''Champions of Regnum'' (previously known as ''Regnum Online'') is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

massively multiplayer A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are games th ...

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

) developed and published by

Nimble Giant Entertainment Nimble Giant Entertainment, SA (formerly known as NGD Studios) is an Argentina, Argentine video game developer located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The studio was acquired by Saber Interactive in 2020. History They started as a three group fusio ...

, a game development studio located in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. The game focuses on full Realm vs Realm team player vs player combat, with a three-way war constantly in progress over forts and castles. There are monsters and an element of grinding, but these are considered secondary to the war. It was released on May 24, 2007. The name ''Regnum'' means realm in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, and is also a tribute to one of the first games published in Argentina by some of the team members, which was named ''Regnum''.

Overview

Players create characters as their

avatar Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...

s in a fantasy medieval-themed persistent

virtual world A virtual world (also called a virtual space or spaces) is a Computer simulation, computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many simultaneous users who can create a personal Avatar (computing), avatar and independently explore th ...

. Individual appearance of characters is customisable. The player has to choose between three realms: Alsius, Ignis and Syrtis, with each having their own races. Players then level up by grinding on monsters or with quests.

Steam launch

''Champions of Regnum'' was launched on steam in February 2013 to mixed reviews.

Gameplay

The inspiration for ''Regnum Online'' is the online game ''

Dark Age of Camelot ''Dark Age of Camelot'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in October 2001 in North America, and in January 2002 in Europe. The game combines Arthurian lore, Norse mythology, and Celtic mythology with high fantasy. It i ...

'' (DAOC). As such, ''RO'' is heavily focussed on Realm vs Realm (also known as faction pvp or team pvp) combat. In general, at all times a player can find active wars occurring in the "Warzone" where players of the 3 realms fight for control of forts, gates and castles. Players can choose the realms of Alsius, Ignis and Syrtis. Each realm has four races, and some of the races are essentially the same across the three realms. For example, each realm has a race of humans, and each realm has "lamai". The differences between the races of the three realms is cosmetic as all share the same character classes and powers. Alsius is a snowy realm, Ignis is a desert realm and Syrtis is a grassy realm. ''Regnum'' offers the three standard character classes: archer, warrior and mage. Each class is further offered two specialisations. At present, the full range of classes are: Marksman, Hunter, Barbarian, Knight, Warlock and Conjurer. Combat skills, stealth and spells are drawn primarily from the lore of ''DAOC'' and ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'', with much shorter durations and magnified effects. The movement controls take place by the use of the W, A, S and D movement keys or mouse clicking nearby locations. Each class has a unique skill tree. Along with many side quests, there are storyline quests that reveal things about each realms past and the war between them. Quests reward players with experience, gold, and some items that they could not obtain otherwise. There are also player versus player quests which require the player to accomplish a certain task such as killing a certain amount number of players from another realm or holding a specific location for a certain amount of time.

Development

Andrés Chilkowski worked on ''Regnum'', a

real time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to pl ...

video game, published by Conde Entertainment Software in 1995. He was the team leader of the project, working with his friend. They wished to create an RTS game similar to ''

Dune II ''Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty'' (titled ''Dune II: Battle for Arrakis'' in Europe and ''Dune: The Battle for Arrakis'' in North America for the Mega Drive/Genesis port, respectively) is a 1992 real-time strategy game developed by Westwoo ...

'', leading to the development of ''Regnum''. The friend served as a designer and script writer. After releasing the title, Conde would release a few more games before closing down from financial difficulties. In 2002, Andrés opened up NGD Studios and started working on ''Regnum Online''.

Reception

Strana Igr ''Strana Igr'' (, Gameland) was a Russian magazine focused on video games. It was published by Gameland between January 1996 and November 2013 when the magazine was suspended due to financial problems. History and profile Starting December 2010, ...

'' said the game is surprisingly good for a low-budget MMORPG. '' Massively'' wrote: "I have a feeling that if Regnum Online could make its beginning levels, you know, fun, then it could be a great game." ''

Softpedia Softpedia is a software and tech news website based in Romania. It indexes, reviews and hosts downloadable software and reports news on technology and science topics. It is ranked as among of the top download portals on the internet. History So ...

'' summarized: "Champions of Regnum packs all the cliches one can remember when it comes to free-to-play MMOs. However, that’s not to say it’s awful, although there are far better alternatives out there." In 2012, the game was said to be very popular in Latin America and Germany. It has also been called the biggest MMORPG made in Latin America.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://www.championsofregnum.com/ 2007 video games Fantasy video games Free online games Linux games Lua (programming language)-scripted video games MacOS games Massively multiplayer online role-playing games Nimble Giant Entertainment games Video games developed in Argentina Video games set in castles Windows games