Roger Alan Cotton

Stolen Realm is a tactical RPG action game published by Burst2Flame Entertainment that was released on Steam in June of 2021. In this game, you control one to six fantasy heroes who undertake quests to battle enemies in progressively difficult low-poly game world environments. You can solo the game, or join with other players in co-op mode. 

One aspect of gameplay in Stolen Realm that I most enjoy is being able to use destructible terrain features to form effective combat tactics. Terrain features such as buildings, crumbling walls, rock formations, statues, and towers serve to impede movement, provide cover, and block line of sight. They are permanent parts of game levels that cannot be destroyed. However, terrain features like carts, crates, and fences serve the same purposes, and can be destroyed through the use of melee and ranged attacks. 

Destroying such terrain features can result in altered game conditions that allow for the formation of new and effective tactics. For example, destroying obstacles may allow your party to target previously obscured enemies. Or, you can open up an obstructed game level so your lone hero can evade an overwhelming force long enough to whittle it down with ranged attacks to ultimately win. 

The most useful destructible terrain feature is the explosive barrel. When destroyed, it inflicts immediate damage to anyone caught within its blast radius. Sometimes, this is enough to kill one or more enemies outright. Typically, barrels generate residual elemental damage effects. Surviving victims may be shocked and immobilized for the next turn. Or, they may experience lingering burn or freeze damage if pinned in place to a burning or frozen game level hex. 

Barrels, like other destructible terrain features, can be repositioned. A hero may only move one barrel once per turn. Doing so requires the hero to spend an action to move it up to five hexes away from its current position. Even after being moved to the desired position, though, there is no guarantee that advancing enemies will end their movements within its blast radius. 

Intended targets may instead move in a different direction. Or, if they do end up near the barrel, your heroes may have run out of mana, preventing them from being able to attack the barrel at that time. Or, worse, your heroes may be unable to act at all because an enemy has temporarily encased them within blocks of ice!

When tactical use of a destructible object does work out as intended, you are able to damage, slow, or destroy enemy units to great effect. There is nothing more satisfying than finding a way to dramatically shift the tide of a losing battle. Especially when defeat seems imminent. And, with each battle won, tried and true tactics can be reused during harder game levels.

Stolen Realm is very straight-forward and easy to play. It is essentially a sandbox game with dynamic elements that allow for emergent tactical gameplay. If you like to formulate and test out strategies in combat situations, I highly recommend it.