Curious thing that chance. Even though they had already imagined the concept of Of Orcs and Men, the two chief role-players of Cyanide had the opportunity to work directly on JR Martin's bible, which they exploited for two titles not totally exciting. The monster literary franchise being (very) temporarily exhausted, Of Orcs and Men can now benefit from all the attention of its parents, or at least of Sylvain Séchi, who has become the producer of the product whose development has been entrusted to the Parisians of Spiders. Funny idea to bring together around a completely unknown license but displaying big ambitions a producer dissatisfied with his latest creation and a team whose only personal work, Faery: Legends of Avalon, hardly convinced. But to see the first sequences of Of Orcs and Men, the successes and failures of each have been dissected, digested too, and the alchemy has operated. Much more beautiful than Game of Thrones and far less empty than Faery, the medieval-fantasy epic spun using the Silk Engine has a certain face, and quite a bit of continuity in its dark ideas.
An orc, a goblin and Adolf Hitler
Is the current trend towards playful "maturity"? If the reality of the phenomenon remains to be verified, the word is pronounced by many developers, who justify its use by their own landing in the presumed adult age, the crossing of the fateful milestone of the thirties. At the time of hair lightening and the aftermath of delicate cooked, some wish not only to play titles a little more adapted to their requirements of man, or woman, responsible, but also to design some. The attention is commendable, but can we create a game for grown-ups on the soil of medieval-fantasy, that is to say one of the universes most connoted "irresponsible neuneu who only comes out of his dark room to meet his peers and throw too many dice while eating crisps"? This is the bet of the French, who abandon valiant paladins and messiahs of light in favor of two sinister antiheroes, the orc Arkaïl and the goblin Styx. If the usual bad guys are the good guys of the day, who can take on the glorious finery of the bad guys? Humans, of course, the role of cador of evil being devolved to their Emperor, who initiated the quasi-industrial annihilation of races with a little too green skin. To put a stop to the sinister scheme before their respective peoples end up in shreds, the thick but sensible brute and the brave little sneaky embark on a mission of assassination at the top. However, the underlined maturity of the product is not due to this scriptwriting shift alone, however exciting it may be. To treat an audience in search of tragically epic adventures, particular care has obviously been given to the dialogues, to the narrative coherence, but the purely playful dimension of the game has also been finely chiseled.
Despite the balance of the duo, the clashes seem tricky and conducive to the development of complex tactics, especially since it will be necessary to deal with Arkaïl's tendency to get angry all red when he is a little too taken to task in the fray."
A role-playing game in pairs but without co-op, Of Orcs and Men places you continuously in control of the two heroes, between whom you constantly juggle. You embody one or the other, switch whenever you want and, during fights, an active pause system, or rather slow motion, allows you to define everyone's strategy and program up to four actions. in a row by playing the respective skills of your hotheads. Discretion and throwing weapons for Styx, the big fight that works for Arkaïl, everyone's preferences will not surprise anyone. Despite the balance of the duo, the clashes seem tricky and conducive to the development of complex tactics, especially since it will be necessary to deal with Arkaïl's tendency to get angry all red when he is a little too taken to task in the fray. However, as soon as the orc loses control of his nerves, you lose control altogether and are reduced to watching him smash everything around him indiscriminately, including Styx if you had the bad idea to leave him. within range of his companion's massive blades. Despite a big action orientation, a voluntary linearity and a reasonable lifespan, Sylvain Séchi, who admits to having returned from the equation "good RPG = long RPG", speaks of about fifteen hours, the dimension rolesque is not not overlooked. Modeled on that of Mass Effect, the dynamic and cinematic dialogue system seems efficient and inventories and skills are managed separately for each hero. Although designed around closed environments and a rigorous narration, Of Orcs and Men should also have the good taste to leave you some leeway. If it does not seem possible to behave like a real bastard throughout the game, you can still regularly keep the two friends away from the path of charity. The abandonment of Manichaeism is indeed a fine proof of maturity. Check it out on PC, Xbox and PS3 in early October.
