Blitz Brigade: Rival Tactics review - Can it topple Clash Royale?

Clash Royale was an instant classic when it launched, so it was only a matter of time before everyone and their dog started trying to make their own version.

Blitz Brigade: Rival Tactics is one such game, and it's about as uninspired, uninteresting, and derivative as a clone could possibly get.

It may run perfectly well, and there's no denying that the core gameplay is solid, but it brings absolutely nothing new to the table and makes you wonder why you don't just play Clash Royale instead.

Blitz it

As you might expect, Blitz Brigade: Rival Tactics has you building up a deck of units and then sending them off to do battle in three-minute long, real-time PvP battles.

You've got to take down your opponent's two turrets and main tower while defending your own by deploying your units down one of two paths.

Deploying units costs energy which slowly regenerates throughout the match, and after two minutes both sides get a boost in regeneration speed.

Honestly, it's the exact same as Clash Royale. The gameplay loop of playing a game, winning a chest, waiting for it to open, and levelling up your units as you go is present and correct, and it all plays the same too.

Royale pains

The differences of being played in landscape and from an isometric view don't add anything to the experience, and in some ways the isometric angle can make it harder to work out where your units need to be placed.

And nothing novel or interesting has changed by using a modern combat scenario – unit types are almost all lifted from Clash Royale, so this is once again just a minor visual change.

There are other problems beside being incredibly derivative, mainly the matchmaking. The matchups from the get-go are absolutely awful, and lead to very one-sided matches.

Even when you're just starting out at rank 1, you'll regularly be thrown into battles with people several ranks higher than you who destroy your defences before you've got the chance to deploy a decent army.

Its only saving grace is that matches are quick to load and that, since you'll be getting crushed so fast, you won't be playing the game for very long at all and can move on with your life even faster.

Pack those guns away

Overall there is very, very little to recommend in Blitz Brigade: Rival Tactics. It's playable and fast, yes, but it's a lifeless, dull take on a game that currently seems like it can't be outmatched.

It plays like Clash Royale, but it misses the charm, fun, and originality of Supercell's game, and instead feels like the worst kind of rip-off.

There's worse games out there, and it's certainly not a truly awful experience, but it is one that will have you questioning why you bothered firing up the game in the first place.