Realm of the Titans

So I received an invitation to try the Realm of the Titans Closed Beta. It was from Aeria Games. I've tried a few different game systems over the years, I may have played another Aeria game, but I have no idea what game it was. I do keep all of my email correspondance... Well, not all of it, but the more important looking items get saved...

Sure enough, I have an email from 2008, where I apparently was trying to reset a password. Interesting.

Why not? Let's see what this is all about. Did they send me a link? Lets see...

Ah, here is a link to a youtube of the game:
Visit http://realmofthetitans.aeriagames.com to download the game are start playing!
I am sure they mean "visit and start playing", not "visit are start playing". OK... Clicking the link...

Looks like they are serious about their web site art. Thumbs up for a web page that works. It looks like (a) the closed beta is not very closed, and (b) this is important to them. This is plastered all over their home page.

It's go time... Downloading and installing, wish me luck.

08/05/2011 12:04 AM 285,720 realmofthetitans_us_downloader.exe

The installer is less than a megabyte. I approve. I've downloaded other installers that were over a gigabyte, and then downloaded and installed several gigabytes more. Lets click it and see what happens...
Well, that went smoothly. So much for the easy part. Time to learn more about the game.

Looking back at the download screen, it said:

Hardcore PvP Battles! Destroy everything and everyone in your path in this MOBA action strategy game.
Carve Your Place! Show off you skills with leader boards, achievements, even rewatch your greatest kills with Replay.
Get Your Fix FAST! The auto Matchmaking system gets you into game quickly and paired up with similarly skilled players.

I am not much of a PvP player, at least not in MMO games. I am not sure what MOBA means... Looking it up... I hope it isn't the Museum of Bad Art. Wait, maybe the wiki link: Moba Games
Well, that makes sense.

So far, this really does not look like my style of game. PvP, leader boards, replays, auto matchmaking. None of this really appeals to me, but perhaps there are people looking for this sort of thing.

Well, I did install it, I suppose I may as well give it a try. Scroll down to see how that went.
This was blessedly simple. It simply checked my card, and set some settings.
Unfortunately, it updated without asking permission, but on the other hand, the update was small, and it did wait until I actually ran the game.
It was hard to figure out where to start, until the start button started glowing.
Password... What was my password... It allowed me to tab out, find my password, and tab back without crashing or complaining. This is rarer than you might think.
The first name I tried worked, which is quite a relief. Many MMO games give you quite a run-around at this point.
The text spacing is off. I still understand, but it is a bit odd.
Movement and attacking does not get much easier than this.
Interesting use of the word "creeps". I suppose it is a common RTS term.
The statue is an awesome bit of animated art. Thumbs up. In fact, all of the art is excellent.

I was a bit lost at this point. The concept of creating items, and buying components was completely out of context with the rest of what I was doing. It seemed a bit overwhelming after the initial simplicity of the tutorial. I did manage to follow the bouncing arrows and get through these screens.
The tutorial was fun.

At one point, I moved my avatar too close to the foes, and managed to get her killed. This caused me some confusion, as the respawn button was small, and far from where I was concentrating. I did eventually find it, and manage to return to the action.

I can see where playing this game could be amusing. I don't see myself putting much time or money into it, but It was worth my time to download and try this game.