Orcs & Elves

The Good
If there's one thing that can be said of the DS, it's that it kept a great number of genres alive and kicking in a time when the HD consoles, PC gaming, and mainstream gaming was ready to consider them dead. I'm speaking of things like classic JRPG's, FPS dungeon crawlers, strategy games (okay, PC gaming still likes these, too), and point-n-click adventures. The DS was the modern system of "it's still relevant to us."

And here we have Orcs & Elves. A fresh title from id Software culled from their most classic of works. What's most amazing about this game is that it's every bit a classic FPS dungeon crawler as you might expect, and even built on ye olde Doom technology.

The game is played in turns--and by that, I mean absolutely everything is done in turns. Movement, using items, fighting--the whole game. You move in single steps, and you fight and use items likewise. I know, it sounds terribly archaic, but then again--the DS has a way of making this stuff perfectly acceptable.

The game and gameplay itself runs quickly and smoothly. The interface is cleanly mapped to both the touchscreen and face and shoulder buttons with basic controls feeling like classic Doom in every respect--with the exception of the aforementioned, "step" movement. Players can do everything on the touchscreen, or everything with the buttons, or whatever combination seems most comfortable. I generally moved with the D-pad and performed attack actions and the like with the face buttons. Item management, purchasing goods, equipping weapons or potions, I did on the touchscreen. The control options, essentially, are great. Incidentally, the touchscreen shows the player character's body as if you're looking down at your belt and items, and tapping them with the stylus opens them, so everything there is pretty slick.

I found that I had tons of fun with the general gameplay and combat. Because everything is done in a turn-based step movement, the game forces a bit of strategy. Potions can deliver a variety of effects, such as leeching life from enemies, increasing defenses, increasing attack power, haste, and the like. These all last in "turns," so for instance, a defense potion might last for 20 turns, in which case, the player should really plan accordingly as to not waste a number of those turns where nothing is attacking them.

Since the combat is turn-based, it allows for ample time to plan attacks and moves, but the game plays quickly enough that I often found myself caught up in the fun of hacking away at enemies while my life was cleaved away by a different enemy. For that matter, there is an impressive selection of weapons for the game, and different enemies are weak to different attacks.

Each level delivers bonus experience for finding the three secrets hidden within, and for killing all the regular enemies (revisiting a level sometimes features a few extra enemies). But the game, overall, is quite perfectly balanced. From leveling-up, to finding money, to buying items and facing new foes--everything flows very, very smoothly. As such, secret areas aren't too difficult to find, and getting that bonus experience seems factored into the overall outcome of the game.

The graphics are pretty much what you'd expect from a game built on the Doom engine. Every enemy sprite is facing you at all times, but that'd only really be annoying if the game was an actual FPS title. Here, the turn-based combat prevents this from being an issue. Up close, the characters and details are pretty pixelated which will do nothing for the young whipper-snappers out there, but for us old farts that grew up with classic Doom and those generations, it instead delivers up nostalgia. Despite the old-school Doom-like graphics, there is ample detail to the game's world, and a whole host of crap to destroy just for the fun of it.

Animations are brief, and not particularly spectacular. They're functional, which is all they need to be. The music is actually of a pretty substantial quality, and the sound effects are quite entertaining. None more entertaining than the "splortch!" sound effect you hear when smashing a corpse laying on the ground. Seems a little gruesome, maybe (for a Teen-rated game), but eventually, it's a smart thing to do. There is an enemy that resurrects corpses into phantom versions.

The story may not be as deep or involved as a modern WRPG like Skyrim or Kingdoms of Amalur, but what it lacks in complexity, it makes up with enjoyment and the fact that it's easy to follow. How many key elements of the main story of any 80-hour RPG do you remember? If you're anything like me, you've forgotten many of the finer points of the main quest halfway through your 20th side-quest.

Essentially, you're here as an elf warrior with your mythical talking wand (who does the talking for both of you), and you're off to help the dwarves who've been invaded by some pissy Orcs. From the on-set, it's clear the invasion didn't go well, so you spend a lot of time talking to the ghosts of slain dwarves, and those guys are entertaining as hell. The writing in this game is some of the most enjoyable I've seen on the DS, up there with the likes of the ever-hilarious Ninjatown.

The Bad
I have long believed a short game of substantial quality is far better than a long game of mediocrity. In an age where I feel too many gamers value a game for length, I tend to value quality and fun in lieu of length. I like Skyrim, but I'll admit right now to still not finishing it or getting very far as I find many of the length-adding side-quests to be dull, tedious affairs where I can't tell one from the other.

At any rate, I like to be able to finish games in a reasonable time-frame, and if I want more of it, that means it was a good game. Frankly, I want more of Orcs & Elves. A lot more. So much more that it pains me to say that I think, for an RPG, dungeon-crawling or otherwise, this game is too short. I finished it in under 10 hours. Have you ever heard of an RPG you could finish in 10 hours? You can't even do that in Fallout, even if you only stick to main quests.

I don't feel it was detrimental to the overall experience, since I still found it to be tons of fun, but I could've played this for another 20 or so hours and never gotten bored with it.

The other issue with this is that, for an RPG, there is hardly any character customization. You level-up with set stats, and there are only so many weapons and items available. Eventually, you'll use all of them, and you can't level-grind. Balance in an RPG is great, of course, but this is so balanced that one cannot excel beyond a set point in the game.

The Bottom Line
Orcs & Elves features some elements that we modern gamers might consider to be cardinal sins where RPG's are considered. It's rather short and lacks deep customization. But it makes up for that with the entertaining story, smooth and enjoyable gameplay, and frankly, it delivers a very satisfying climax to the story. Characters are likable, writing is solid, and combat is surprisingly thrilling.

I waited too long to buy this game. I must've looked at it in stores a couple dozen times over the past couple years, but always questioned how much fun I might actually get from an old-school FPS dungeon crawler. I've made this mistake before. Waited too long to pick up a game about which I couldn't make up my mind. And then I got the game, and it was a bast.

This was a blast. It was fun, it was smooth, and it was entertaining in a way I didn't imagine. Despite it's short length, old-school-to-a-fault design, and hyper-balanced set-up, this is something I stuffed into my DS (actually, 3DS) and didn't remove until I'd finished it. I usually jump around from game to game, but this? I was glued to this.

I think it's great to see that id Software crafted a new title in this vain, and on the DS no less. Frankly, I would love to see it turn into a franchise and continue on the 3DS--maybe longer and a bit more elaborate. But I think that, despite the obvious level of polish on this title, it feels like id was "testing the waters" of the DS and this particular genre.

It's an old-school flavored dungeon crawler with enough modern polish to keep it smooth and entertaining. It may not be long, but it is a blast while it lasts.