The game starts you off as an Elite Orc warrior named Arkail, who is given a task by an elite Orc group he's a part of (sorry no spoilers.) So you begin the adventure, and meet up with a Goblin named Styx, who is essentially the "comic relief" of the game, who chimes in to add his quirky two cents often.
The Pros:
-A nice atmosphere that makes you really push for the usual "Bad guy" in fantasy series. (Honestly I've always been a fan of Orcs)
-The chance to be a giant Orc warrior makes you feel powerful, and throughout the game you really get a sense of pride for the people you fight for.
-Combat isn't amazing, but it is compelling in the sense that you really have to watch what's going on, otherwise you could end up dead really fast.
-A story that drives you forward, with a nice couple of twists and turns that you don't expect, or are rather intrigued by how they implemented certain things.
-Dialogue options make you feel in charge of what's going on for the most part.
-The graphics aren't ground breaking, but they are pretty good by my standards.
The Cons:
-Bad voice acting can ruin immersion at times, the two main characters are well voiced, but lackluster acting by most non-important npc's makes you feel like everyone is rather boring.
-All Orcs besides Arkail have retarded voices, they needed to have a gritty, deep tone, instead many have these silly voices that sound like an old woman with a dry throat.
-Combat isn't amazing, and hopefully this game gathers enough support so that the company can fit together a better combat engine.
Overall the game took me about 15 hours to complete, which is better than what many game companies spew forth. While it isn't the Elder Scrolls with a possible 400 hours worth of game play, it is definitely worth playing and makes you feel proud to say that you beat it.
-Expect a sequel, considering the game hinted at one.
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I was afraid to pick this one up after Game of Thrones, since they are both from the same studio, but I really enjoyed this game. The story was interesting with several twists and turns, the two main characters were really fun to carry throughout the game. The banter and relationship between them is quite unique. The gameplay, while not the deepest, is strategic and fun. The level design is somewhat, well, completely linear. This didn't detract from anything for me since there are plenty of open-world rpgs out there. One gripe I had was that when you assassinated someone, their corpse didn't set off any alarms to the surviving patrols. they would simply walk right over them as if they weren't there. Aside from that, I had a blast playing Of Orcs and Men, and would recommend it to anyone interested in a good story driven rpg that has you playing a character you normally wouldn't in such a setting.Best Deals for Of Orcs And Men
Cyanide et.al. has several games with the same engine now. These games are all mostly story telling games when the focus is story, and tactics using skills during battle. At first I was not sure I would like this new subgenre of game but it is turning out reasonably good. Something different from a dungeon crawl anyway.the key to these games is
1. good story
2. good interface
3. several varied options to fighting style
These games tend to offer all in reasonable proportions and OOAM does too. Overall it was a good game, especially when had on sale.
Steam tells me my total game play was 14 hours. A bit short. Its not like I skipped any of the side quests as there are not that many. Nothing is perfect. Some of the plot twists were a bit predictable and shallow. But the voice acting was very good which means a lot to such a game. I think the industry has finally developed a reservoir of good voice talent to draw upon. Serious actors providing believability to the action.
One thing people might miss is inventory variability. There simply is not much happening in this game by way of inventory. There are a few good pieces and once you find them you keep them. I ended up with 18 inventory points left over at the end of the game so there might have been more that could be done there. But it is not integral to the game play so I guess this is why that part of it is minimal.
Like I said a good play. Hope these guys have more of their style games coming soon. Remember cyanide, choose a good story with interesting plot twists and side plots, get good voice actors, make sure there is some interesting potential combos during fighting, especially where the two characters can co-operation. Love the time slowdown feature.
Hail Flavius!
Honest reviews on Of Orcs And Men
Although this game is far from perfect, I decided it deserves 5 stars for being the sort of video game that I most enjoy. Its redeemable qualities include:1. A unique, engaging storyline The story could be adapted, almost without variation, into a movie or novel. The plot is fun and resolves with moderate twists into a satisfying conclusion. The world itself isn't super developed. Don't expect long histories or codex entries in the vein of Dragon Age, but there's enough background to convey a sense of realism. It's also extremely linear. No open world. There are fixed maps and few choices. (There's a few, but they don't affect the outcome that much.) I actually don't consider this a bad thing. I enjoy feeling like I've explored all the content, and I'd rather the game developers focused on giving me (at least) one good story rather than a handful of short, boring, or inconsequential ones.
2. Strong characters The game features two well developed heroes, who diverge from the average protagonist types (although they do fit into their own stereotypes). The orc and the goblin play off each other wonderfully, and the dialogue between them is fun to watch. Side characters aren't too shabby either, with a few exceptions. Even the villains, if a trifle cliche, are interesting.
3. Turn-based combat I'm likely in the minority in my love of slow turn-based tactics. So don't despair, you can play the game with all the action packed, reflex-based button pouncing you desire. But optionally, if you press the space bar, time is suspended and you can make your attack choices at your leisure. I really enjoyed the combat set-up. I thought I would miss not playing a magic user (despite magic existing in-game, you don't actually have access to it), but the tank and damage dealer combo was ultimately satisfying. And challenging too!
As for drawbacks, the characters have very little customization. Skill options are somewhat limited. New gear is hard to come by. The graphics are good to average. (That's not a drawback, I suppose. But there were no scenes that took my breath away, such as, for example, every single shot of Witcher 2.)
All in all, Of Orcs and Men does not stand up in scope to some of the other phenomenal games in its genre. But it is a solid good game. If I could find 10 more like it, I would buy them all.
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I like Orcs, and a friend knowing my fascination with Orcs recommended to me Of Orcs and Men, so the other day I picked it up from Amazon. I tried playing it last night, and was so frustrated, I quit not very far in.1) It starts out with a tutorial, which is great, but in the tutorial, it stops the action and tells you how to do something, like pull up the combat action screen. Here is what the tutorial says: "Press to bring up the combat actions to change your action and to slow down the fight so you can pick different actions" (not exact wording). Yep, doesn't tell you WHAT to press. Nope. So I decide because there is no back or replay button on the tutorial that I will quit the game, and start again, maybe thinking I missed something....
2) The game so far has almost non-stop conversations: You can not quit during these conversations, so I kept trying to speed through them to get to a place that allowed me to quit the game, no such luck...
3) The game would not allow me to bring up the menu screen at all at any time that I could see I tried ESC and the F1, which is what the tutorial told me would bring up the menu screen. So, the only way I could actually quit the game was to either force it to close by rebooting my computer or going in through the task manager...
4) Guess what? The task manager is pushed to the background so even if you open it, it wouldn't allow me to get to it. The game kept popping up in front. I finally finageled (used the windows key) it so I could get to the task manager.
5) It annoys me intensely when I can't choose the gender of my character and must accept what they give me, which is basically a male Orc. Great, I get the Orc part, but it is inherent bias in game designers to make one only able to pick male. Hello Game Designers: Women also play video games. I know, hard to believe, but we do. Consider that when making your game environment because it doesn't make sense to alienate a good portion of your audience.
6) It also mildly irritates me that I can't pick how my character looks, not that big of a deal, but still.
7) The Orc's look odd in that their skin texture looks weird, like a beat-up suite case died green. Also, surprisingly the graphics are pretty basic in this game: pretty cartoonish and rough. I guess Skyrim and Dragon Age spoiled me with beautiful graphics.
8) As the other reviewer states, the voice acting could be much better.
9) The download from Amazon was incredibly slooooooooowww It said it would take about 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. It actually took more almost 12 hours. Granted our DSL internet is not the best, but still, it was very slow.
I will probably try the game again, afterall, I did spend $40 on it, but so far, not even 10 minutes into the game, and it has frustrated me beyond belief.
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