Space dwarves, deep underground, in a swamp, with guns.
Developer: Whale Rock Games
Price: $14.99
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
MonsterVine was supplied with PC copy for review
Ukraine based developers, Whale Rock, have set themselves a mammoth task in bringing We Are The Dwarves to life. As a real-time tactical action game you control your dwarves simultaneously, pausing combat as required to fire off their abilities and watch the destruction ensue. It is rare to see an indie title attempt to grasp the polish of a AAA while executing precise and compelling mechanics. That isn’t to say this journey with our stout friends is a flawless one, it offers moments of joyous celebration contrasted only by the unwavering determination and gritted teeth required to achieve it.
The vast and cavernous underworld our dwarven race calls home is a dying one. The waning power of their three crystal stars has our three lucky champions selected to go deeper than any have gone before. Understandably, the risky nature of this mission soon has them in a bit of a pickle. Lost and separated in an ancient fungal forest with only nasty bugs and spear toting natives for company, they must struggle to survive and find the mysterious, life-saving power source.
Your dwarven company consists of three husky characters, each with their own completely individual abilities and tactical roles. Forcer is a medium range explosives expert, using his blasting abilities to push enemies into advantageous positions and, where possible, off the edge into the abyss. Smashfist is a titular axe-wielding dwarven fiend always rushing into the middle of the fight. And finally, Shadow, if you can guess by the name, is heavily stealth focused, blinking around the map assassinating enemies and loosing arrows from afar. Working together and using their abilities in tandem is key to defeating the range of foes you will encounter.
The world is broken up into small levels for you to deal with. Often you will find yourself clambering through a root system to a new section of swamp populated by some nasties you’ll have to dispatch or stealth around. Each enemy has a patrol path, vision cone and ability to hear, and smell, you and your comrades. With each enemy type also comes a different AI and tactical challenge, especially when you’re facing multiple species. Thankfully though, they tend not to get along, so pitting them against each other is often an effective solution.
The attention to detail in each level’s design results in them playing out more like individual puzzles than a free-for-all action experience. Unfortunately, due to the trial and error nature of learning the lay of the land, each unsuccessful attempt comes with a time-consuming restart or load.
Save points, or “Rune Stones,” are scattered throughout most levels acting as checkpoints and upgrade stations. Each character has a number of ability upgrades that are purchased for collected resources. Here is also where one of the main mechanics of the game comes into play, your space suit armour. In addition to your dwarf’s HP there is a segmented meter that indicates the condition of your suit. Spending resources repairs your suit and as you fill each segment your total damage resistance goes up and you unlock certain suit abilities like regenerating health and bouncing back if you fall off a cliff. While this seems straight-forward enough, your spacesuit armor deteriorates as your dwarf takes damage. So doing badly in a fight means the next fight is going to be even harder. It’s like carrying around a leaky bucket and constantly having to refill it in order to stop the leak from getting worse. While this system is intriguing, it lends itself to making the game easier for experienced players and more difficult for beginners; something that should really be the opposite way around.
When We Are The Dwarves hit the Steam shelves (and the pre-release press version) it was about as difficult as breaking through a brick wall using only the soft parts of your face. The dwarves seemed to have the constitution of papier-mâché after taking a bath in some warm milk. Enemies however, not only seemed to treat your strongest abilities like the soft caress of a warm summer’s breeze, but also had in their possession the singular weakness of futuristic high-tech space suits, wooden spears. While this may be humorous in retrospect, the sheer amount of agonizing level restarts and achingly slow progress I made still haunts me (or perhaps it’s the legion of dead dwarves whose demise I am solely responsible for).
Fear not, however, the developers listened to the feedback of their customers and quickly (within days of release) added an easier difficulty setting and addressed a number of technical issues. Since starting a new game with the promise of less hair-tearing frustration, I was pleasantly surprised. Your burly band or dwarves can actually now win a fight, your attacks have impact and there is more room for error. Although, my faster progress may have been due to my experience with the level layouts and tactics, there were still points with high difficulty spikes and challenge. A difficulty spike, however, is much preferable to a difficulty wall.
The ancient depths are an incredibly creative setting for this adventure. Giant intertwined roots, murky swamps and towering stalagmites pass underfoot in your efforts to escape. You’ll find yourself in sections of zero gravity anomalies, floating with only your guns to use for momentum based movement. These creative and beautiful environments and set pieces give each area a distinct flavour and this underworld a story of its own, ages old.
The music is just as epic in scale. The beginning of a battle is marked by a rising orchestral crescendo, which is made even more impactful by the consistent reverberating bass tones of the immeasurably large caverns. Enemies communicative whistles and grunts bring life to each encounter and heighten the tension of each stealth attempt. Voice-acting, whilst serviceable is a little over-the-top. The gruff quips of Smashfist are made a somewhat comical when they sound like a 20 year old putting on a “big strong man voice.” In addition to that, if I have to hear him say “this ability isn’t effective in the swamp” one more time, I may just drown him myself.
Technically, the game has flaws. I encountered slight performance issues during cutscenes, some audio glitches were scattered around and the game originally would only launch on my second monitor. With the developers dedication to fixing any outstanding issues however, I am confident that these will remain minor or be fixed entirely
The Final Word
We Are The Dwarves is a tactical and rewarding action experience. While it’s a difficult mountain to climb, even with the introduction of an easier mode, it holds a diverse array of combat situations and puzzle-like level design. A lovely experience for the eyes and ears, it is let down by some rough voice acting. The trial and error nature of tackling a difficult situation can result in frustration, especially with time consuming restarts, however successfully breaking through a tough segment is a satisfying rush.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
