Orcs & Elves

"I Wanted So Badly To Give This A Good Score."

Have you ever really liked a game, but for some reason or another, you just couldn't recommend it to others? Like maybe there are features you truly loved about it, but there are flaws that overshadow them to the point where you know people will not enjoy the game like you did? Games like this usually become sleepers, or niche market hits. The majority of the game-playing populace ignores or dislikes them, but there are a small percentage of people who live for these sort of games.

Enter Orcs & Elves for the Nintendo DS. Most people had never heard of this DS port of a cellphone RPG. I live in a major city, and I had to call five stores before I even found one that had heard of it on release day. Gamestop/EB Games confirmed that, as far as their stores went, I had purchased the only copy in a 172-mile radius. But I'm a sucker, and it looked like a lot of fun. The gameplay videos on the internet looked like great campy fun, and the game comes from Id Software and John Carmack, creator of the Great Granddaddy of FPS games, Doom. With a pedigree like that? How could this game fail?

Truth be told, a big part of me loved this game. I was incredibly excited to play it, and in some respects, I was not let down. However, a disturbingly short play time and difficulty level made for a very short-lived enjoyment. Let's break it down, shall we?

Sound - 1/10
There really wasn't any. Very little background music, a small handful of sound effects, that's about it. Monsters roar and snarl, flames crackle if you're up close to them, and your sword clangs when you hit things. It really feels like the developers thought "You know what? Most people play their DS in a public place with the volume muted, so don't bother with the sounds." Well...okay I know that's true for me, so the lack of sound didn't bother me. But I still had to rate it, and it gets a terrible score. The sound effects are so bad, you'll want to play with the DS muted anyway.


Graphics - 7/10
This part is incredibly subjective, hence the middle-ground score. Those of you looking for the flashiest graphics and 3D models ever will be sorely disappointed. The graphics on this game are pretty, but not eye-poppingly so. The dungeons and various objects are in 3D, while the monsters and collectable items are 2D. The monsters are pretty, looking like hand-drawn comics torn straight out of an old 1st edition AD&D Monstrous Manual. However each only has a couple of frames. There is "Attack position", "Attacking", "Hurt", and "Dead". That's about it. But overall, the game looks good, and the style of graphics really complement the feel of the game.


Storyline - 7/10
Surprisingly decent for such a short game. You play the descendant of a great Elven warrior, who once wielded Ellon, the powerful and sentient Magic Wand. You have entered the Dwarven caves of Mount Zharrkarag, ruled by King Brahm, only to find them completely overrun by Orcs. All of the Dwarves you find are ghosts, slain by the Orcs. With Ellon to guide you, you must delve deep into the mountain to uncover what happened in the kingdom, and defeat the Orc Lord Bruul.
It's not the most original plotline ever written, but it serves the game well. The few characters you meet in the caves are fun and distinct.


Gameplay - 8/10
Playing the game itself was, to me, a lot of fun. It is reminiscent of the old first-person dungeon crawler days of yore. If you've read anything about this game, you've probably seen it repeatedly compared to Eye Of The Beholder. This is a very correct comparison, though personally I compare it more to the slightly more obscure Sega Genesis title, Dungeons And Dragons: Warriors Of The Eternal Sun.

The game is a turn-based First Person RPG. You do not have 360 degrees of movement, only grid-based spaces, moving only in four directions (NSEW) plus strafing. Every action you take costs one turn, though you only notice this in combat. Turns move as fast as you do. For every step or action you take, nearby enemies take one as well (or multiple actions, if they are faster than you). Again, it is slightly more fast-paced than this sounds, as a turn can take half a second if you so choose. However, so long as you do not move, nothing else around you moves. In mid battle, you can stop, think about your next move, use a potion, swap weapons, etc. As soon as you pick an action, your enemy gets to take an action too.

Orcs & Elves takes place entirely in the underground maze of Mount Zharrkarag. There is no overworld, there are no towns. There are only the hallways of the Dwarven kingdom, and the den of a great Red Dragon who will sell you weapons and armor. Throughout the game, there are a limited number of monsters in each level, and a set amount of secrets. Finding all of these in each level gets you a modest XP boost. There really are no puzzles to solve, which was rather disappointing. The closest you get to a puzzle are the rune doors, which you must speak to the right Dwarven ghost or find the right scroll to find the code. For the most part, this game is entirely about exploration and combat.

A problem that I did have in the game was the item usage. Not that it was difficult, but just that it was useless. In my inventory I had fifteen to twenty different potions that I never needed. The entire game, I only ever used healing potions, and maybe one or two haste potions. The rest looked like they might have neat effects, but I never needed them. The same went for weaponry. Like most FPS (or in this case FPRPGs), you have a wide selection of weapons at your disposal, as well as a small list of spells. Truth be told, I never needed to use them. I think I cast a spell once. I went through the entire game using my sword, and occasionally the wand for distance shots. Sure, I upgraded my sword, but I never used the crossbow, or the phoenix eggs, or the dragon's breath. I'm sure they're useful, but the game never made me feel the need for them. Having all of these things in the game is all well and good, but they really should have made them useful, or put me in situations where I needed them.

On a minor note, I loved that this game did not require use of the touch screen. I know that the touch screen is the cornerstone of the DS, but sometimes I just don't feel like using a stylus. It often feels like touch screen functionality in some DS games is forced, or at least tacked on last-minute. Orcs & Elves features a menu system that is accessible by touch screen if you choose, but can be entirely navigated with the buttons and D-pad. That was very refreshing.


Replayability - 2/10
I wasn't sure whether to discuss the following points under "Gameplay" or here. They both are involved in gameplay, but I feel the bigger impact they have is on the game's replayability.

The first is the difficulty level. As fun as this game is, it is insanely easy. I had one hiccup in the entire game, and that wasn't actually difficulty as much as it was me being a bonehead and ignoring obvious clues. Beyond that, I never once had a problem in this game. The monsters tend to die easily and quickly, and you level up much faster than you really need to. As if that weren't enough, the game heaps more healing potions on you than you could ever use.

The second is the length of the game. This game was so short, I was afraid to play it in anything more than short bursts, lest I beat it in one sitting. All in all, the game took me less than five hours to beat, and I found 100% of the secrets and defeated 100% of the monsters. I honestly felt cheated out of the $30 I had paid for this game. And because it's so short, replaying it feels kind of pointless, because it's all so fresh in your mind already. There are harder difficulty settings if you really feel the need to go that route, but even Nightmare setting barely posed a threat.


Overall - 6/10
I know that from my scores and nitpicks, it sounds like I hated this game. I did not. In fact, I actually thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with this game. But a lot of that was a chord of nostalgia that this game hit in this old gamer's soul. I guess my attitude toward this game could be summed up with "I loved this game, but I doubt you'll like it". If you can find it for less than $20 somewhere, possibly used, then I would highly recommend giving it a try. For that short playtime duration, I did have a lot of fun with the game. Most of my complaints with this game were exactly what I said they were: nitpicks. Unfortunately, I really think that today's generation of younger gamers won't enjoy this game as much as some of us old fogeys will.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/07

Game Release: Orcs & Elves (US, 11/13/07)