Orcs & Elves

"John Carmack and Wizardry have an affair. This is their love child."

Dungeon crawler, dungeon crawler, dungeon crawler. Where have you been? First person dungeon crawlers were once the bread and butter or PC role playing games. While Oblivion managed to translate this gameplay style into the next generation of PC games and consoles, no one has really stepped up to the plate and delivered a true homage to those that came before. Orcs and Elves is ID Software's second attempt to bring those classic games back, only now in a perfectly portable, and less DOOMing form. Does Orcs and Elves perfect the Doom RPG formula, or does it poke a dragon in the eye? In a relief to dragons everywhere, you can take off your goggles.

O&E starts off a little strangely. From the very get go you are thrown forth into a gigantic mountain fortress. Your talking wand quickly explains your reason for being there (to save a dwarven king), and who you are (the son of a famous elfen warrior). This is all really a smoke and mirrors attempt to bring some purpose to the game though. To be blunt, O&E survives on as threadbare a story as possible. Yes you have a reason for exploring this mountain, yes there are several important characters you'll meet, and yes there are orcs and elves (and many, many, many dwarves...). But that's pretty much it. All the characters exist only to give you information, and there is not a thread of backstory to be heard about anyone except yourself. And honestly, as far as characters go, you're a pretty dull excuse for a mute elf, buddy. At least your smart ass, talking wand has one or two interesting lines. But if the story can't carry O&E, then the gameplay at least must right?

Thankfully, that would be correct. Anyone who's ever enjoyed Might and Magic, A Bards Tale, Ultima Underworld, Deep Labyrinth, or Etrian Odyssey etc. will feel right at home here. O&E thrives off that classic turn based, first person movement. For anyone who doesn't know what that's like, your job description as dungeon crawler is to walk through extremely small corridors, fight hordes and hordes of monsters, solve one or two puzzles (involving switches usually), collect phat loot, walk down some stairs to the next level, wash, rinse, and repeat. Does that sound boring? You'd be surprised how additively fun it can actually be. The reason for this is how it's all accomplished.

For starters, there is no character customization. The lead character, Elli, is a real badass mix of warrior, archer, thief, AND wizard. Elli is pretty much the Terminator of Rougelike characters. This makes things a helluva lot easier for casual players, but definitely leaves customization fans with an empty stomach. Secondly, O&E is pure dungeon crawling. There are no towns or over worlds in the whole game. The entire experience is progression of floors through and through. While this might be refreshing for some, for others it will probably dilute some satisfaction. It's also one of the main reasons for the weakened plot. There is a sort of safe, town like spot that every area links too and where you can heal for free and barter with a dragon for items. Essentially this is all you receive in terms of a "town" though. Despite all this, the game still remains very solid. Not having to concentrate on stats, skills, and towns people means you're open to do other things. And its the other things that O&E accentuates.

All the O&E's plot and gameplay progression happens out on the field. Throughout the adventure you'll come across various apparitions of dwarves. These hairy helpers will arm you with all the knowledge you need to progress in your quest. They'll also often give you various tasks to be completed, or lend you a password for locked doors, which you pass through by entering a four digit code. There are usually only one or two dwarves per area though, so interaction is pretty minimal (and considering the weak dialog it might actually be preferable). Thankfully there are some fun scripted events that take place that allow your wand to talk some smack and shake up the exploration. One that stood out was when you save a rat monsters life and he offers to take you to a large hidden treasure, only that rat might have plans of his own... Little things like this keep O&E from becoming an overly formulaic and dull RPG.

Anyone who enjoys collecting will probably have an orc smashing good time. There's a large assortment of potions, brews, weapons and spells to acquire throughout the whole title. Secret rooms can be found all over the dungeon space if one looks for them. Rarely is there not a reward awaiting you behind some odd corner of the dungeon halls. Some of the weapons and spells you aquire are pretty ingenious in their effects as well, lending the combat a decent level of variety.

Speaking of combat, O&E plays like most turn based FPS RPG's. You take a turn to make your move on the dungeon grid, and the monsters likewise do the same. Strategy comes in the form of utilizing long range weapons and area attacks effectively, while trying to keep your hero healed and free of debilitating effects like poison. Spells are completed by drawing a small symbol within a circle on the touch screen. Ability enhancing potions (No they don't endow you with anything more than bigger muscles) and health play a large role in combat. Through all of this, you'll encounter monsters that manage to shake up the combat ground with skills of their own. Phantoms will raise corpses from the dead, slimes will eat fallen allies for health, orcs will smash you backwards, etc. Thanks to this, combat remains anything but a single button press towards endless tedium. That isn't to say it's all fun and games though. Sometimes the number of encounters is completely overwhelming. While these battles aren't usually too difficult, they certainly can become extremely boring when you are forced to stand in one spot while wave after wave of foes crashes into you.

Some of you might be wondering how well the game made the transition from cell phone game to DS title, as far as presentaion and controls go. Well it certainly made it, but maybe not as well as some would have wished. The graphics are fairly weak, for a DS game even, but they are absolutely a major improvement over the cell phones. The sprite monsters are drawn pretty well though, and manage to stand out against the 3D dungeon scape, and everything moves silky smooth. The sound is a heckuva lot better, but you'll probably turn the volume off after you've heard the extremely small number of music tracks. Did ID utilize the touch screen at all? Yes, although not to greatest of the DS's ability. Touch screen controls are limited to inventory management and spell casting, the former of which you can do just fine without the stylus. But hey, if you wanted another DS cellphone RPG port with lots of touch screen usage and fancier graphics trying to cover pasty thin gameplay, you could always pick up Deep Labyrinth.

When Orc comes to Elf, ID has crafted a quality game. Although the game is only about 7 hours long, if you're an intrepid dungeon explorer you'll probably at the least have a satisfying 7 hours. As long as you can get past the shallow story, lack of customization, and the inability to explore anything but the dungeon, you'll probably have a good time. The fun combat and exploration aspects hold their own quite well, which is really what's most important anyways since those are the meat of any dungeon crawler. It's obvious this game wasn't crafted directly towards most dungeon crawling fans, and instead tries to open the doors for new and casual gamers alike. If you are a hardcore Rougelike fan this might be to weak for you, in which case you should check out Etrian Odyssey instead. But even if you are, these orcs and elves should at least satisfy your itch for claustrophoic tunnels and emotional, gold hoarding dragons. Hopefully we hardcore fans will see a more immersive ID RPG in the future. At this rate who knows? Maybe the next RPG John Carmack makes will be based on Commander Keen...

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/08

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