This scrappy RPG aims to give the dwarves their day.
Dwarves fit in with high fantasy as comfortably as Stratocasters fit in with rock 'n' roll, but outside of a few standout works like The Hobbit, they're usually confined to sideshow roles over the likes of elves and humans. Much like the 2003 bestselling novel on which it's based, The Dwarves upends that tradition by placing dwarves at the vanguard, and generally it's a story worth hearing. Judged by the story alone, I'd go so far as to call this one of my favorite RPGs of the year so far, but the deficiencies of its tactical gameplay make it tough to recommend – especially when you can just read the book instead.
In some ways it spins a conventional fantasy yarn, and in appearance, the inhabitants of the land of Girdlegard differ only minimally from their counterparts in the likes of Warcraft and The Lord of the Rings. That familiarity extends to the plot itself, with its treacherous wizards and undead hordes. But much as in Markus Heitz's novels, it's the characterizations that allow it to stand out, and developer King Art Games captures them well with banter pulled straight from the books, consistently seasoned with commendable voice acting and attractive cutscenes in a style that resembles artistic stop-motion animation.
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An imperious narrator delivers her lines with the cadence of a seasoned dungeon master.
Above all, this is the tale of Tungdil, a bookish dwarf who'd never seen his own kind until the mage who raised him sent him out on a lengthy errand. A lot of plot was cut to make it all fit within a somewhat disappointing running time of just 10 hours, but there's also some excellent editing at work here, joining together widely separate events so skillfully that I noticed nothing amiss until I cross-referenced the novel. There's still a lot of exposition, although I admired the skill with which it bounced from character voice acting to an imperious narrator who delivers her lines with the pleasing cadence of a seasoned dungeon master.
The one drawback is that most of these interactions tend to take place while Tungdil treks around the sprawling world map, where whole minutes can go by without any proper action. It's an iffy choice, but The Dwarves handles it well as it often breaks up the straight narration by sprinkling in choices of action or dialogue. Sometimes, as in the case of Tungdil's decision to spend the night in either a tree or on the ground, they can mean the difference between "game over" and story progression. (Being familiar with the book helps in this regard.) Unfortunately, The Dwarves' fairly strict and understandable adherence to Heitz's story means these choices ultimately have almost no impact on the major events of Tungdil's adventures.
It's a fine concept even though it becomes noticeably rushed toward the end, and it would have been good enough to make me call The Dwarves an above-average RPG if the gameplay was up to the same standards. It does have positive qualities, such as the way the story has a noticeable (if minimal) impact on combat, as higher affinity gained through conversations means friendly heroes will regain action points faster when grouped. The Dwarves' combat heavily emphasizes pitting its heroes against overwhelming odds, to the point that Tungdil and the three (out of 14) characters he can take with him into battle often end up swinging axes or slinging spells against 20 orcs or more. It's a little disappointing that each character can only unlock five skills and equip three (choosing between two options, MOBA-like, as they level), but they're usually fun to use in action.
When the dwarf Boëndal swings his hammer, a whole horde of orcs could go falling into a canyon. When Andôkai the mage clumps a load of orcs together, it's always rewarding to see her follow it up with a huge explosion. Fun, too, is the heavy focus on environmental interaction, whether it's hacking at columns to bring the roof down or leading orcish swarms into bottlenecks. It's also pleasingly challenging most of the time, to the point that not taking advantage of these options will get Tungdil or a party member killed even on easy mode (thus, a little annoyingly, requiring a reload for anything less than perfection). I even usually enjoyed the frequent pauses to command each character, although hours in I often found myself wishing I could set the heroes' AI to attack without my intervention. These pauses are necessary, as the basic attacks the heroes are independently capable of are about as deadly as slapping a stone slab with a braided beard.
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No design decision proves so annoyingly frustrating as the camera.
The Dwarves is full of strange design decisions like this, but none proves so annoyingly frustrating as the camera, which can't move freely around the map. Instead, even on the world map, it is locked to center on the targeted character, making it difficult to find objectives on the many scenarios that require the dwarves to do something besides just kill everyone. Second to that is the limited character customization. Likely owing to a desire to stay close to the book, there's a disappointing inability to tinker with weapons or gear. The most you can do is swap out amulets or equip consumables like health potions, which come off as being about as common as elven beards.
That's a problem in that The Dwarves' "pile-on" approach to encounters makes for some insane difficulty spikes. More than once I found myself backtracking a few saves because I didn't have enough potions for a surprise boss fight. It's also disappointing that the aiming for melee is imprecise at best, making a chore of missions where Tungdil needs to target an NPC in the middle of a monstrous herd.
Such design decisions point to a seeming emphasis on the console version, and thus it's strange that the PC version I mainly played was more stable than its Xbox One counterpart with its occasional screen tears and framerate slowdowns. Bugs on the PC version were thankfully minimal, being chiefly limited to rare glitched NPCs in cutscenes and an occasionally finicky autosave. These were never so awful that they made me regret my time with The Dwarves, but the uneven delivery left me disappointed as someone who’d love to see the dwarves have their day.
The Verdict
The Dwarves boasts a strong story that's taken from a bestselling novel, and it generally honors that lineage with a cast of likable and ably voiced characters. It's a good foundation, but unfortunately it's not strong enough to make up for the deficiencies of its gameplay, which include unfulfilling RPG elements and a stubborn camera.
Editors' Choice
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