Vampires are back in style, it seems, as E3 had plenty of vampire-esque games to show off this year, including Kalypso Media’s Immortal Realms - Vampire Wars. Developed by Palindrome and published by Kalypso, Immortal Realms - Vampire Wars is an upcoming strategy game that combines more than one aspect associated with the genre. It couples a card-playing element to its turn-based combat system and combines all that with traditional empire management in order to provide a rather exhaustive strategy gaming experience.
On the outside, Immortal Realms - Vampire Wars looks like Age of Wonders or Heroes of Might and Magic but infused with a vampire storyline and Magic: The Gathering elements. But on the inside, there’s a lot more going on, and quite a bit of its ingredients will appeal to longtime strategy fans, especially those who’ve been waiting for a new game to reform the genre. While we’re not saying that Immortal Realms - Vampire Wars is that game, it’s certainly the first step in getting to that point.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to glean exactly what a game like Immortal Realms - Vampire Wars entails, in its entirety, from a brief gameplay demo, a hands-off one at that. However, from what we did see at E3 2019, Palindrome appears to have something special on their hands. With three clans - Dracul, Nosfernus, and Moroia - Immortal Realms - Vampire Wars provides a variety of units for players to use, from their basic infantry-type units to their generals. Managing everyone from the bottom up, including potentially turning generals into combat cards themselves, adds to the complexity and intrigue that this game offers.
From the start of a conflict, players’ biggest concern will be what cards to use. It doesn’t seem difficult to master, but it could take some time to understand which cards to use when. This is a huge part of what makes Immortal Realms - Vampire Wars stand out from the crowd. Of course, though, there are several other factors that haven’t been showcased yet. We’re interested to see how the open-world sandbox mode and the interactive environment factor into the overall experience, but it’s not something that we can comment on at this time since it wasn’t shown - at least not comprehensively - in this gameplay demo.
Immortal Realms - Vampire Wars shows promise, that’s for sure. But everything unique about it right now lies at the conceptual level; everything else has already been done before and seemingly done better. Sure, Immortal Realms - Vampire Wars has impressive visuals, which is an aspect more studios are beginning to focus on, but it may not be enough to get someone who’s already into Civilization or Age of Wonders to switch over to Immortal Realms - Vampire Wars. What ultimately works in its favor is the card system, but that’s only one component of a large game, one that’s accompanied with a 12-level and 25-hour campaign mode. But again, there needs to be something more.
Next: Magic: The Gathering Needs A Modern Ban Desperately, But It’s Not Hogaak
