Modest Thoughts about Realms Deep 2021

Realms Deep 2021 Key Art.

Saying that I anticipated Realms Deep 2021 would be quite an understatement. After its great debut a year ago, I was very excited to see what it's going to be like this time around. As days went on and harsh reality kept reminding me about itself, expectations for Realms Deep were growing through glimpse of hope for bright days to come...

And, in all honestly, I wished I kept that in check. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this event and there were some good and interesting games. However, I definitely expected something a bit different. That's really on me, but I would still like to talk a bit about both good and bad parts.

Delays and Oversaturation.

I'll start with Ion Fury: Aftershock and WRATH: Aeon of Ruin since I genuinely believed that they're right around the corner. Perhaps they would've been released soon after Realms Deep, but instead... Well, they were delayed. Although it is quite sad (especially with WRATH: I really want to play its full version, damn it), I would prefer to look at it from positive angle as I think the majority of people would agree that it's probably for the best, especially in current times. Nobody wants to get a rushed release that would try to catch its full potential as time goes on. They should've talked about Aftershock's delay on Live Show as well though, not just WRATH and its clear difficulties. At least 2.0 update is kind of intriguing.

Nothing was said about the re-release of original Rise of the Triad, as well as SiN and Kingpin's remasters. There's still a chance that an update on those projects will be released some time after this post comes out, but I don't want to wait too long for that. Maybe I wouldn't really need to: getting a surprise release would be neat.

You know, I played a lot of First-Person Shooters lately and watching Realms Deep's Live Show reassured me that I need to go back to a variety of other genres. Many games that were presented there were just... there, you know? Nothing stood out. It all feels the same, no matter the visuals, engine, gameplay, etc. That sets a grim precedent for retro FPS genre, in all honestly. Maybe it's already too late, but there're still some hidden gems amongst them.

Interesting Titles.

With that out of the way, now I'm going to talk about Wizordum. Seeing its trailer was probably the key moment of Realms Deep to me. Right next to it, I would put an Episode 2 teaser for HROT. I've learned about this game shortly after discovering Emberheart Games through the announcement and release of Crystal Caves HD (which I would like to play one day; even after seeing LGR review). Art style, atmosphere and apparent simplicity of this new title are really appealing to me. Seriously, I adore Primoz's pixel art style and tendency to limitations. Really excited to see more of his work.

Anyway, 3D Realms are still the stars of this shows as they're the ones who are responsible for it. Although they haven't actually revealed that "00000002001" FPS, we got two new reveals + another unannounced project: an RTS one, of all things. I've seen Cultic many times on Twitter. While it does peek my interest with obvious (perhaps, too obvious) Blood influences and certain weaponry, I'm not sure if I'm sold on game's art style. Might grab a demo in order to make a final decision. There was also a Combustion: Action-RPG inspired by Metal Gear Solid with low-poly visuals from Fifth Generation. Another interesting title, but I don't have much else to say about it at this point. Small updates on Graven and Core Decay were welcomed as well.

Sadly, there were no updates on Gloomwood since New Blood simply didn't have enough to show at this point in time after E3. Instead, we got a gameplay trailer for AMID EVIL expansion The Black Labyrinth, which is nice too. Meanwhile, Nightdive finally revealed Powerslave: Exhumed — a re-release of console versions of that game. I've seen good things about Powerslave, so maybe its worth a try. Especially since their DOOM 64 re-release is fantastic and Fresh Supply is mostly alright.

I'm not done yet. As I've mentioned before, there were even more interesting games that caught my attention. While I'm not exactly sure if I would actually end up playing them, I believe it's still worth mentioning them at least briefly:

• SKALD: Against the Dark Priory.

• Exophobia.

• Call of Saregnar.

• ARKOS.

• Death Trash.

• Compound Fracture.

• Conscript.

• DERELIKT.

• Innkeep.

Although I'm sure that I've seen pretty much all of them in similar matter to Cultic, it's still something. That's probably to be expected since it's a relatively niche community. A few of them are easily stand out within the vast majority of shown games at Realms Deep. In particular, SKALD with its 8-bit look and Conscript (even though horrors aren't my thing) that reminds me of Game Boy Advance games.

Final Thoughts.

I think it's pretty safe to assume that Realms Deep 2021 ended up the way it did mostly due to current times with pandemic still roaming around and big changes, like acquisition by Embracer Group. Again, it's not me really complaining about one long Live Show instead of two or anything like that. Event was still great, but it could've been better.

And I hope that next year will indeed be "even more insane". Realms Deep is about retro/indie FPS first and foremost, but it could be more than that. In a way it is since a great variety of game genres were presented on both events. Instead of focusing on one specific genre, why not embrace everything old school, retro and indie? More games, various panels over the course of 2-3 days, contests, etc.

Some might say that this is a bit too much for a non-profit event by a volunteer group, and you would probably be right. But I believe that it's still achievable if you just share more obligations among different parties and get them more involved with planning and stuff like that, Realms Deep could achieve its true potential in the future.