Revolve8 Review – How does it compare to Clash Royale?

Revolve8 is Sega’s new take on the Clash Royale formula, introducing a few new mechanics in an effort to freshen up the well-established genre.

But before we get onto that, a quick genre refreshment. You build a deck out of eight cards, which each represent a hero, unit, or magical power.

You then head into a real-time battle against another real opponent. Here you have three minutes to destroy your opponent’s three towers before they destroy yours. If the three minutes run out, you either draw or the person who destroyed the most towers wins.

Destroying towers involves playing cards in the arena. Drop a hero or unit down and they’ll automatically move towards the nearest tower, attacking it until either it’s destroyed or the unit falls.

Revolve8 is basically just a reskin of Clash Royale

Meanwhile, your opponent will play cards to counter your own. And so the battle goes until one of you wins.

So what does Revolve8 do differently? Well, not an awful lot admittedly. The units and heroes are pretty much reskins of all of Clash Royale‘s, so the basic gameplay doesn’t feel any different.

The only real new feature of note is that heroes have skills that they can pull off during the battle. Tanks can heal a bit of damage, for example, or AoE units can attack a little faster.

You can also set a hero unit as the leader. This lets you use their most powerful skill during battle but it takes an absolute age to recharge.

The only new feature of note is skills that heroes can pull off

These skills do breathe a bit of fresh air into the formula but aren’t really all that different from playing a card. It’s the same movement and result.

In terms of presentation, it also manages to be a lot uglier than Clash Royale. Supercell have always kept their games pretty simple but there’s always been a beauty in the simplicity.

Revolve8 attempts to jazz up the experience with 3D character models and environments, but it just ends up looking a lot messier.

Ultimately, Revolve8 isn’t a bad game – nor is it a bad version of Clash Royale. It’s just a reskin that doesn’t look remotely as good as the game that inspired it.