-handed battleaxe). Initially, my skills were limited to hitting things slightly harder, and the ability to stop an enemy from attacking for a turn. I was deeply jealous of my friend who’d begun as a mage of some sort, and was already yeeting spells about willy-nilly.
Good teamwork everyone!
However, upon levelling up a couple of times, I suddenly found myself with access to a nifty rapid strike attack that would jump between enemies if they were close enough, and a dash movement ability that dealt damage to anything in its path. I could use both in one turn, and let me tell you, that’s some good Video Gaming™.
(this is clearly more than 300 words, forgive the rambling intro)
Editor’s note: Jason, this is longer than 300 words. I’m very disappointed.
Things got even wilder later on when I took a skill that reduced all my stats by 66% but made all of my stats match my highest value, making my Monk an obnoxiously effective all-rounder, and then I got an ability that boosted my attacks based on how far I’d moved. It’s just layers upon layers, like a stunning rainbow veggie lasagne, and if I ever got bored of playing my Monk, I could either respec, or just bring another character along with me if we were running a session with fewer than six players.
There are plenty of other cool systems in place, but I’m trying to keep this brief, so I’m going to stop talking mechanics. Stolen Realm makes you and your friends feel like a mighty team of adventurers, but you can also choose to pump the difficulty up (or down) at will if you’re in the mood for something soul-destroying.
Stolen Realm is, ultimately, just a huge amount of fun. If you’re an RPG fan of basically any kind I think you’ll get a kick out of it, and it being in Early Access means it’ll just keep getting better and more nuanced as time goes on. Go on, go get it.
