Our Verdict
Avatar Legends: Realms Collide is a poorly executed, cash-grabby, generic 4x recreation with little or no to supply from the huge world of the Avatar sequence. Grindy idle gameplay and facet quests overshadow any try at authentic storytelling.
As an avid Avatar: The Final Airbender fan, 2025 is a big yr for me. It’s the present’s twentieth anniversary, we’re ready on a second season of the Netflix sequence, and Nickelodeon simply greenlit a model new sequence set within the ATLA universe. Avatar followers simply maintain successful, so I used to be extremely excited to get the possibility to evaluation Avatar Legends: Realms Collide early.
One way or the other, regardless of absolutely the wealth of supply materials and worldbuilding that the creators have established all through the sequence’ twenty-year historical past, Avatar video games all the time appear to flop. Arguably, one of the best implementation we’ve seen of the Gaang is in video games like Fortnite, so I do know I wasn’t alone in hoping that Avatar Legends: Realms Collide would break this pattern.
Realms Collide is a 4x technique recreation, which admittedly isn’t my go-to style, however I used to be prepared to provide it a shot due to the Avatar theming and the promise of Father Glowworm’s first visible look. The opening cutscene had me hooked and wanting to study extra concerning the Shattered Skulls and the risks of the spirit world, however sadly, even attending to play as my favourite edgy firebender, Zuko, hasn’t stopped me from becoming bored.
Writer Tilting Level instructed me that Realms Collide options “immersive gameplay, partaking narrative, and gorgeous visuals,” and I’ve to say that I disagree. Firstly, the gameplay is fairly generic, particularly when it comes to 4x video games. I spend most of my time tapping on little icons to gather supplies or improve buildings, and I’m not even certain what the aim of my stronghold is within the bigger narrative.
With out the obscure Avatar themes and components, this recreation may go as some other generic cell technique title. Battling cultists is repetitive and boring, with no participant enter in addition to selecting who to ship out, which is wild contemplating the sheer range of fight types within the Avatar universe. If I have been to make an ATLA recreation, I would even go for turn-based fight moderately than idle techniques matches.
Then there’s the narrative component. Apart from the promising opening cutscene, Realms Collide’s story is hard to comply with and appears to behave as a thinly veiled car for the usual ‘make your metropolis greater and take down bigger enemies’ conquest recreation loop, which feels notably misplaced throughout peacetime between the nations. A lot of ATLA’s authentic message is staunchly anti-war that it actually baffles me why builders insist on making fight and expansion-driven Avatar video games.
I perceive the need to see superior heroes like Aang, Korra, and Kyoshi struggle side-by-side, however it makes determining the time interval and setting actually complicated – arguably extra so in the event you’re an invested fan than in the event you’re an off-the-cuff viewer. What do you imply child Aang and Zuko are working with middle-aged Bumi Jr and Tenzin? The lovable, deep, and flawed characters from the Avatar universe come throughout as poorly written and one notice, and the Shattered Skulls really feel like a placeholder, faceless horde of enemies.
Lastly, the visuals are actually not gorgeous. The characters’ 3D fashions appear like they’re reused belongings from different failed Avatar video games, the decision is crunchy, and the isometric standpoint jogs my memory of Fb-era farming video games. I do know it’s harsh, however it’s true! What ties all of those points collectively is that we by no means see something occurring. We’re merely instructed by means of dialog that one thing has occurred, which is a cardinal sin of film and videogame storytelling.
It will be irresponsible of me to not no less than contact on Realms Collide’s in-game store. As a 4x technique recreation, you spend lots of time ready for issues to occur, whether or not that’s analysis, exploration, or enlargement. It’s 2025, individuals’s persistence is at an all-time low, and corporations love to take advantage of that. There are such a lot of totally different microtransactions on this recreation and so they all really feel extremely predatory. Sure, the first viewers of Avatar content material these days is adults who grew up watching the present, however it’s basically nonetheless a youngsters’ franchise, so promoting this many microtransactions within the recreation is borderline harmful.
General, Avatar Legends: Realms Collide is an enormous let-down on all fronts. I’m no recreation developer, however I actually don’t perceive how corporations persistently fumble the ball when making a fascinating Avatar recreation that isn’t filled with microtransactions or glitches. In fact, in the event you like 4x video games and Avatar, this may be proper up your alley as an off-the-cuff idle recreation to play all through the day, however I’m unsure there’s something that Tilting Level may add to reel me again in.
In the event you’re in search of a top-of-the-range 4x expertise, take a look at our lists of one of the best cell technique video games and techniques video games subsequent. We’ve additionally cataloged one of the best anime video games, exhibiting that gorgeous animated TV reveals can obtain greatness within the gaming sphere.