Orcs & Elves DS is a faithful recreation of John Carmack's mobile phone RPG that was met with critical and commercial success. You may know him better as the man behind such franchises as Doom and Quake and the highly successful Doom RPG mobile phone dungeon crawl. Orcs & Elves isn't particularly revolutionary on the DS but developer Fountainhead has done a nice job of offering some support for the touch-screen, a smattering of graphical enhancements and a new area or two to make the game a little beefier.
The story, like in its mobile phone predecessor, is pedestrian at best. You play the cookie cutter nameless hero who is the wielder of a family heirloom handed down to you by your father - a magical talking wand named Ellon. With talking wand in hand, you set out to save an ancient Dwarven citadel from nefarious forces threatening to rise from their dark depths for some murky and obviously evil plot. Luckily Ellon does more than chatter in your ear like a school girl, but we'll get to that later.
Light story aside, Orcs & Elves hearkens back to those popular old school first-person dungeon crawls that featured minimal skill and inventory management, a limited amount of armor and acessories and tons of good old fashioned turn-based combat. The DS version of the game delivers on that front, complete with a cast of humanoid rat people, slimes, shadows, elves and lots of ale drinking dwarves.
Gameplay is pretty straightforward as you would expect. Players explore the underbelly of this citadel with Ellon in hand, battling monsters, collecting treasure and solving simple puzzles to open doors and advance downward and upward in a first-person perspective. The pacing of the game -- whether exploring or fighting monsters -- is almost perfect. The game also does a nice job of hiding its turn-based underpinnings until you encounter something that moves. You use a turn every time you move, drink a potion, or complete any kind of action. The same holds true when in combat, save when you are switching your weapons and doing other mundane tasks. Combat is also very straightforward and easy to understand. You can use a handful of ranged and melee weapons like swords, crossbows, your trusty magic wand or more exotic weapons that you'll retrieve later on in the game. While in combat you can also use one of four magical spells that you'll pick up as you venture deeper and deeper into the adventure..
Ellon is particularly useful for things like the aforementioned spellcasting, which requires you to touch points on a circle until each icon connects. Spells are very powerful but are limited in use because they need time to recharge. But Ellon serves other purposes. He's a faithful companion to the player all through the adventure, warning of low health, damaged armor and in critiquing your fighting technique. He also serves as a link to many of the NPC's who have given up the ghost and wander the ancient surroundings guzzling ale and hiding secrets like lock combinations. In fact, most of the plot is driven by the dialogue between the talking wand and the inhabitants that speak in tongues the player apparently doesn't pick up or understand.
While there aren't too many dramatic changes as Carmack's game makes the jump to the Nintendo DS, Orcs & Elves DS does add a few new ingredients into the mix.
First and foremost the game has been given a slight graphical makeover using a completely new 3D engine. This adds a little more visual depth than the cell phone game, making the game's numerous underground environments a little easier on the eyes. While the world's locales have been given a fresh coat of paint, Orcs & Elves still uses 2D sprites for many of the objects in the world - most notably the monsters and NPC's that inhabit it. While some might say that the denizens of Orcs & Elves look one dimensional the contrasting 3D world and this 2D art actually works well together.
Besides a slight graphical make-over, Orcs & Elves also does a good job of supporting the DS with the use of both face buttons and the touch-screen to get things done as you adventure. While the touch screen isn't quite as vital for engaging in combat and movement (those are best handled by the d-pad and the A button), it does come into play when having to navigate through your inventory. The stylus is particularly important for casting spells, changing gear, searching your journal and consulting the map. Because of the simple nature of the game it really doesn't make a lot of sense to use the stylus for anything other than the mundane tasks I’ve already finally.
Finally developer Fountainhead has added a few new areas into the game and a few new side quests that are quite challenging if you take them on at the precise time that they become available. One in particular has you chasing down a wererat with the promise of a fantastic treasure. Unfortunately, the wererat lives up to his name and causes you to hunt him down and kill him. There's also a new area in the middle of the main adventure called The Forge that adds a little bit more length to the game.
Other than the few things I’ve highlighted above, Orcs & Elves is a pretty faithful recreation of the mobile phone game of the same name. That is perhaps its biggest appeal and its greatest downfall. Chances are if you have already played the game on your mobile phone, the experience won't be all that thrilling the second time around. On the other hand, if this is your first encounter with the game, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how fun it really is.
At the end of the day Orcs & Elves is a solid, charming dungeon crawl with lots of exploration, combat and ale drinking Dwarves. If you're a fan of old school, simple role-playing and haven't had the pleasure of playing the mobile version, then Orcs & Elves is a grand diversion that won't leave you feeling like someone stole $30 from your wallet.
