The Dwarves

The combat feels very chaotic - more like an RTS rather than an RPG. Not at all what I was expecting.

At first, the "storybook with battle set pieces and occasional point & click" feels amateurish, as did the at times choppy transitions between game and cutscenes, as well as a few audio issues and repeated lines of dialogue (played the game in German). But The Dwarves slowly grows on you, based as it is on a quality fantasy series with a fairly refreshing concept centred on that eternal understudy of fantasy - the dwarf - and it does a pretty good job of conveying the epic atmosphere of the few battling against many. Also, while you might be frustrated at first at the characters' erratic movement in battle, and how it hinders strategic positioning, it actually feels very realistic - as it were - and different from most other games, and you learn to compensate with their special abilities. Great soundtrack by Benny Oschmann, as usual, and, speaking about the music, props to the devs for making sure there was a way around an immersion-breaking part of the game involving music and a certain German power metal band. The Dwarves isn't a deep game, and also rather short, which, if you haven't read the novels, might make you feel like you barely got to know many of the characters. But it's solid, has good production values, is well written and vivid, and makes for a bite-sized satisfying experience.

Having backed this game on Kickstarter, I must say I was awaiting it eagerly, and after playing it, on most fronts, I was not disappointed. If you like Hero Offence style games, then this game is sure to bring you much entertainment. The game is fun, but short, with content and hero customisation lacking. The Good: + The game is all I hoped it to be, with massive hordes of enemies getting smashed up by a few powerful heroes with nicely tuned crowd-control skills (Hero Offence style gameplay). + Graphics are great and the environments are varied and interesting. + Game mechanics and hero skills are fun to play with (throwing enemies off cliffs and knockdowns for insta-kills). + Interesting story that is not cheesy, and even has some gruesome parts. + Very few bugs that I encountered (but there were some nonetheless). + Missions are varied and some can be quite challenging (requiring frequent use of the 'pause' function to issue commands to the heroes, so as not to get overwhelmed) . + Decent selection of characters to play with, most having varying skills hence requiring differing tactics. The Not So Good: - Variety of enemies is very small, which makes battles go a similar way every time once you figure out a winning formula. - Very limited loot system, with virtually no customisation of characters. - There are very few side quests, where the player can get to know the history and lore of the world. - The game is far too short for the effort that was put in to make it as beautiful as it is (I am a slow player, and like to experience the whole of the game, but I managed to finish it in just 16 hours).

While the game feels great and the story is strong the first couple of chapters, the last chapters unfortunately feel very rushed, which is why I won't give five stars. There are errors in the text, lines get repeated after they have already been said, cut-scenes end in blank screens. The finale - though well written - feels unsatisfying. Plus, the credits are... a good idea with very poor execution. With that said: this is an acquired taste that you will either love or hate. It is a story told by a narrator and short cut-scenes. In between them, you are moving your switching between three game-modes. First is a tabletop board-game, in which you move your character like a figure across the board. If something happens, the narrator will explain what is going on and you may jump to a 3D view of the local environment. Here you either (mode A) are required to select your heroes and battle enemies in a tactical action sequence. You can pause the battle at any time to give orders to your various (up to four) heroes. However, they will carry out your orders by themselves and you have no direct control. Or (mode B) you explore the 3D area to examine the surrounding in a point&click sequence. Finding and clicking the right objects will start short dialogues and/or award extra experience. The successful end to a sequence will drop you back to the main board - Except for the ending of the game, where the board and the point&click was skipped entirely and replaced by a number of scripted action sequences, which end up being a bit too much of the same in a row (for my taste) and might wear you motivation down quite a bit. What makes or breaks the whole game is the story, which binds it all together. Which is why this is a polarizing game: either you love the story, in which case you will enjoy the game - or you do not, in which case the game may simply not have enough gameplay meat on its bones for you to care. Recommendation - wait for a sale: then instant buy.

Beautiful Story and Voice acting with great a great sound track, that this game plays around with great game play and combat.