It won’t beat The Witcher 3, replace Baldur’s Gate or overshadow Divinity: Original Sin, but it does offer 10 hours of solid, straightforward RPG fun with a strong emphasis on tactical combat. [01/2017, p.50]
Its a beautiful loveletter to people who love baldurs gate shadows of ahmn, well made, aside from some minor bugs,
Its not as long as i would've wanted it to be, but i think that depends on if you go straight through ( wich i did)
Lots of fun conversations, And of course Blind Guardian !
For a small studio , its a good game they did make.
pro:
-good story, charismatic characters
-fast paced RTS with a good bits of stategies to apply to win
- battle are long
- You can choose your path on world map and find random/hidden events
- good mystical ambiance
- nice skills usage
Con:
- Micromanagement is a must. Leave a character alone and he will get mobbed
- Migth be difficult for a newbie on RTS
- seem to be only 8-10 lvl on characters
- Have to rotate the camera (ended up seeing a big tree on screen) often to see battlefield/item on map
Overall, i have a great time playing it. If you like dwarf like in DnD or Tolkien setting, you will like this
As an interactive audio book The Dwarves works surprisingly well even though some of the cutscenes seem rushed. But as soon as you enter the battlefield the fascination fades and is replaced by hectic, chaotic and sometimes buggy skirmishes.
The Dwarves boasts a strong story that's taken from a bestselling novel, and it generally honors that lineage with a cast of likable and ably voiced characters. It's a good foundation, but unfortunately it's not strong enough to make up for the deficiencies of its gameplay, which include unfulfilling RPG elements and a stubborn camera.
The Dwarves is a really uneven RPG. It has some original ingredients and can be quite fun but sooner or later the joy is destroyed by weak combat and an empty world. And even if you become fond of the story or characters, ultimately you'll be disappointed by the short time needed to finish the game.
The Dwarves is a big disappointment. King Art tried too hard to stick to the books and released an unfinished product that offers neither challenges nor interesting plot. Serious limitations in gameplay, not very interesting interactions between characters and poor overall quality make the story about brave dwarves difficult to recommend.
The Dwarves would like to achieve a better rating, but their own companions in the fight undercut this effort. Simple technical state is not always a recipe for a success. [Issue #271]
Right off the bat, it is worth mentioning that this game is different from other isometric games such as Pillars of eternity, Baldur's gate, Neverwinter etc in terms of game mechanics and world exploration. Is it necessarily a bad thing? Well some people say that it's more of a visual audio book with RTS elements than an RPG game , while others might think that it introduces a breath of fresh air to the RPG genre such as myself. Ultimately it gets down to personal preference.
Saying that, let's get down to business with a list of pro's n con's about this gem ****:
PROS:
+The narration and dialogues gives of a soothing and cosy atmosphere to the game. Fully voiced which is always great! I was hooked from the start and did not loose interest nor clicked away any conversations.
+The story and character development; As I advanced through this epic journey, I got more invested in the characters and their background stories. While being your standard RPG a la lord of the rings, the tale unfolded in an intriguing way, inviting some chuckle here and there, lots of smiles and a few sad events. The cut-scenes enhanced the experience even further.
+Exploration of the world is approached via a worldmap with a vivid narration of events in which you sometimes had to make choices thus, to a certain extent, could influence the outcome.
+ Game mechanics; compared to other RPG you get to fight hordes upon hordes of orcs while using lots of AoE skills that could also cause friendly fire. Therefore, placing your characters and using the environment is a must to avoid being overrun by the mobs. Smash the orcs, knock em out then finish them or just push em off the cliff! Whatever you decide there is a great sense of satisfaction!
CONS:
- Oh camera, where art thou?? Why not let us freely scroll over the battlefield to plan even better strategies?!
-The ending felt just a tad too rushed.
- Some health potion bugs which in some situations were rather frustrating.
The story of "The Dwarves" is good. It rushes in places, and some characters are left undeveloped, but you can't really ask for much more than we get in a RTS, which is what this is. It is not really an RPG, though I think it would have been better if they embraced RPG more and RTS less. The voice acting is solid. The sound effects in general are satisfying. The score is good.
Gameplay is meh. Pathfinding bugs get annoying, general Quality of Life observances are lacking, and having to restart a mission because your character inexplicably flew off a cliff is annoying. There are some strong bones here, but the delivery was too flawed to be called a 'good' game. There was a lot of promise though, and I look forward to more from the devs.
Story - This game is very loyal to the novel of the same name it was based of in which it followed accurately the narrative, story and characters of the said novel. By doing this, I could say that it has a great and interesting story about an epic adventure of a Dwarf blacksmith named Tungdil together with his group of different race and people in order to defend Girdlegard against the corrupted Magi Nudlin and the attack and influence of the Perished land in addition on finding the mystery of our main characters origins and history of the dwarf kingdome. All the characters are interesting and fun in their own way even the minor ones as well as their interactions with each other. My minor complaint are in the pacing of the game's style of narration is good but kinda annoying that the subtitle of the narrator is included in the text box where the dialogue of the character is also written. It makes me confused sometimes who is talking or not. Thus, a good score of 9/10 deserves this part.
Gameplay - This is the part which this game lacks. I don't understand if this is an Action game, Strategy game or a merged of them both because its confusing, it has its good parts but a lot of bad parts due to the bad execution of mixture of classic and modern rpg gameplay. The pro is how many enemies you could fight in every fight you encounter in the game as well ai allies who would help you in other parts of the game. ITS A LOT and looks really like a war kind of overhead fighting mechanic this game has. Next is how unique each and every character is, One is offensive, the other defensive while others are support or for stealth. Lastly, is how a felt a slight of Dragon Age: Origins in the game. However, on the con side, its a lot. The customization is very limited that each can only equip one kind of equipment, you could only take 4 of your companions (I would have liked at least 6 or 8 characters) and how it is a real time type of rpg game focusing on action more which in my opinion would look better if they focused on strategy. Some annoying glitch or bugs in game and how very plain the adventure aspect of the game by only using a dotted world map style of getting to places. and how the game overall is too short for an rpg game. Thus, a score of 3/10 in this part.
Graphics - This is the worst part of the game. Graphics is awful. Hell, even the obvious inspiration this game adapted namely Dragon Age: Origins still has better graphics than this game and it was released since 2010! A whole lot of fps drops and screen tearing both in the cutscenes and in the battle parts which could either annoy or affect your game. Characters all look like comic characters which you could see the edges of a square or whatever shapes you could see in the characters. I literally never liked the artwork nor anything related to this part. It is so outdated in today's standards. Therefore, my worst score of 0/10 for this part.
Sound/Music - In terms of voices, I loved it. All of their voices (especially Boindil) are a match of their characters, though I have some reservations on Tungdil's voice actor. I could still say they did still do a pretty good job in his character over all. As to sound, I like their main OST as well as the epic music that comes at various parts of the game (I won't spoil.) A pretty decent overall job in this aspect. Thus, a good score of 8/10.
Fun factor - This is a new part of my review I would be including which states my personal enjoyment and experience I felt during my playtime of this game. In my opinion, I was one of the person hyped on the ideas the developers showed in their trailers in the game. I was expecting to fight monstrous numbers of enemies and using different tactics and combo to beat them. However, upon playing it, was very dissapointed that it was limited, some areas are too small, some are too big while others are more irritating to actually enjoy. In addition, how you can only take 4 of your allies in battle when as a whole you can get more than 10 overall to recruit in the game. I would have liked for you take more of your allies in battles. The only thing i really enjoyed are its characters and their interactions. Thus, my fun factor in this game is only 3/10. It had potential, but it goes to waste due to bad execution.
Overall - 4.6
Nach Abschluss des Spiels bin ich ziemlich ernüchtert.
Das Spiel hetzt meines Erachtens zu schnell durch die Story, Ereignisse wirken viel zu oft willkürlich und die Möglichkeiten der Characterentwicklung sind lächerlich. Auch bei den Massenschlachten bzw. dem Kampfsystem fehlt noch einiges an Feintuning und Balancing. Zwar zeichnet sich hier hier ein kleines Entwicklerstudio für das Spiel verantwortlich, dennoch finde ich den gebotenen Content leider unsaugereift.
SummaryA few heroes are facing hundreds of foes – are you even able to lead the coolest fantasy people to victory against the dark hordes? Explore a vast world, fight tactical real-time battles, and experience the fantastic story based on the bestseller "The Dwarves".