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Is that an ST in your pocket?
By PaulEMoz
For a lot of its life, my DS has sat snugly in its Hori case, protected from the elements and yet frustrated at the lack of activity with which I've provided it. In fact, most of its airings have come as a makeshift internet browser when my family have had the nerve to be hogging the computer. But lately, a string of decent releases have seen it coaxed out of its imported shell for the right reason... to play games.
Just three months ago, I raved about the DS RPG Etrian Odyssey. It had a classic old-school feel, and that's just how I like my RPGs. In fact, I likened it to the classic, The Bard's Tale. Well, RPG fans, if Etrian Odyssey was The Bard's Tale for the DS, then Orcs & Elves is your Dungeon Master.
No.
Originally a mobile phone game, Orcs & Elves has been ported across to the DS, but it really is 'classic' computer role playing in every respect. There's a typically cliched plot, in which your talking wand guides you around the dungeon, looking for a lost King. It's got horribly animated monsters, and characters that talk like they've been ripped straight from the pages of Lord of the Rings. But in the world of the RPG, these aren't necessarily bad things.
There are no surprises here. You walk around a dungeon, battering its inhabitants to death and picking up any stuff they may drop (mostly coins or potions, in this game's case). Occasionally you might have to solve a simple puzzle, but nothing too taxing. And every so often, you have to help out one of the many ghosts of dwarves that have taken up residence in the dungeon. They're mildly entertaining fellows, and helping them usually brings some kind of reward.
Are you sure we were supposed to turn off the A240 dear?
And speaking of rewards, the game features a kind of shop where you can spend your loot on upgrades. I say "a kind of shop" - the purveyor of said items is a moody dragon. It likes a bit of a haggle, but trying to get anything too cheap may prove painful... play your cards right, though, and you should be able to tool up with enough stuff to see you past even the fiercest of dungeon dwellers.
The DS is carving itself quite a handy little niche. Console RPGs have long been either overly complicated or stuffed full of overblown cut-scenes. The DS can't afford these luxuries, but that tends to mean you spend more time actually playing the game, and the nature of the RPG means they're naturally split into handy, time-killing chunks. Orcs & Elves may not last you as long as Etrian Odyssey did (or has, if you still haven't finished it!), but it will certainly give you a good few hours of solid entertainment for your cash.
February 2008
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