Xbox Reviews

We Are The Dwarves Review

Review We Are The Dwarves | The Dwarves are out of the mines from Moria and became astronauts, that’s a Lord of the Rings reference if you are wondering what I’m talking about. Who would have thought to see dwarves in space? So what did I think about this action strategy game? Find out in this review!

THE GOOD

  • Besides some odd graphical decisions (the Beards for example) We Are The Dwarves looks and feels fantastic.  The levels really come to life with some good level design and random small details. Another reason why the game visually stands out is the use of some smart lighting.  Yeah, in short the game is gorgeous and the developers should receive all the critic for making such a beautiful breathing world.
  • For some reason We Are The Dwarves gameplay remains addictive and frustratingly fun. The reason why are the three different Dwarves that all have a unique way for controlling and defeating enemies.  The game is set up that you’ll need to play with all three dwarves and as a reward you get way different gameplay. One is a close combat fighter, another is more focussed for letting enemies fall from high places and ranged fighting and my favorite is the stealth way. The sneaky dwarf Shadow can teleport to hiding places and kill -most- enemies with one bow attack. Timing all attacks so you remain invisible is the most fun I had with the game.
  • Sound is pretty spot on too, you can read in the bad that I wasn’t the biggest fan for the voice actors but everything else was more than I expected from a budget game. The sound atmosphere for some levels is fantastic and some triple A games can learn from it.

Mixed Feelings

  • The game tells an interesting story about saving the race by finding new stars in the galaxy.  The story is pretty good but I wish they expanded it a little more, they have everything perfectly set-up but fail to bring something really outstanding. Don’t get me wrong, I still feel that the story telling in We Are The Dwarves is good, it just had the potential to be much better.

THE BAD

  • It’s great that the developer Whale Rock Games did an effort for voice acting everything but when you do that it’s important to have believable voices and that’s not the case. For not one moment did I believe that the voices were from real dwarves, especially Shadow has some terrible voice acting.
  • You die way too often because things don’t happen like you thought, the game frequently gives you the middle finger with messing up the AI or difficult timing gameplay. This is something that gives players frustration, for example: enemy walking routes can be glitched so specific stealth approaches won’t work anymore. Forcing a full-on battle or forced checkpoint reload.
  • Twice was I forced to replay an entire level, I finished it but after the loading screen I was on the same level again and lost all my progress. Such a weird bug and that isn’t the only thing, falling through the level is another hair pulling bug that regularly happens.
  • Some parts are really difficult and require pure luck to finally beat it. That’s my main complain about this game, you can be the most skilled We are the Dwarves player you will still die a million times because the game wasn’t well-balanced.

Score: 80 | The developers can happily drink some Dwarven ale, We Are The Dwarves is a one-of-a-kind game that provides gamers with some great visuals and addictive and varied gameplay.  I’m willing to forgive all the bad sections because they truly made something special.

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