Orcs & Elves II

What would you end up with if you had a mix of the classic game of Doom and spellbinding wizardry? Orcs & Elves II would be the correct answer!

In this first person RPG, you get the chance to kick some green Orc butt in a variety of ways as you roam around a variety of maze-like dungeons and towns in a quest to be a rather unlikely hero. Not interested yet? You will be, believe me!

The plot’s very juicy but not drawn out and has quite a few twists to it and shows a lot of thought and imagination (which is hard to come by in mobile gaming) went into this little gem. Unlike the normal roam about, build up your team, keep them healthy and bulking up their levels and equipment as you go, you only have to manage yourself using the rather intuitive menu selection screen.

You play the role of a thief who’s pinched a rather gobby smart-alec wand as a last ditch effort to turn the tide of the advances of the undead and evil Orcs. Initially the wand is unwilling to help, so it’s down to you and the basics of smashing and slashing at beasts you find using a staff and dagger. As you play the game you will need to not just beat up the various bad guys, but find treasure and potions to help you on your quest. Some of this is easy to find by just roaming around every corner, others are more hidden or protected by dark forces.

The game’s full of all the usual kinds of creatures you’d expect to see; skeletons, orcs, elves, dwarves etc. When in the relative safety within the town walls, you will find many happy, talkative and drunk dwarves willing to give you a few clues, sell you a few wares or a nice cosy cell for the night (should you get caught pick-pocketing them).

One of the most interesting and cute elements to the game is the ‘familiar’, who’s a rather cool mouse who you can use and control (via a mouse-eye view) to remotely access areas otherwise restricted by your bigger size. The familiar can be used to get surveillance of rooms and corridors so you can prevent getting attacked, and indeed surprise the enemy!

This is a proper old-skool game with all the frills and thrills you could imagine thrown in for good measure. You can develop the game to suit your fighting style, so if hand to hand combat is your thing, or whether you prefer projecting missiles and just like picking fights on hapless piles of bones and other nasty monsters – then you’ll certainly have a laugh and the odd thrill from the game.

Ultimately this game is perfect for anyone who’s new to this genre as well as the more experienced dungeon explorers. There are so many entertaining levels to this game, from the script and plot, to the excellent graphics and interactive qualities. At the end of the day, it’s a must have game for anyone out there. My top tip to you is to regularly save the game (which you can do at any time) as you’ll almost inevitably come a cropper at the hands or other object wielded by your foes. This means you can start again where you left off – without losing much progress and you may be able to even the score the next time round.

Rating 93%

Positives

Great script and not boring in any way

Great graphics

Simplistic controls and intuitive weapon cycling and menu selection

Negatives

May not challenge the more advanced dungeon slayers amongst us

A little frustrating at times as you can die all too quickly so it’s important you regularly save your progress