Project Warlock is a Gory Retro-FPS Treat | BACKLOG.TXT
https://youtu.be/EnIMr31yAZ8
Project Warlock, the debut from Buckshot Software and brainchild of 19-year-old developer Jakub Cislo, is a frantic, bloody, retro-styled first person shooter. In my humble opinion, it’s a real treat. Prefer to watch? Check out our two-tone take by clicking the image above, or visit 2 Headed Hero on YouTube!
On the surface, this game is a modern day callback to the corridor shooters of the 90s – filled with retro trappings, chunky pixels, and rivers of gore.
Project Warlock: Big Guns, Chunky Pixels, and Rivers of Gore
Today on Backlog Quest, we blast our way through Project Warlock – a frantic, fast-paced first person shooter, and the debut release from Buckshot Games. Beneath the surface, it’s got a lot of the same guts that made classics like Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem 3D household names. Some readers out there will probably want to snap it up based on this description alone. Project Warlock was recently released on GOG.com as a limited time exclusive. The game is also rumored to be heading for the Steam platform soon.
A Warlock’s Work Is Never Done
Sticking players firmly behind the sorcerer staff of a nameless time-traveling magician, Project Warlock wastes no time. Players are attacked from the get-go almost as soon as they punch New Game. The challenge? To guide the Warlock through 60 levels of hectic, bloody mayhem until finally planting his boomstick firmly up the backside of the Lord of Hell himself.
…and you sure are going to meet a lot of unfriendly characters along the way.
The pixels are big, the action is bloody, the monsters are plentiful, and the explosions are huge.
If this all sounds like standard 90’s retro shooter fare, you’d be right, but Project Warlock doesn’t stop there. Really, it doesn’t even slow down. The game throws several modern-day mechanics into the mix. An experience system, character builds, and weapon upgrades all round out the gameplay.
Mashing Monsters Throughout Time and Space
There’s a huge variety of environments in Project Warlock. Each of the five episodes has its own theme, complete with different pickup graphics and enemies. (Plus, there’s a part where you shoot a big statue with a shotgun.)It’s up to your time-traveling Warlock to blaze a path through five different historical periods on his trip to Hell. Ramparts and castles in the Medieval episode give way to claustrophobic ice caves in the Antarctic, and trap-filled tombs in Egypt. The levels largely lack verticality, having much more in common with 1992’s Wolfenstein 3d. This becomes most apparent in the Egypt episode, where claustrophobic hallways reign.
The Industrial zones that follow do much more to open up the maps by including huge warehouses and multi-level buildings.
Project Warlock’s campaign includes five bossfights that serve as episodic climaxes. Each battle takes place in large open arenas. The bosses are enormous, have multiple stages, and are joined by hordes of minions. Each boss battle was a blast, although they were a bit of a difficulty spike. Boss fights probably caused most of my deaths throughout the campaign.
Tough Enough?
On the default difficulty, veteran shooter fans should expect a fair challenge. There’s no mid-level save system, and careless moves can end the Warlock in mere moments. Some tougher enemies have to be put down several times, rising back from the grave as battle-damaged versions of themselves – a really clever touch. Dying sends the player to the level start with health refilled. Lives are limited – but plentiful.
Here’s what it looks like when you bring a staff to a… uh, staff fight.
Bumping up to the highest difficulty setting turns Project Warlock into a challenge for only the most masochistic god-tier shooter fans. Enemy damage increases, and a single death sends the Warlock back to the beginning of the entire game.
Looks Like Home
Graphically, Project Warlock attempts to channel nostalgia – and largely succeeds. The game wrestles with pixel-art limitations similar to its inspirations, but applies a punchier graphic art style and modern pixel techniques to achieve a standout look all its own. It also adds modern lighting and shader effects, even turning them into an interesting addition to the gunplay. The player is forced to juggle between their shotgun and their lonely source of light on the fly.
There’s a variety of graphics options to add different retro shaders, enhancing visuals as the player sees fit. There’s even a couple monochrome settings for those that really want to feel like they’re in a time warp.
Level designs in Project Warlock consist mainly of tightly contained switch and key hunts. Over the entire 60 level stretch, I only found myself running around lost a handful of times. This was mainly due to missing a path or secret inside one of the game’s overly dark hallways, which brings me to a minor complaint: The game is often pitch-black, making the light spell somewhat of a necessity. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for dark atmospheres in games, but if I can’t see even a couple feet in front of me without using a spell, it’s an issue. Fortunately, the darkness level was already addressed in a recent patch and this significantly mitigates the problem.
Sounds Like Hell – In a Good Way
It would be a huge oversight not to talk about the soundtrack. Each one of the 60 levels has its own theme, and most of the tracks do diligent work in amping you up for the slaughter ahead. The music puts you through a gauntlet of synth-driven metal, chip tune themes, and industrial ambiance. It’s pretty top notch in both quality and quantity, and comes as a free separate download from GOG along with the purchase of the game.
The sound effects generally add a lot to Project Warlock’s atmosphere. Weapons are beefy, and spells pulse with powerful bass tones. Still, a few sounds (such as minigun fire, and some of the monster yells) stuck out as unbalanced, overdriven, or amateurish. These minor transgressions were only small marks on an otherwise effective and nostalgic soundscape.
Project Warlock’s take on the BFG makes chunky stew out of the biggest hell-beasts.
Give Me The Guns
No shooter is complete without a heaping helping of firearms, and Project Warlock delivers more than its fair share. The arsenal is simply enormous, and even starting weapons like the lowly pistol are highly effective and satisfying to use. Each weapon can only be upgraded into one of two choices, and these same tokens are also used to purchase spells, so some sacrifices… must be made. Not everything can be obtained in a single run through the five episodes, so this gives Project Warlock some replay value right off the bat.
Guns don’t matter if the shooting isn’t good. Fortunately, Project Warlock has some of the most satisfying gunplay this side of the millenium. The game places as few obstacles as possible between the player and the purest sense of twitch shooting.
You won’t find any aiming down sights or reloading mechanics here. (By default, there’s not even a crosshair.) You will find a satisfying sense of feedback and impact when buckshot slaps one of the game’s many hellish horrors. Each piece of the arsenal operates differently and has its own application in the field.
Even melee weapons can be pretty lethal. Some neat water reflections and lighting (pictured above) help bring Project Warlock a step forward.
A Symphony of Violence That Hits My Favorite Notes
Project Warlock hits all the right notes for a fan of old-school shooters like myself. I found it extremely compelling, to the point where I finished the entire campaign in about seven or eight hours.
Keeping with the theme, I chose to go full Warlock for the campaign. My simple staff became a fearsome lightning rod, capable of blowtorching through the toughest creatures in seconds. Thor himself had nothing on my Warlock once I unlocked the street sweeping power of the Stormlord spell. The pure visceral feel of the weapons going off are some of the best in any twitch shooter I’ve recently played. Despite a few minor complaints, Project Warlock is a bloody treat. Shooter fans should drop whatever they’re doing and play it. RIGHT. NOW.
- Chandon, also known as Bawss Sawss, is a sauce aficionado, gamer, writer, musician, and one head of the 2 Headed Hero gaming channel on YouTube. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
- 2 Headed Hero’s quieter half, Rollinkunz, is the channel’s illustrator, gamer, writer, boardgame designer, He can also be reached on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
Backbone Prologue: A Trash Panda Detective Tale | BACKLOG.TXT
Today’s BACKLOG.TXT deals with a teaser: the highly original adventure/stealth hybrid Backbone: Prologue. On 2 Headed Hero, we tend to keep an eye out for indies that might otherwise slip by. Fortunately we’ve dumpster-dived through enough of the garbage to sniff out a quality clue. Prefer to watch? Click the video above or visit us on 2 Headed Hero’s YouTube channel!
Be Free, Eat Trash
Backbone was successfully Kickstarted by Canadian developer Eggnut in 2017, and the full game is aiming for a multi platform release in 2020. While Backbone: Prologue is only about the first forty-five minutes of the full upcoming game, this noir trash-panda detective tale is shaping up to be a clever delight.
Players step into the shoes of anthropomorphic private investigator Howard Lotor and stumble across a dark and sinister mystery in a re-imagined Vancouver. The world is now populated by a flurry of fursonas, without a single normal human in sight, but the gritty tone Backbone Prologue sets is definitely not kiddie fare.
Unreal Techniques
Backbone: Prologue uses a modern pixel art style – no black outlines here – and the visuals are smartly enhanced by Unreal Engine lighting effects. The sprites in each scene are set up as flat set pieces and objects in a 3D space with a fixed-distance camera. This allows for the sort of subtle lighting and dynamic shadows that can really help players buy into these environments while still maintaining the pixel-platformer format.
These techniques, along with an impressive number of animated background actors, further bring the setting to life. The result is a gritty, bustling pixel-noir – an interesting juxtaposition between the childish and the very-much-not-so.
Smooth Jazz
The jazz soundtrack is phenomenal, even containing lyrics.
Sounds in Backbone: Prologue ooze with atmosphere. The moody jazz soundtrack compliments the bustle of the city and the pitter-patter of gently falling rain. The wet slaps of your garbage-loving gumshoe’s feet hitting the pavement are balanced just right in the audio mix. Once inside the interior of the nightclub, Backbone: Prologue’s musical numbers shine through, even including a gorgeous jazz tune complete with lyrics.
While there’s no voiceovers – yet – the team met their Kickstarter stretch goal to include full voicework. Voiceovers can often make or break a game’s atmosphere, and while the tiny taste in Backbone: Prologue stands on its own, I still eagerly look forward to hearing how actors approach the dialog here.
Play It Cool
As it stands, Backbone: Prologue currently features three flavors of gameplay: dialog, puzzles, and stealth sections.
Dialogue trees provide options for handling your clients and the city’s denizens, though it’s unclear how much your choices actually matter. Presumably, you can’t back yourself into an unwinnable situation no matter how hard-boiled a private dick you choose to be. Since brute force dialog puzzles are often an annoyance in adventure games that bring pacing to a halt, it’s nice to see Backbone: Prologue’s gentler approach.
That’s a big big bunny.
Backbone: Prologue’s stealth sections were puzzle-like and precise, but not entirely devoid of necessary wiggle-room. Distraction items in the environment help Howard get in where he’s not wanted, and failing these merely boots you back to the start of the sequence. Overall, they broke up our session nicely.
The single non-dialogue puzzle in the demo was a satisfying combination of physical arrangement and logic. While I won’t spoil the solution here, the answer is a clever nod to fans of immersive sims and brought a smile to my face.
Overall, Backbone: Prologue is a game to watch – the novel combination of stealth and adventure combined with the imaginative setting is shaping up to win over adventure fans when the game releases next year.
- Chandon, also known as Bawss Sawss, is definitely not three raccoons stacked in a trench coat. He’s also a sauce aficionado, gamer, writer, musician, and one head of the 2 Headed Hero gaming channel on YouTube. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. NEW!! You can now directly email questions/concerns/playful insults to [email protected] !
- 2 Headed Hero’s quieter half, Rollinkunz, is the channel’s illustrator, gamer, writer, and boardgame designer, He can also be reached on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
Posable Heroes: Paper, Physics, and Puzzles | BACKLOG.TXT
Today’s BACKLOG.TXT takes a look at a promising hidden indie puzzler: Posable Heroes.
Full disclosure: The game is currently in Early Access on Steam. We were sent review keys for this game. However, we were actually very pleased with how polished and compelling it was, even in Early Access. Prefer to watch? Check it out by clicking through above, or visit 2 Headed Hero on YouTube!
Bending The Right Way: Posable Heroes
Charming cardboard cutouts carry the game’s visuals.
After putting in a healthy amount of hours (and in Rollin’s case, finishing the game in one long binge), we can agree on one thing. The Chilean development duo behind Posable Heroes, Stochastic Lints, has put forth an enjoyable example of an original idea. This unique indie puzzler combines concepts from frame animation with physics puzzle challenges. The game wraps it all up in a lighthearted superhero theme.
“Show me your passport for this roof, citizen!”
Papers, Please
Posable Heroes tackles a unique and colorful visual style. The characters and level environments are all designed to look like cardboard cutouts, down to the brass pushpins in the joints of your intrepid hero. Backgrounds have marker, wallpaper, and colored pencil doodle qualities. All of this is very cohesive, and the overall look is warm and attractive. Visually, I found this a truly charming approach. It’s clear the game’s look likely aims for family-friendly appeal.
The Posable Heroes Pasta Challenge.
Sounds A Bit Flat
The sound design in Posable Heroes is a bit sparse – mainly consisting of user interface noises. Cute paper shuffles highlight the positioning of your superhero’s flexible limbs. The background music here is an interesting mix. Chilled-out synthesizer music feels just right for putting players in the mood to test their wits against the puzzles. Hilariously inappropriate epic film scores tend to back simpler levels. The game tells its story through comic book-style dialog bubbles rather than voice acting. I found this to be fine, since bad voice acting can take a lot away from a game’s enjoyment. Still, giving each of the characters their own speech noises might go a long way in making cut-scenes a little more palatable.
Not all heroes are created equal.
Eco-terrorism and Superheroes: An Interesting Mix
While the lead heroes have some questionable humor, the story elements are sparse. The real meat in Posable Heroes is, of course, the gameplay. Players create movement frames for their hero in order to propel them through obstacles and hazards. So what’s the catch? Well, the overall timeline is limited. The challenge then comes from posing your heroes in just the right ways, and at just the right times, to make an animation that solves the level before hitting the timeline’s end.
Full-scale Jackie Chan-style fights, seemingly impossible tasks, and huge bosses are all part of later levels.
Posable Heroes‘ challenges begin simply, with your superhero navigating his way out of his orbital satellite. The difficulty – and hilarity – quickly ramps up with successive levels. Your lone champion is tasked with leaping huge chasms and fighting armed henchmen. Further adding to the chaos are additional props, vehicles, robots, and even companions in later levels.
Puzzle Me This
I must start out by admitting that I am not much of a puzzle gamer. Banging my head against a series of developer riddle boxes for several minutes (or hours) on end sounds more to me like a private hell than a relaxing evening. Posable Heroes also doesn’t entirely escape a few flaws. The writing feels about as flat as the cardboard characters. The sound effects are pretty spase and lackluster. The game could also use some stronger feedback when you knock out a guard, or impact a surface. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s happening to your paper avatar.
The game does a great job of adding props into the mix.
A Novel Concept: Early Access Done Right
Really, the flaws I mentioned are minor nitpicks in a solid presentation. Posable Heroes is one of those rare niche creations with a surprising amount of fun. The final joyful result of watching a solved level play out like a short film made me burst into uncontrollable laughter more than once. Failures were equally spectacular. For me, being able to find fun even in losing is a hallmark of a good gaming experience.
Posable Heroes strikes a balance not many games achieve. It dares players to attempt what appears to be impossible at first glance, and at the same time allows enough leeway for some creative solutions. Although likely aimed at a younger audience, this game doesn’t shy away from difficulty. It’s clear Stochastic Lints has taken Nolan’s Law to heart here: Easy to learn, hard to master, and rewarding throughout. At the end of the day, Posable Heroes is a solid puzzler that I don’t mind banging my head against.
- Chandon, also known as Bawss Sawss, is a sauce aficionado, gamer, writer, musician, and one head of the 2 Headed Hero gaming channel on YouTube. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
- 2 Headed Hero’s quieter half, Rollinkunz, is the channel’s illustrator, gamer, writer, boardgame designer, He can also be reached on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
Block Pooper 9: Popcannibal’s Poop Cannon Brawl | BACKLOG.TXT
Today’s BACKLOG.TXT jumps into the new free competitive couch brawler everyone’s been talking about. No, not Super Smash Bros Ultimate. We’re talking about Block Pooper 9, of course – the new exciting excretion game from Popcannibal!
Prefer to watch rather than read? Click the video above – or check out the animated episode on 2 Headed Hero’s YouTube Channel.
Block Pooper 9 : Popcannibal’s Poop Cannon Brawl
Block Pooper 9 came out on December 4, 2018 and flew under the radar. This bowel movement brawler is the brainchild of veteran indie development team Popcannibal. The early-access boat builder Make Sail, the dating puzzler Girls Like Robots, or the space exploration novelist game Elegy for a Dead World all fall under the umbrella of their recent endeavors.
Headed by programmer Ziba Scott and joined by artist Luigi Guatieri, Popcannibal is known for a variety of strange, creative, and experimental titles.
Whatever Became of Block Pooper 1-Through-8?
While the fate of vaporware prequels Block Pooper 1-8 may be lost to history, Block Pooper 9 is a tiny and endearing multiplayer physics game with a silly concept. Players take control of weird block-pooping cat heads (or are they wombats?), facing off to see who can hit the high score and bury their opponents under a deluge of diamond-shaped dookies.
While basic, the look is cohesive, and it’s easy to read what’s happening during a match.
Graphics: Poocasso-Approved
Visuals in Block Pooper 9 have a simple,scratchy pen-and-ink style. Little details like the facial expression changes of the cat heads really help add to the silliness factor here. The interface is likewise simplistic, but allows you to see the status of your remaining cat heads, score, and how much, uh, “business” is left in the chamber.
True Minimalist Sonic (Sh)artwork
Audio design here is pretty minimal, with only a few subtle fart noises and impact queues. Even so, the solitary song in the soundtrack fits well and has a nice groove. The sound design of Block Pooper 9 all lends itself to a couch multiplayer atmosphere. With this in mind, it’s clear why the developers went for an understated direction. An intricate soundscape would be wasted on a group of loud players laughing while literally shooting the shit.
The Gameplay Doesn’t Stink
Playing Block Pooper 9 is simple enough to get a handle on, and the pregame options screen describes it succinctly. Poop blocks, avoid skulls, and protect the weird fetus heart. To win: do all these things better than everyone else.
Block Pooper 9 dumps players into a singular arena with one of two slightly different game modes. The cat heads are controlled sort of like a rocket ship, and are directed by spraying square waste in the opposite direction you wish to propel. Button two on the controller blasts a radial poop explosion, or can be directed sort of like a shotgun (shart-gun?) blast to send forth a directional cascade of butt blocks that buries opponents.
Points appear to be made in two ways: by feeding those pointy poop nuggets to the skulls that pop up from the level corners, or by snatching up the coveted hams that flop out of the terrifying sky-mouth. The hams are worth beau-coup points. This gives players something further to compete for as they diarrhea dance around the level.
Once the heart dies by getting bitten by too many skulls, the round ends, and the player with the most wins after 3, 5, or 10 rounds takes home the tournament trophy. Alternatively, if all other players exhaust their lives, the last player standing gets a 30 second timer. With enough skill, the last player can to try to take the high score and snatch victory for the current round.
What Is Up With This Weird Fetus Thing, Though, For Real?
For REAL, though. What IS that thing?
The heart mechanic can also be turned off completely. This makes Block Pooper 9 into a fun bite-sized Battle Royale game. This significantly changed the dynamic, switching the focus from competitive tower defense into an all-out waste war.
Turn off the heart for a simplistic Bowel Royale.
While Block Pooper 9 is a ton of fun, there’s a couple minor issues. One was performance. On occasion, the late game would suffer a bit of a slowdown due to spawning so many blocks and skulls. Still, this seems like something that could be tweaked.
Online play and some additional arenas would be welcome. It would also be nice to be able to choose player head colors at the beginning, rather than it being assigned. For Block Pooper 9’s asking price of zero dollars, these are more wishlist items than complaints.
Butt What Is The Final Verdict?
Overall, Block Pooper 9 is a great example of a lighthearted party game. While the concept is a bit juvenile, the game is hilarious proof that sixth grade humor and poop jokes never die. They just get made into games. Best of all, the title is completely free on Steam.
With a bunch of controllers and a few bored friends laying around, Block Pooper 9 is a good little game to fart around with.
Just… don’t forget to wash those hands.
- Chandon, also known as Bawss Sawss, is a sauce aficionado, gamer, writer, musician, and one head of the 2 Headed Hero gaming channel on YouTube. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
- 2 Headed Hero’s quieter half, Rollinkunz, is the channel’s illustrator, gamer, writer, boardgame designer, He can also be reached on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
The Dwarves: Fun Yet Flawed Fantasy | BACKLOG.TXT
Today’s BACKLOG.TXT cannonballs headfirst into The Dwarves, 2016’s flawed and forgotten, yet frankly fun, Frankensteinian creation from THQ Nordic and KINGart. Prefer to watch? Check out the video breakdown on 2 Headed Hero!
The Dwarves: Choose Your Own Fantasy Mosh Pit
Based on a 2003 fantasy novel by Markus Heitz, The Dwarves presents a strange amalgamation of gameplay. Physics elements combine with strategic combat and light RPG mechanics, all wrapped together under choose-your-own-adventure trimmings.
Boendil, the stalwart and somewhat stereotypical berserker, is a beacon of personality throughout the game.
After a brief tutorial battle, players take control of Tungdil Bolofar, an orphaned blacksmith, and swell the ranks of his expeditionary force. The task? Blaze a path into demonic lands to end an immortal evil, and discover the secrets behind Tungdil’s mysterious past.
The earnest and naive Tungdil Bolofar serves as the story’s central focus.
German developer KINGart is mostly known for free-to-play children’s games and charming point-and-click adventure titles. By planting a mailed boot squarely in the strategy-RPG arena, The Dwarves represents a considerable step outside of their element. So, is this mixture up to recipe? Let’s jump in and find out.
Miniature Armies
The Dwarves is fairly pleasing to look at, with a surprising sense of scale to the encounters. Detailed character animations abound throughout the explorable areas, and this carries over to combat. Less care is paid to the motions of the Orcish hordes and shambling undead that oppose your heroes, but the sheer number of combatants the game throws your way is staggering. Some visual bugs do poke up from time to time, like floating body parts or misplaced decals, but overall it’s forgivable. The Dwarves’ epic high-fantasy style brings to mind some of the best battle scenes from Lord of the Rings, and does a great job of making the protagonists feel like a powerful squad of stumpy juggernauts.
Mapping the Journey
Traversing the overland areas has a more boardgamey vibe, with playing pieces shifting around during every turn. Food is a resource, and your ragtag group cannot easily heal without it, but dialog outcomes and scouring for secrets can help replenish your supplies. Stumbling upon a point of interest will often reveal encounters where Tungdil is offered choices in a choose-your-own-adventure style, giving the game some further replayability. On occasion, exploring reveals small explorable environments rife with clues. Poking around in these areas will often lead to side quests or further flesh out the world building for the realm of Girdlegard.
The Dwarves’ main story is mainly parceled out in a surprising amount of quality cutscenes. Other than a couple minor details (like the hair looking a little stiff), these cutscenes feel quite rewarding whenever they appear – and show no small portion of polish.
Echoes of the Underhills
Much to my surprise, The Dwarves contained a fair amount of well-polished surprises for an “AA” budget title. Descriptive text, cutscenes, and conversations are all fully voiced. The voice work itself can be a bit of a mixed bag, but is overall far above average.
The main characters’ performances share the spotlight, and the narrator’s raspy tone is a wonderful touch, sweeping through the game’s descriptions like autumn leaves on the wind. German powermetal veterans Blind Guardian contribute a theme track, and the rest of the game’s music is comprised of delightful orchestral tunes.
Many smaller roles, like the wizard Lot-Ionan, still have quality voice performances. In contrast, the evil Alfar and bloodthirsty Orcs you face down on the field seldom have spoken lines – which is definitely for the better.
Broken Record Battlecries
On the battlefield, audio is little more than passable. Repetitive battle cries and blade clashes rule each fight, and even the most powerful abilities sound muted and anemic. It’s painfully average when compared to the dialog’s overall level of quality, but not offensive.
Clever writing abundant with dry humor saves the day here, and helps drive the tone home. Most of the members of your expedition don’t reveal a wealth of character depth, but there’s enough to create some interest and intrigue over The Dwarves’ brief twelve-hour journey. It’s easy to see that dialog and exposition is KINGart’s biggest strength. Both play to the source material and honor the developer’s adventure game roots.
Insect Overlords
The Dwarves has a fairly unique combat approach. Due to the physics-driven nature of the fights, players will be challenged to use their stocky strongmen’s abilities to the utmost in order to knock back, confuse, and control huge crowds of enemies. Movement carries momentum, and a full run can sometimes be used to stun the horde’s front-liners. The landscape itself is an advantage, if used strategically – or a curse for the inattentive.
Your squad size is limited to four. This doesn’t sound like much, but it makes for a potentially large toolbox. Each hero’s set of abilities is unique, mildly customizable, and built to add to their personality. Midway through the game, your roster will be filled with all manner of magicians, misfits, circus performers, and sideshow freaks. Ranged characters like Furgus can rain fiery crossbow bolts down from a hilltop, or a disguised Rodario can creep behind enemy lines to sow chaos.
Success in The Dwarves is largely based on knowing the limitations of the character skills and using them with impeccable timing to create traps and kill zones without hitting your teammates. I own-goaled my own team far more often than I care to admit, but friendly fire also applies to your enemies, and there’s a certain satisfaction in positioning orcs to send a hail of arrows into their buddies’ backs. Clever use of terrain, the pause feature, and complementary skill combos can ensure victory and even turn enemy attacks into yet another weapon in your arsenal.
Bugbeards
The Dwarves is fun, but unpolished. The camera is locked to your group, and there’s no minimap or objective indicator, so missions can require some trial and error while you wander around to the goal. Skill descriptions are a little vague, making it hard to choose abilities upon level up. It’s hard to gauge a skill’s utility until they are used in a fight. Trading with merchants is kind of confusing, requiring more button presses than necessary.
There’s also a few bugs that were never quite shaken out. Enemy AI is sometimes spotty. A couple terrain bugs glitched me out of bounds or knocked Tungdil around while I was exploring. One bug kept me from issuing orders to my team. A more serious one glitched menus and controls, and required me to force quit the game. The game’s positive aspects kept me coming back despite these setbacks, but if the occasional bug is a deal breaker, you should consider yourself warned.
Nostalgia Reborn
Back in my early days of computer gaming, I played a little-remembered pair of RPGs by the name of Dark Sun. The first game, Shattered Lands, and its sequel, Wake of the Ravager, were both deep and filled with impactful choices, meaningful dialog, and tactical combat. They were also both glitchy, exploitable, and unbalanced – and some of my favorite DOS games.
Dark Sun was ultimately about player choice. It was always fascinating to see what ridiculous spell combination, hidden secret, or overpowered item I could use to cheese my way past seemingly impossible fights. The Dwarves, while much shorter in length, struck many of the same chords.
The Light at the End
At the end of the tunnel, The Dwarves reminds me strongly of the same kind of fun that could be had in broken and unbalanced RPGs of the 90s and early 2000s. It’s Dragon Age Lite. Low calorie Neverwinter Nights. Basic Baldur’s Gate.
The whole game has a sort of dollar-store fantasy novel charm, which hooked me until the very end – even despite several bugs and setbacks. Plus, it often can be found on a deep sale.
If you’re the type of person looking for an epic forty-hour RPG experience, you might want to look elsewhere. But, if you play games for the journey and are inclined to spend a dozen hours in a groundling-filled physics sandbox, then heft that hammer and get tongs-deep into The Dwarves.
- Chandon, also known as Bawss Sawss, is a bona-fide Dwarves fan. He’s also a sauce aficionado, gamer, writer, musician, and one head of the 2 Headed Hero gaming channel on YouTube. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. NEW!! You can now directly email questions/concerns/playful insults to [email protected] !
- 2 Headed Hero’s quieter half, Rollinkunz, is the channel’s illustrator, gamer, writer, and boardgame designer, He can also be reached on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.