Realms Beyond Reality

Realms beyond Reality (RbR) is an upcoming Turn-Based 4X Game for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One & PC. The game is similar in ways to other 4X Games focusing on the premise of eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate and has the player controlling one of the various factions in the game. RbR is also part of the High Fantasy genre and has the player able to pick from several non-human creatures as well as having various fantastical elements that impact gameplay.

Plot Synopsis

During the opening credits of the game there is a cutscene showing the various factions that appear in the game including Humans farming crops on open fields, Gremlins mining for gold within chasms, Fungafolk using chemistry in a laboratory, Merfolk performing at a coastal opera and an army of Beastmen and Draconians going to war with one another.

The player can find out about some of the culture of each of the civilizations both from their bonus attributes, unique units and buildings as well as the game's encyclopedia on elements of the game.

Gameplay

Realms beyond Reality is played in a three-dimensional spherical board comprised of 5 to 8 sided tiles, the player's goal in the game is to complete one the various objectives in the game, these depend on if the player is playing a scenario or free-play and can be customized in the latter during the Game Setup section of the menu. The player is able to build settlements, construct buildings, recruit units of various types including combat, scientific, magical and civilian among others and explore the world in search of the other factions on the map and bonuses found throughout.

The game has several starting options including; Nomadic (No Starting City), City Center Only (Just the basic City) or Specialized (City with one Specialized District that the palyer can choose for their faction).

Cities

Cities function quite differently in this game to other 4X Games, there are several types of structures within a City that the player needs to be aware of;

• The City Center - This is where a City was established, Factions can build onto a City Center with Settler Units turning it into a Tower of Babel which allows the faction to construct more City Center specific buildings. The City Center is heart of any city and if an enemy captures it then it will cause the collapse of that faction's control over the city.
• Districts - Districts are Settler Buildings established within the limits of another city and so do not become their own cities. Districts are costly but provide a boost to all aspects of City and Faction growth, they can also be specialized to focus on one particular attribute.
• Specialty Buildings - These are buildings constructed from the City Center which take up a tile, they function similar to Districts in Civilization VI having a specific role with the faction able to construct additional structures within the Specialty Building to make it better or to specialize it in a specific field of its specialty. It should be noted that unlike in Civ VI, Specialty Buildings have their own Production Slot meaning the faction can build structures in a Specialty Building while the City Center builds other things although this does cut the Production Rate which the faction can allocate in percentages to the City Center and its Specialty Buildings.
• Improvements - One of the Civilian Units in the game, known as the Builder is able to create Improvements on tiles that are not occupied by another building, these Improvements provide simple and low cost benefits and there can be as many improvements on a single tile as that tile has sides. Builders have limited uses however and the faction will need to return a builder to a City Center or District to recharge them to continue constructing Improvements.
• Defensive Buildings - Constructed by Military Engineers these buildings serve the faction to be able to produce Units for them to use in direct Combat as well as provide defensive benefits to protect the faction from attacking enemies, liike Improvements these can be built for as many sides as a tile has. The cost of producing units from these buildings is not tied to the same Production amount the faction has for their City Center & Districts but rather the production of the Tile itself, so High Production Tiles can produce units faster than Low Production Tiles.
• Landmarks - Landmarks are unique buildings that factions can attempt to build and are one way of winning the game, Landmarks are large structures that take up an entire tile and typically require certain attributes to be constructed. There can only be one of each type of Landmark in the game so if a landmark is built before a faction can finish their own, the faction that lost has their landmark destroyed and some of their production towards the landmark reimbursed for them to use for other construction.

Unit Types

There are a number of Unit Types in the game, each having their own roles and abilities;

• Civilian - The most basic of the units, these include a wide variety of roles including Settlers, Builders, Military Engineers & Traders. Civilians can be recruited at the City Center or Specailty Buildings in some cases and will have generally one specific role to serve in the game.
• Scientific - These are units which specialize in developing technology, Scientific Units need to be sent out to inspect various aspects of the world and can discover technologies through that exploration, this includes inspecting wildlife, flora, natural features and even some of a faction's own buildings and units. Technologies have hints on how to unlock each of them to be researched however it's up to the faction to use Scientific Units to make them available. Scientific Units can also engage other Scientific Units either in friendly Technological Exchange which can have the chance for either faction to unlock technologies the other faction has or through aggressive actions which can lead to stealing technologies unlocking them for the faction and getting a boost towards researching the technology if the enemy already researched it.
• Magical - Magical Units are capable of using magic and discerning the aspects of magic within the world itself, similar to Scientific and Philosophical Units they need to explore the world to unlock different types of magic, unlike their counterparts however once a magic is unlocked the faction simply needs to bring the Magical Unit back to a City, District or Specialty Building and have them publish their Tome to have that magic accessible. Magical Units can also be used for combat although are not particularly effective as there are Magically-inclined Combat Units available fairly early on in the game.
• Philosophical - The third Research based Unit type, Philosophical Units need to explore the world to unlock different Philosophical Moments and similar to Scientific Technologies these can then be researched. Philosophical Units are also able to explore into territories most other units for a faction cannot go including into other faction's borders without causing war. Philosophical Units can be used to have a Cultural Exchange with another faction temporarily boosting both factions' ability to research Philosophical Moments or can be used to Condemn a faction if they have a different government type to the Philosophical Unit's faction which can impact the output of that city.
• Combat - Simple units which are designed to fight one another, take over land, deal with wild creatures and unruly folk as well as capture other types of units. Combat Units come in many types some for direct combat others with ranged or bombarding tactics. Combat Units are produced at Defensive Buildings unlike most other units and so are tied to the production output of the tile their building is located on. Each Faction has several unique Combat Units across the Eras which give them distinct advantages with that particular unit over their enemies.
• Religious - Religious Units are units that are able to spread faith of a faction's belief system as well as establish several unique improvements such as Heritage Sites, National Treasures and Relic Sites which can contribute towards the output of a city. Religious Units are also able to be used to influence over other units to the religious unit's faction's side, the probability of this working varies based on a number of factors but however can allow a faction to turn the tide of a battle.
• Environmental - Environmental Units are a rather unique type of unit, they're able to be sent to unmodified tiles and based on technologies, magic and moments that have been unlocked can turn these tiles into Gifted Tiles which have additional bonuses to them and typically spawn rare resources that a faction can make use of. Environmental Units can also be sent in to improve the output of certain buildings across a faction's city and in the later stages of the game can be used to cause natural disasters or natural bounties the former having devastating impacts on any faction caught in the disaster's wake and the latter providing a massive bonus in the surrounding area for a temporary period of time. Environmental Units are the only unit type in the game that regardless of the state between two factions cannot enter another faction's territory.

Victory Types

There are several Victory Types in Realms beyond Reality that the player can strive to achieve, during the Game Setup different Victories can be Enabled or Disabled;

• Score Victory - By the end of the game (designated by a number of turns during the Game Setup) the faction with the most points (or factions if team mode is on) wins.
• Conquest Victory - Win by eliminating every enemy faction from the game until only your faction and your teammates remain.
• Scientific Victory - Win by being the first to send an Astronaut to another planet, this requires completely almost all of the Scientific Research Tree.
• Magical Victory - Win by being the first to unlock and use Mind Wipe the most powerful Magical Spell in the game which can only be unlocked through creating the necessary buildings to research it.
• Ideological Victory - Win by having your faction construct the Ideological Marvel a special landmark building which is unlocked by completing the Philosophical Research Tree.
• Nature Victory - Win by having the highest synergy with nature and then summoning Mother Nature through a combination of Science, Magic and Philosophy.
• Religious Victory - Win by having your Belief System followed by between 50-100% of the world's population.
• Landmark Victory - Win by building or controlling a certain percentage of the possible landmarks (excluding the Ideological Marvel) in the game (between 50-100%).
• Diplomatic Victory - Win by acquiring enough Diplomatic Favours, Bribes and Alliances to have your faction voted as the World Power.
• Anarchy Victory - Win by causing every other faction in the game to collapse into anarchy one way or another.

Factions

TBA

The World

The World is generated based on a seed that the player can input during the Game Setup or import from other players, there are a variety of environments that can appear across the world ranging from realistic environments like Forests, Plains, the Ocean, Deserts, Tundra and Mountains to more magical ones like Bolenum, Lapacu, Obstalt, Glaciano, Nebulcarn and Nuravi.

In addition to the more varied terrain the player will also find that the world is not limited to just one level, the player can have units some time into a game explore underground finding certain resources significantly more easily as well as encountering more dangerous enemies. Underground Caverns vary in type and length with some going for dozens of tiles while others are strictly a single tile wide. The player's options in what to do with the underground tiles is different to their above ground counterparts and the player also has the option of opening up an underground tile to the surface merging the two into a single layer, this cannot be done for all tiles however and only works on ones without City Centers, Districts, Specialty Buildings or Landmarks.

As with other 4X Games, tiles of the same time can vary based on additional factors; Vegetation, Rivers, Mountains & Hills. The presence of these is not considered a new tile but can impact the player's ability to have units traverse the tile.

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