“Oh cool! You’re playing a Hulk game” exclaimed by girlfriend as I started playing Of Orcs and Men. And I can’t say I blame her. The resemblance between the green monster and Arkail, one of the two main protagonists in of Orcs and Men is striking - both huge, green, muscle laden beasts. But no, this isn’t a game based on Hulk. This is an RPG with a bit of a different view into an Orcs against Human game. Here you play as an Orc and a Goblin against the humans, which is a fresh and brave decision to have made.
I found the idea to genuinely work in theory. To have a look at what it might be like to be put into the feet of a non-human character and see how humans may be portrayed (not overly well funnily enough) to the ‘monsters’. You take control of two characters for the duration of the game. As previously mention you have Arkail, the warrior Orc who is known for his brutality, so much so he is also known as ‘The Butcher’. The second character is Styx, a stealth goblin who would much prefer to use intellect. It’s essentially a case of pitting brains and brawn together. And the chemistry and banter between the pair is entertaining throughout.
You start off, in the camp of the legion of Bloodjaws – a league of elite orc warriors who oppose humankind. As Arkail, you are set a task which could change the course of the war. You set out to kill the one person who for years has been responsible for the bloodshed and enslavement of the greenskins, The Emperor. It is soon after this you meet up with your guide Styx, who is needed to get you to ‘The Wall’, only once you pass there will it be possible to complete your mission. You follow their quest on a 15-20 hour adventure through many different types of levels – outdoor greenery, run down town, underground caverns etc. There are optional side quests to be completed along the way as well. These can be chosen to complete by selecting the correct conversation options (multiple option responses to conversations are present), or just by going, or not going to the locations set out of the map. While the game feels like it could be an open world environment, it really isn’t. It is a very linear affair, and even when looking at the map the pre determined routes are clearly on show. It is a shame; I feel that exploration to find new items or quests would have fitted really well into the mould of the game.
The strength of Of Orcs and Men is its story. And there isn’t a huge amount else to support it. And it’s such a shame. While there aren’t any issues controlling the characters themselves, or and camera issues that cause problems in the third person view, which have hampered many a game in the past, the inclusion of what feels like a hugely dated and clumsy combat system really does hinder the game. You can use Styx’s cloak to sneak up behind enemies to assassinate them, if you want to see the same killing animation over and over, but this is only possible for a few enemies, you will always find yourself battling against a number of opponents. And this is where the Knights of the Old Republic style command queue system style combat is. And while I loved everything about KOTOR, this style of combat really detract from what could be a good game. You are constantly slowing the game down to select your command, and it turns into a click at random affair. It is so difficult to get any sort of technique or tactic going. Even on easy difficulty I found myself dying far too often, just due to not really being able to defend. You have a defensive stance which lets you take less damage, but it turns into mindless bludgeoning between you and enemies. There are some nifty two person moves (such as when Arkail flings Styx across the map at enemies) but once you’re surrounded by enemies, it can be very difficult to get out. You do need to pay attention to your Rage (Arkail) and Concentration (Styx) meters though. If Rage tops out Arkail becomes uncontrollable and swings at anything in site, including allies, and Styx’s skills take up a certain amount of Concentration each time, meaning you will regularly find yourself only being able to perform the basic commands until the meter refills. A real time combat system really would have suited the game. Controlling a monster of an Orc in real time would have given the player a sense of power, and sneaking around with Styx could have been incorporated into the actual fights themselves. But once he has been ‘spotted’ his cloak no longer works, and he’ll just join in with Arkail with the bludgeoning.
The AI is also lacking somewhat. In the fights there doesn’t seem to be any coordination or tactics by either party due to the ‘stand and beat the shit out of each other until one drops’ nature of it. You can get away with stealth killing a few metres away from another person without them noticing, and many occasions I have seen NPC’s walk over their dead comrades without batting an eyelid. If you walk over the face of a mate you’ve been chatting to a few minutes ago without noticing, you know there is something wrong.
The voice acting is decent enough, nothing spectacular but nothing overly shocking either. What is shocking though is the attempted lip synching in some of the cutscenes. Close ups of the faces aren’t always present during talking, but when they are you’re met with what I can only describe as Mexican wave lips. It’s like they are trying to dance off their faces, completely ridiculous. A little bit more effort would have been appreciated here.
Other than that you get your usual RPG stuff. You level the characters up, choose where you improve of one of your 4 attributes, and pick and choose new moves to use during combat each level, or improve upon current ones. You can find some items during your travels from point A to B on the maps, with new items being rewarded for completing quests and side-quests. Styx’s safehouse homes a trader who will buy and sell armour and weapons. There no real depth to all of this though. With only 4 attributes I found myself just leaning on 2 per character as they are exactly the same for both, and the amount of different items felt a bit sparse.
What could have been a solid game based on an interesting plot and fairly good graphics on both the environment and characters (bar floating weapons on characters), has been let down so much by a dated combat system. Had real time combat been present and the AI beefed up a bit, this could have genuinely been a pleasure to play through. But as it is, it isn’t. It’s a game that may be worth picking up in a bargain bin at some point in the future if you’re happy with an average queue based combat system. 4/10