Orcs & Elves

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Orcs & Elves
North American Nintendo DS box art
Developer(s)	Fountainhead Entertainment, produced for id Software
Publisher(s)	EA Mobile (Mobile Phone) Electronic Arts (Nintendo DS)
Designer(s)	John Carmack
License	Nintendo (Nintendo DS)
Series	Orcs & Elves
Engine	Doom RPG
Platform(s)	Mobile Phone, Nintendo DS
Release date	May 1, 2006 (Mobile Phone) November 15, 2007 (Nintendo DS)
Genre(s)	Computer role-playing game
Rating(s)	ESRB: T PEGI: 12+ OFLC: M

Orcs & Elves is a fantasy role-playing adventure video game for the mobile phone and Nintendo DS. It was developed by John Carmack and Fountainhead Entertainment, produced by id Software, published by EA Mobile and lincenced by Nintendo for the DS version. It was first released on the mobile phone on May 1, 2006^[1] before being ported to the Nintendo DS on November 15, 2007. The game is based on Doom RPG's engine and id's first original intellectual property since Quake. The later DS port of the game included graphical enhancements, such as 3D enivronments and camera cutscenes, along with improved character sprites and the use of the touchscreen feature.

The game is described as an adventure-RPG, in which the protagonist, a young Elf must retake a dwarven city from the evil army of Orcs occupying it.

A sequel, titled Orcs & Elves II, has been released for mobile phones.

1 Premise
2 Gameplay
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Premise

Nintendo DS version displaying double screens, with the lower as the touchscreen.

The player takes control of a young Elf named Elli who wields "Ellon", a wand with its own mind and capable of communicating to others, who receives a"cryptic message" from King Brahm, the Dwarf ruler of Mount Zharrkarag and close friend of Elli's father. Upon his arrival of Zharrkarag, Elli finds the the citadel overrun by Orcs and other monsters with King Brahm missing. Elli and Ellon then journy through to mountain in search for him and the reasons behind the unexpected attack.^[2]

[edit] Gameplay

Orcs & Elves' is a turn-based role-playing game, but enirely in a first person perspective both in travel, combat and interaction with other characters. Each individual action by the player counts as a "turn", whether that be simple movement, using an item or weapon or casting a spell, in which other foes will also move and attack in time with these when the player is in their presence. Each forward move by the player is done on an invisible grid that makes up each level in order to retain the turn-based element while appearing more like a first person adventure due to its fast paced nature.

Each level is set in a dungeon environment, each with a start and end point yet contain multiple corridors and rooms that can be visited at any time. However many paths are cut off and require certain objectives to be completed first in order to advance like activate hidden switches, locate helpful ghosts and opening rune gates that require a code of four runes. Some foes also require different strategies in order to defeat with some being resistant to certain attacks such as magic.^[3]

The Mobile Phone version has a slightly different graphical quality and lacks a second display.

The RPG elements, along with those of dungeon crawlers come in the form of basic leveling of the player and the collecting and trading items and gold. As the player progresses they will level up, increasing their overall stats such as health, strength and defense, through slaying foes, completing objectives and locating hidden areas and items, many of which can be repeated by backtracking to previously completed levels. Although to begin with the player is equipped with just a basic sword and a wand called "Ellon" they can also find various items, along gold throughout each level, which they can spend on new and improved equipment by visiting "Gaya the Dragon", located by entering portals at the end of each level.^[4] Equipment can be used for effect both active and passively such as armour to improve defense again attacks (along with kits to repire upon depletion), magic rings and potions that improve certain player stats or heal and stronger weapons like war hammers and crossbows or spells for the wand Ellon to be used in combat like lightening and fire attacks, as well as stunning and moving of enemies and other obstructions.

In the Nintendo DS version of the game, spells can be cast through drawing runes on the touchscreen for each spell using the DS' stylus.^[5] Movement, item managment and menu navigation can also be done using this feature along with the option of button controls.

[edit] Reception

Upon its first release on the mobile phone, Orcs & Elves was received well by critics with an average critic score of 86% at Game Rankings.^[1] IGN praised the game's look by stating "There's no way you cannot be impressed with the overall look and atmosphere of the game" while pointing out however the "remarkably similar in mechanics and control" to Doom RPG.^[6] 1UP.com praised the story for having more depth than most other games on the mobile phone, that it "has some characters we can care a bit about and a story that goes beyond a thin excuse to run around killing things in mazes."^[7]

Publication	Score
Mobile Phone
IGN	8.4/10^[6]
1UP	Grade A^[7]
PC
IGN	8/10^[8]
1UP	Grade B^[9]
GameSpot	7/10^[10]
Game Informer	6.75/10^[11]
GameSpy	3.5/5^[12]
Eurogamer	6/10^[13]

The later Nintendo DS release on the other was met with with a less positive yet still fair response, with an average critic score of 71%.^[14] Many complaints came from the fact the game had been ported to a more technically capable system, making it's origins as a mobile phone game more noticable, such as simple graphics and short game length.^[13]^[10]^[9] GameSpot noted this by saying "Orcs & Elves' simplicity doesn't do much to hide its roots as a mobile phone game"^[10] Eurogamer mentioned "what would be a surprising effort for a mobile phone is somewhat disappointing on the DS", being more of "a thick lump of nostalgia"^[13] while GameSpy found it "looks different and plays better than the mobile phone original" and that "more than innovating, the game is designed to stay true to a certain tradition that old-school players will definitely welcome after years of starvation."^[12]

On the game's level design Game Trailers found it made the game "pretty engaging throughout", being "nothing out of the ordinary yet oddly compelling", yet being "a short lived experience".^[15] GamesRadar concluded that the "dungeons are well-designed, the action is well-balanced and fun, and even the characters are likable."^[16] Reviewing the latest version, IGN still felt "even with its limitations, Orcs & Elves’ fast-paced, turn-based style is a refreshing change of pace from the evolved role-playing game design"^[8] while Game Informer more negatively concluded "you may be better off making up your own fantasy game with RPG Maker."^[11]