The Dwarves Review: Coming Up Short

<p>There are some great games that are based on books&comma; <em>Metro 2033<&sol;em> and <em>The Witcher Series<&sol;em> comes to mind&period; <em>The Dwarves<&sol;em>&comma; loosely based on Markus Heitz&&num;8217&semi;s book of the same name&period; Before I did research on this title and how it came to be I felt that I was playing as Gimli&comma; you know the lovable dwarf from Lord of the Rings&period; Everyone loves Gimli from <em>The Lord of the Rings<&sol;em>&comma; heck he was one of my favorites next to the goofy Hobbits Merry and Pippin&period; So THQ Nordic decided to make a 3D isometric battle royale game&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t really know why&period; They missed the movies by a few years and if you want a really good 3D isometric game you play <em>Diablo III<&sol;em>&period; Sometimes imitation is flattery&comma; but if you get it wrong and imitation fails to translate&comma; you don&&num;8217&semi;t make a very good game&period; This weird foray into dwarves fighting a ton of mythical creatures really didn&&num;8217&semi;t hold my attention&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d rather play <em>Return of the King<&sol;em> if I wanted a good Middle Earth experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;kingart-games&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">King Art Games<&sol;a> really decided to &&num;8220&semi;borrow&&num;8221&semi; the look of Peter Jackson&&num;8217&semi;s epic Middle Earth series&period; The opening of the game honestly looks like the opening scene of <em>The Hobbit<&sol;em>&comma; the castle&comma; the dwarves&comma; the orcs and eventually the weird elf you meet&period; All of them look to be pulled from the movie and I wonder if Peter Jackson or New Line Cinema are going to be filing some court papers&period; Other than the homage or theft of the look&comma; it did look nice on my huge television&comma; the colors were vibrant and the dwarves very stylish&period; I did catch some tiling during a few of the cut scenes and that made me a little sad because it ruined the look of the world as I was beginning to become engrossed in it&period; While the world did look amazing&comma; as the battles raged on I kept losing sight of my dwarf&period; Imagine being about the size of a quarter on my screen and about twenty-five other quarters being on my screen and trying to find my own quarter&period; Sounds difficult right&quest; Well&comma; it was&period; I lost track of my dwarf so many times because of the number of orcs on screen and all the health bars that cluttered up the screen as well&period; I suggest having a buddy help you out with a laser pointer perhaps&comma; so you can keep track of your diminutive avatar&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117292" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117292" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-117292" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;22021952&sol;stonegateway&lowbar;combat&lowbar;0&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;The Dwarves - THQ Nordic&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117292" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Dwarves<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; THQ Nordic&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The story is pretty simple&comma; you begin your journey as Tungdil&comma; a dwarf who was raised by humans and has just learned of the other 5 Dwarven realms&period; He sets off on a quest through Girdlegard to visit these 5 realms and learn more about his heritage&comma; which he began to learn from through books&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s nice to see a tale of knowledge&comma; they are few and far between now and I like to see people learn&comma; and learn myself&period; Unfortunately&comma; Tungdil finds that the realms and the world are not as peaceful as they once were&period; War rages in this world as he begins to get swept up in it&comma; so not only does he learn about the world&comma; he learns to kill&period; Sounds like a Lifetime Movie type of story huh&quest; What makes it truly like a Lifetime Movie is that there is almost a double narration&period; Your character will speak&comma; then a voice-over will speak of their intentions and the like&period; I did enjoy this aspect of the game&comma; it was very different from what I am used to and I hope a few more titles have narration by the character followed by some type of overseer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls are quite simple if you&&num;8217&semi;ve played <em>Dragon Age&colon; Origins<&sol;em> you can play this game with ease&period; You use the D-pad to chose what type of action your Dwarf will take in battle&comma; he can shield bash&comma; jump&comma; and slash&semi; once you&&num;8217&semi;ve decided you press A and your dwarfs responds&period; The Right Thumbstick moves your dwarf and the Left Thumbstick moves the camera around so you can gaze upon the battlefield&period; One of the biggest drawbacks is the fact that you have to have AP to use these moves&comma; once it runs out you become a hit sponge&period; I would attempt to get myself out of battle until my AP recharged&comma; but enemies follow so closely that it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t quite work out&period; Battling gets easier when you control one of more Dwarf&comma; but it is easy to lose them on the battlefield after you hit the Right or Left Bumper to use them&period; What I would do is use all the AP for one dwarf and then switch to the other Dwarf until AP had been restored&period; Not a pretty way to play&comma; but it got the job done&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117410" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117410" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-117410" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;24001656&sol;Dwarves&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;The Dwarves - THQ Nordic&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117410" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Dwarves<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; THQ Nordic&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>My time spent with this game was mostly in frustration&period; I could barely see my avatar on the screen and had to squint through my supremely thick glasses&period; I would plummet to my death several times a match because I would shield bash off a bridge&comma; or I would be pummeled by my foes because my AP ran out&period; I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t really recommend this game to most people if you&&num;8217&semi;re a fan of the books you will love this&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re a fan of strategy fighting and possibly chess then this is your game&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m not a patient man and I don&&num;8217&semi;t like to wait to make my move&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s not how it works in real life&comma; you don&&num;8217&semi;t stand around waiting for your attack to recharge while in a fist fight&period; So that fact alone makes it difficult for me to suspend disbelief having been in several fist fights&comma; I never just stood there waiting for the other guy to deck me&comma; I decked him first and hard and as many times as I could until he was down&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s how I see life&comma; instant response&comma; no downtime in a fight&comma; so that makes me dislike games like this and turn-based because it sounds so foolish&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>An Xbox One Product Key for The Dwarves was Provided for the Purpose of this Review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;