Orcs and Elves DS review

Orcs & Elves for Nintendo DSEnter an ancient and magical world where good and evil collide in an epic adventure with Orcs & Elves for Nintendo DS.

The award-winning* fantasy RPG mobile game, created by id Software and developed by Fountainhead Entertainment comes to the Nintendo DS, with more levels, weapons and fierce foes.

System: DS
Genre: Adventure-RPG
Release dates: November 13th 2007 (USA), November 16th 2007 (EURO)
Players: 1
Developer: Fountainhead Entertainment & id Software
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Origin: America

Orcs and Elves DS screenshotOrcs & Elves is a dungeon crawling experience for fantasy RPG gamers, featuring an Award winning storyline spanning twelve sprawling levels within an ancient Dwarven kingdom.

As a young half-elf, you’ll explore the ancient mountain-citadel of Zharrharag, a massive Dwarven fortress riddled with ancient treasure, powerful weapons, and waves of ruthless enemies.

You can use the DS touch screen to solve devious puzzles, overcome deadly traps and unleash magical powers with an arsenal of arcane items like magic potions, enchanted rings, dragon scale armor and an enchanted wand.

You’ll have to find and master thirteen mystical weapons including magical swords, deadly crossbows, and a powerful war hammer as they fight through waves of legendary beasts each with their own tactics and powers. Along the way, you’ll also befriend unique characters such as an ancient dragon to help them fight their way into the deepest reaches of the mountain fortress on a quest to expel the ultimate evil from the mountain’s core.

Watch the Orcs & Elves launch trailer.

What are Orcs & Elves’ main features?

* Explore a Dungeon Teeming with Adventure: Travel through a Dwarven citadel’s twelve massive levels, each riddled with evil forces and ancient treasure.

* Put your Best RPG Strategies to the Test: Solve devious puzzles, overcome deadly traps, and battle massive forces of foul beasts.

* Master Unique Weapons and Items: Wield extraordinary weapons including a sentient wand, a powerful warhammer, and magic swords. Use the DS Touch Screen to cast spells and make use of magic potions, enchanted rings, and dragonscale armor.

* Unravel an Award-Winning Storyline: With over ten hours of handheld gaming, escape to a place of adventure, mystery, and sorcery with Orcs and Elves, the new first-person adventure from id Software and Fountainhead Entertainment.

* New For the DS: A 3D game engine, new creatures, three new levels, new potions, and four new spells will thrill even the most seasoned adventurer, giving them reason to journey back into Zharrharag.

Watch some Orcs & Elves DS swordplay.

In conclusion let’s see how much fun Orcs & Elves is on a scale from 1 to 10?

FUN FACTOR – 7.0
Remember those first-person RPG fantasy games for DOS? Yeah? Then you’ll have fun with this well-balanced fast-paced turn-based RPG of olde. 🙂

Graphics – 7.0
So what improvements have been made with the port from last year’s mobile phone version to Nintendo DS? The game now has 3D graphics for certain creatures and walls including lighting fitting lighting effects, and more detailed 2D Wolfenstein-esque sprites for the monsters, although many of these are the same designs with different colors. There are also three new levels (The Forge, and sidequests Brimstone and Burrows) and a map in the DS version. The game looks true to traditional Dungeons and Dragons pen-and-paper RPGs with magic spells, monsters, treasures and… dragons.

Audio – 7.0
Minimal repetitive soundtrack and well put together sound effects, in line with the rest of this modest budget title that feels right for what it is, a trip down memory lane.

Ingenuity – 7.0
Thanks to the stylus, controls are simple. You move around using the Directional-pad, attack with the A button and change weapons by pressing the X button. Spells can be activated by pressing a sequence of buttons on the Directional-pad or by using the DS stylus. Gameplay-wise different spells do different damage depending on the creature. You can also repair armor yourself, instead of the Doom equivalent: collecting armor shards. There are three difficulty settings, the latter of which will ask you if you’re readily prepared. One of the options in that case is “I’m too young to die”, a common phrase recognizable by Doom fans. There are three save slots and you can save anywhere, very handy. Be ready to explore secret passages and meet anything from slime monsters to man-eating treasure chests!

Replay Value – 7.0
With eleven unique weapons, over 30 in-game items with RPG attributes, you’ll be spending between eight to ten hours traversing the game’s twelve huge levels that feel like one massive level thanks to them being linked together. Fans can instantly get the sequel Orcs & Elves II, as that will go on sale for cellphones in December 2007 with no doubt a DS version following in 2008.

*Orcs & Elves won ‘Best RPG – Wireless Best of E3 2006 Award’ – IGN; ‘Best Mobile Game’ at the 2006 Leipzig Games Convention and ‘Mobile Game of the Year’ at the 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in Las Vegas in February 2007.