Broken Realm Review

Broken Realm is a browser-based MMORPG from the people that brought you Wartune and Crystal Saga. If you’ve played those games (or have seen our reviews), you’ll know pretty much what to expect. That’ll either be a good thing or a bad thing, because Broken Realm doesn’t seem to have pushed things on an awful lot. If you loved Crystal Saga/Wartune, there’s no reason to think you won’t love Broken Realm. Unfortunately, the opposite is true as well. Is Broken Realm worth looking into, or are you better off taking your free-to-play time elsewhere? We took a look to find out.

Broken Realm gameplay

Easy Access – Broken Realm is free-to-play and it takes no time at all to get into a server. If you have an R2 Games account (or Facebook, Google, Twitter accounts), you can have first-time access in around ten seconds flat. For somebody with a tight data budget, R2 Games should definitely be top of your to-play list, and Broken Realm is the best of the R2 Games titles.

Art Design – While it has its flaws (as we’ll discuss further down this list), Broken Realm is a pretty looking game. Statues look statuesque and forested areas look almost painted. You can’t knock the art design itself and the team behind designing the worlds should be fairly proud. No, it’s in the way that the play interacts with the world that is less than visually stunning.

Pets and Mounts – From a purely shallow view point, the fact that you get access to pets and mounts very early in the game will be a plus for many people. Although the advantages of having access to these are little more than “you do more damage” and “you move faster,” it makes it feel no less fun to actually have them. Not a selling point for the vast majority, but those looking for mounts and pets will not be disappointed.

Let’s Autopath – The biggest fault of this game is that it doesn’t really require anything on the part of the player. You’re not going to be thinking through strategies as you play, you’re not going to even be thinking too much when you assign points to your character’s stats. You’re not even going to be reading what it is you’re doing for the most part. You’ll be clicking on people’s names in the quest description, clicking on enemies to begin battle and not much else. In the video I say it can feel a bit like a stress buster, a no-brain-needed style of play that lets you feel like you’re moving on without much or any effort, so it’s not really a bad thing, but I can’t stretch the metaphor into it being a good thing either. If you’re playing this game, you know what you’re getting.

You’re In My Way – Broken Realm is either incredibly popular or just badly laid out. It’s actually unusual to come across an NPC that isn’t entirely surrounded by player characters and, this, mixed with a high number of monsters in certain areas makes for an often cluttered screen. I can’t say it’s terrible – it’s nice to know other people are playing and there’s no better way of seeing that than by actually bumping into them – but it can be a bit like trying to get your favourite snack at a busy buffet.

Animation – This is a problem fairly common to browser based games, and I suppose it’s a problem that links together many of R2’s titles. Animation in this game can be atrocious. If you’ve ever seen a demo of a 12 frames a second flash animation, you’ll know what I mean. After a few minutes, you begin to see the three or four master frames that make up the important points of the movement and very little else. I understand there will be reasons for it and you can’t expect top level graphics in a free browser based game, but it doesn’t make it any more enjoyable to watch, nor any more excusable.

Stop and Start – The music in this game isn’t fantastic. It tends to be a case of “epic sounding battle theme” and “not so epic city theme” and that’s fine. Most people will mute the music and listen to their own stuff anyway. If you’re the sort of person who likes to get into the mood for a game though, the score in Broken Realm isn’t going to help. The music in this game seems to play for a small time and then stop for a small time. Then it’ll start again several seconds later, and stop after a short while. It’s incredibly annoying, almost like you’re listening to a 30 second demo. I can’t say with any certainty that it’s every location or even most locations that suffer from this – but I’ve heard it enough that I’ve noticed, and that means it happens too much.

Conclusion

Broken Realm isn’t a bad game and it certainly seems more popular than the divisive Wartune. I’ve enjoyed my time with the game, but it’s not something I can see being entertaining for any real length of time. It’s just not got enough “meat.” Even the items you pick up are practically automatically equipped. For somebody who doesn’t want an MMORPG with too much going on, for somebody who just wants to play to calm down after homework or a fight with the other half, I can see Broken Realm being a great experience. I can’t see there being people who get to the end game and stick around for long after.

Similar Games

• Crystal Saga
• Wartune