Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Rival Realms offers a rich and engaging gameplay experience by blending traditional real-time strategy elements with role-playing game mechanics. Players choose between humans, elves, and greenskins, each with distinct unit rosters and strategic strengths. From the moment you begin, you’ll be managing base construction, resource gathering, and army composition—tasks familiar to RTS veterans but given fresh depth through unit progression and inventory systems.

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One of the game’s defining features is its unit veterancy system. Every soldier or creature in your army can gain up to five levels of experience, unlocking new skills and earning inventory slots. You’ll collect artifacts, potions, spell scrolls, and keys throughout missions, then decide which units carry crucial items into battle. This RPG twist makes you form strong attachments to veteran units and heightens the stakes of every skirmish.

Beyond veteran soldiers, Rival Realms introduces specialized units like spies and thieves who can infiltrate enemy castles, steal gold, or pickpocket valuable items even from powerful monsters. Fire masters add a further strategic layer by crafting bombs or reshaping terrain—turning land into water or vice versa to control chokepoints. Coupled with an AI that adapts its tactics—offensive, defensive, or even calling tactical retreats—the game rewards creative strategies and careful micromanagement.

Graphics

For its era, Rival Realms presents surprisingly detailed environments and unit models. Each race’s buildings reflect its cultural identity: sturdy human keeps, elegant elven spires, and rugged orcish fortresses. The color palette is vibrant, helping you distinguish friendly forces from foes at a glance, while the terrain tiles—forests, mountains, swamps, and rivers—feel organic and varied.

Spell effects and combat animations stand out as particularly polished. Fireballs explode with convincing flame textures, frost spells shimmer across the battlefield, and bomb detonations from fire masters leave smoldering craters. Unit movements are smooth, and each class—from archers loosing arrows to cavalry charging—has its own distinct animation cycle, adding clarity and visual appeal to hectic battles.

Rival Realms also features a built-in campaign and scenario editor that lets players create custom maps with the same visual assets used in the main game. This tool extends the game’s visual variety, as community-made levels often blend new layouts, objectives, and aesthetic touches. The game’s replay viewer further highlights graphics by allowing you to watch battles from multiple camera angles, showcasing unit details you might otherwise miss.

Story

The narrative structure of Rival Realms is delivered through three separate single-player campaigns—one for each race—which total 60 missions. Each campaign immerses you in the escalating conflict between humans, elves, and greenskins. The human storyline revolves around defending the kingdom from orcish invasions, the elven arc focuses on preserving the ancient forests, and the orc narrative follows a warlord’s rise to dominance. This multi-faceted approach keeps the overarching conflict fresh from different perspectives.

Quests woven into campaign missions deepen the storyline and integrate RPG elements. You might be tasked with rescuing kidnapped villagers, recovering a sacred elven artifact, or sabotaging an enemy’s gold supply. Completing these objectives often grants bonus experience for your veteran units or unlocks powerful items that carry over into later missions. These quests reinforce the sense that every battle contributes to a larger epic.

While the core plot occasionally leans on standard fantasy tropes—heroic humans, mysterious elves, brutal orc hordes—the game compensates with memorable set-piece battles and varied mission goals. Dialogues between commanders provide occasional character moments, but the main appeal lies in the mission design and how it advances both gameplay and narrative. Fans of lore-heavy RTS titles will appreciate the factions’ distinct backstories, even if the storytelling remains functional rather than deeply cinematic.

Overall Experience

Rival Realms shines in its replayability and content depth. With 60 campaign missions, dozens of standalone scenarios, and multiplayer matches supporting up to eight players, there’s always a new challenge around the corner. The campaign and scenario editor invites creative players to craft custom battles, while the replay system lets you review and share epic victories—or painful defeats.

The learning curve can be steep for newcomers, as mastering veterancy, inventory management, and faction-specific tactics requires both strategic planning and precise micromanagement. However, the game’s four AI difficulty levels and adjustable aggressive or defensive tendencies ensure that players of varying skill levels can find an appropriate challenge. Multiplayer enthusiasts will appreciate the ability to carry veteran units into head-to-head or co-op matches, adding continuity and personal investment to every skirmish.

Ultimately, Rival Realms delivers a satisfying blend of RTS and RPG features that still feels unique today. Its veteran system, specialized units, and campaign variety distinguish it from contemporaries, while robust map editing and multiplayer options add longevity. Whether you’re a longtime strategy gamer or seeking a fresh twist on fantasy warfare, Rival Realms offers an experience well worth exploring.

Retro Replay Score

6.6/10