Remember how you felt playing Diablo for the first time? No? How about Gauntlet? If you have fond memories of either of these classic dungeon-with-friends experiences, you'll be coming in with a friendly bias for RAW - Realms of Ancient War. Most of the backdrop for this download game is a retread of games we've played and enjoyed, including last year's Crimson Alliance for the same platform. The fantasy setting means lots of wild enemies, magical effects, and elemental powers that tend to create fireworks during battle. The story is told through a series of load-screens where you learn more about the characters and their motivation. It's pulpy stuff, nothing that you would expect to spawn any rich fan fiction, but it suits the surroundings.

RAW - Realms of Ancient War works aesthetically for a few reasons. Dungeon crawling with friends is still more like Gauntlet than Diablo. You don't need adornment as much as you need fast-paced action. Realms of Ancient War delivers in this respect, even if it fails to provide much originality. Because the camera is pulled back enough, you'll often see enemies before you have to battle them, taking away the opportunity for surprise. Plentiful item drops make it hard for you to be overcome by hordes of enemies, lending to the notion of your character as invincible. It's not impossible to enjoy yourself as a solo player, but having a companion makes RAW far more enjoyable. The simple reason is that you won't have any problem blasting through Realms of Ancient War in one sitting, so a friend helps enrich the experience.

There's not enough gameplay here to justify the price, but additional future content might help. Unfortunately, XBLA download titles don't work like iTunes or Play apps, where new content tends to be value-add rather than for a fee. Paying a small amount to access new levels could help, but our overriding sentiment on RAW - Realms of Ancient War was that it was over too quickly, and with very few "Eureka!" moments. As stated earlier, one feels like these levels have been played before, these enemies have been battled before, and even these characters have been created before. Warrior, wizard, and rogue are so well defined at this point, and RAW - Realms of Ancient War does nothing to twist our notion of these character types.

As you sweep through levels, you'll find enemy mobs and larger boss-type characters that will drop items you can use. Some items are one-time use, while others are equipment for your character. Swapping items is allowed and encouraged, so you can help out a partner during the game. Boosting your friend's character will assist the party anyway, helping out with larger and more aggressive enemies you'll encounter later. The objectives for each level are always clear, and the path rarely leaves you wondering how to proceed. In some cases, you'll be challenged to complete a certain task, and we liked the way RAW introduced the ability to possess enemy characters briefly.

Bringing some new ideas to the table is always good, but familiar ground is what sells games, we suppose. Fans of last year's Crimson Alliance will feel right at home with RAW - Realms of Ancient War, but the comparison leaves RAW holding the short end of the stick. It would be one thing to say that this is the core gamer's experience or the newbie gamers experience, but RAW - Realms of Ancient War doesn't clearly cater to either side of the spectrum. It's too simple for veteran dungeon battlers and overly complicated in terms of managing equipment and items for newer players. If pushed, we'd certainly say it's a solid choice for players new to the format, who might be looking for something less "platformy" and more mature. There's certainly enough action in the game, and never a dull moment to be had.

Regardless of which character you choose, RAW - Realms of Ancient War is a manageable experience. This makes sense when you're trying to create a solid single-player experience, but we wanted to see more done to support party mechanics. Combos or other ways of playing one character off another character would have been a cool addition. As it stands, the wizard character is a good choice for supporting the direct damamge a warrior can deal, and the rogue is somewhere in the middle. The playing style isn't all that different from character to character, since it always comes down to mashing those buttons.

You'll spend a fair amount of time managing inventory, which we found tedious. Gathering armor or weapons that aren't usable by your class makes sense in a larger setting with three or four players, but having to juggle between two characters eats up time we'd rather spend fighting. We prefer the class-based system in Crimson Alliance that offered treasure and loot specific to each type of character. There's a skill-tree that you can use to customize your experience, where points earned each time you level up can be assigned to enhance aspects of your character. This applies to special attacks you can map to face buttons on the controller and trigger during battle. Using magic and powers eats up mana, so you're constantly looking to replenish mana and health over time, or by collecting drops during battle.

If it sounds like we were underwhelmed by RAW - Realms of Ancient War, it's not to say that game is poorly made, unplayable, or lacking in fun. For 800 points, we'd probably have a much more optimistic outlook on the whole experience, but one has to look at what 1200 buys in other corners of Xbox Live Marketplace. This perspective leaves RAW - Realms of Ancient War at a deficit, and there's also the issue of thin, predictable gameplay. Finally, even though we're hardly the most hardcore of core gamers, we couldn't find sufficient challenge in Realms of Ancient War to make it a compelling replay game. Or, taken another way, the characters don't reward replay nearly enough to make it worth our while. This effort to mine the much-loved multiplayer dungeon-crawl falls a bit flat.