Rating of
3.5/5
Of Hallways and Railroads
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 11/02/14
“Of Orcs and Men” (“OO&M”) is an effort at creating an original RPG by the combined efforts of Spiders, Cyanide, and Focus Home Entertainment. None of the companies involved in the creation of “OO&M” is known for their quality, with a lot of cut-rate, half-assed games in their stable, many of which only see release in Europe, where things like rugby and competitive bicycle racing aren’t looked down upon. Despite the dismal reputation of the people behind the game, I was willing to give “OO&M” a fair shake both because I’m interested in any story that frames goblinoids as the heroes and because everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves when breaking into a new genre.
Presentation
“OO&M” looks pretty par for the course when it comes to Spiders/Cyanide productions. The game runs on Spiders’ proprietary Silk Engine, which isn’t as smooth as the material it’s named for. I would call it the Cottage Cheese Engine instead, because it is extremely inconsistent. Some characters, specifically the Orcs and Styx the Goblin, look really good, and are decently (but not spectacularly) animated with a handful of canned and motion-captured gestures (that get used over and over). These nice looking characters have fancy texture maps on their skins but suffer from the same horrible lip synch as the rest of the cast. The human characters, on the other hand, are uniformly hideous, with pinched, samey facial features and stiff, wooden animations.
Character design is fairly uninspired, overall. The game’s Orcs are all huge, lumbering meat-piles that look like Marcus Fenix from “Gears of War” with less clothing and a coat of green paint (they even waddle along like cheerful steroid junkies). Humans all look like mentally handicapped rejects from the world of “The Witcher.” Finally, all Goblins look incredibly simplistic… except for Styx, the playable Goblin. Styx looks just like he was torn from the pages of a Games Workshop “’Eavy Metal” magazine from the ‘80s or ‘90s – that is to say, he looks great and is the very definition of what it is to be a Goblin, with his hooked nose, pointy ears, crinkly lips, and long fingers. It is not surprising that Styx is the only character in the game to be given a sequel/spin-off in the recently-released “Styx: Master of Stealth.”
The audio in “OO&M” is unspectacular. While the game is fully voiced, the only characters what don’t sound like they’re reading their lines for the first time off the back of a cereal box are – surprise! – the Orcs and Styx the Goblin. Even among Orcs, though, there are some lines that come off as needing another take. Styx is really the only solid performance of the game.
The soundtrack, on the other hand, may as well not even exist. I recall hearing a few light, ambient notes at times, and there is a completely forgettable battle theme, but otherwise, “OO&M” may as well not even have musical accompaniment.
Story
“OO&M” runs with a simple role-reversal concept that I incorporated into one of my D&D campaigns nearly a decade ago. What would happen in a fantasy world if Orc and Goblins weren’t just mindless minions of evil, but fully-vested races with cultures of their own? What if the abuse heaped upon Orcs and Goblins is what lead them into conflict with the other races, instead of an endemic hostility?
“OO&M” opens years into a crusade by the human Empire to eradicate all ‘greenskins.’ Numerous Orc tribes have been wiped out, with their members slain or enslaved in order to provide the work force the Empire needs to build the enormous wall and towers that separate the ‘civilized’ world from the wild lands where the Orc tribes roam. Our hero, Arkail (pronounced ‘Ark-Eye’ with a… silent L?) is a member of an elite force of fighting Orcs drawn from all clans known as the Bloodjaws. Arkail also has a dark past and a tendency toward going berserk.
The Bloodjaws have a clever plan: They are going to sneak their members past the wall in order to meet up with the Conclave of Mages. Once an Orc and a Mage are together, the Mage can use his/her powers of prognostication to navigate the treacherous waters between the mainland and the Isle of Laments, whereupon the Orc will proceed to the Emperor’s palace and assassinate him. Arkail is but one of several Bloodjaws assigned the same task, in a bit of clever redundant planning on the Orcs’ part.
Arkail’s first steps in crossing the wall involves meeting up with a guide, who turns out to be none other than Styx, the only non-feral Goblin in the entire world. While most Goblins are content to live like rats in the sewer systems beneath the Empire’s fortifications, Styx is a sharp, devious assassin and thief, with membership in a rogue mercenary outfit called the Black Hand.
While “OO&M” is supposed to have a strong ‘buddy flick’ vibe, Arkail and Styx don’t really seem to like each other all that much. Frequently, their collaboration feels forced, like they are only cooperating because the game “OO&M” is about an Orc and a Goblin that cooperate. Their relationship does develop as the game progresses, but the story is so short, everything in it feels rushed.
“OO&M” is only about 15 hours long, which is shockingly short for an RPG. Even worse, it is horrifyingly linear, with each of 5 chapters containing a handful of main missions and side missions that MUST be taken when given (side quests can be ignored, but in doing so missed). There are a handful of side characters introduced throughout this high-speed railroad, most of whom never get enough development to move beyond one-dimensional.
Ultimately, “OO&M” has an enjoyable story inasmuch as it handles the role reversal of Orc and Men admirably and manages to discuss the real-world topic of racism without coming across as patronizing.
Gameplay
I was beginning to think that Western developers had forgotten how to make RPGs at all, instead shoe-horning a few leveling or loot mechanics into 100% action games and calling the resultant chimera an RPG. “OO&M” is a true, died-in-the-wool RPG, with indirect commands to the characters being the mode of executing combat.
The player controls both Arkail and Styx, with the ability to switch between them at any time. Combat plays out in real time, but time slows down to a crawl when the player opens the command selection menus for either character. Combat commands are selected from a radial menu that features three trees for each character: Arkail can choose between offensive or defensive stances, plus a handful of neutral skills; while Styx can choose from melee and ranged stances and a handful of neutral skills. If either character is left without commands, they will revert to using a default command in their current stance until the combat session ends. Teamwork is an essential facet of “OO&M’s” combat, as each encounter contains enough enemies to easily overwhelm two greenskins. Thus Styx is required to sneak in via his stealth ability (which stops working once enemies know there are combatants about) and strategically assassinate as many foes as he can before Arkail beefily charges in and draws everyone’s attention.
Arkail and Styx also have unique resource mechanics for using their skills. Arkail’s is a Rage meter, which fills as he attacks while in offensive stance and when he gets hit. When the Rage meter maxes out, Arkail goes berserk, preventing the player from commanding him and possibly attacking Styx if he gets too close. Styx’s resource is Concentration, which works similarly to any other RPG’s MP or Stamina meter, as it regenerates fairly quickly and is consumed when performing more interesting attacks.
There is no grinding to be had in “OO&M.” Every encounter in the game is staged, providing an exact amount of maximum experience for the characters. Gaining a level grants both Arkail and Styx one attribute point to assign to Strength, Agility, Stamina, or Mind plus one skill point that can be spent unlocking or upgrading the skills in the characters’ radial menus. Near the end of the game, Arkail and Styx both have dialog choices to determine which class specialization they will take, which ultimately just unlocks three new skills in each of their neutral radial menus. Unfortunately, by this point in the game, unless the player has been hoarding skill points, they won’t have enough to unlock these skills. Also unfortunately, the game doesn’t elaborate on what skills each specialization will unlock, leaving the player forced to pick blindly.
Like experience, loot is not something to grind for. There are a set number of ‘trade points’ to be found in the game, which act as money, and a set number of weapons and armor pieces for each character both hidden in glowing bags/boxes or handed out upon completing missions. Each piece of gear can be upgraded once by a smith, increasing its attack or defense values but without improving any extra bonuses said gear might have.
The main flaw in “OO&M’s” gameplay is the same as the main flaw in the story: The game is too damned linear! People loved to pick on “Final Fantasy 13” (rightfully so) for being nothing but a stretch of hallways for the first 50 hours before expanding into a more open world right at the end. “OO&M” NEVER expands into an open world. Each mission and side mission takes place in a specific area, and every area is a single path with one or two looping forks that don’t differ from each other in any way. In many cases, the game’s patrolling enemies will simply walk in one of these loops, providing the player the exact encounter regardless of the direction they choose to move Arkail and Styx. There are also a few moral choice dialog branches, which ultimately don’t change anything in the story.
Overall
“Of Orcs and Men” is a fairly unspectacular RPG that just reinforces the mediocre reputation of the companies behind it. However, ‘mediocre’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘bad.’ There are numerous good story elements and gameplay mechanics in the game that could have made for a great experience if they had been polished and expanded upon a bit more. Instead, the game is a super-short, super-linear affair whose main claim to fame is actually being an RPG in an age of impostors.
Presentation: 2.5/5
Story: 4/5
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Overall (not an average): 3.5/5
