The Dwarves Reviews

The Dwarves is ranked in the 15th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Leif Johnson
Top Critic
6.2 / 10.0
Dec 2, 2016

The Dwarves boasts a strong story that's taken from a bestselling novel, and it generally honors that lineage with a cast of likable and ably voiced characters. It's a good foundation, but unfortunately it's not strong enough to make up for the deficiencies of its gameplay, which include unfulfilling RPG elements and a stubborn camera.

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45 / 100
Dec 19, 2016

An unsatisfying, forced march through the source material.

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6 / 10.0
Dec 6, 2016

THQ Nordic and King Art Games bring us The Dwarves, an RPG adaptation of Markus Hetiz's novels that, despite good ideas, doesn't live up to its source material albeit its entertaining story.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

5 / 10
Dec 5, 2016

There’s a lot of love that went into the creation of The Dwarves but the glimmers of brilliance are dulled by the numerous problems with the combat, as well as the conflicting nature of the narrative with the few moments where you are able to make your own choices. Chances are those who will enjoy this game the most are fans of the books, but it’s a largely forgettable game for everyone else.

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6 / 10.0
Dec 8, 2016

A strong premise that gets lost with a bad execution on its visuals and dull combat.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

4 / 10.0
Nov 30, 2016

The Dwarves is hard to recommend to any but the most diehard RPG fan, due to poor combat and terrible performance.

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6.3 / 10.0
Nov 28, 2016

The Dwarves is a role-playing game that fails to reach its full potential. Its interesting battle concepts are marred by a mediocre execution, very limited RPG mechanics, and just too many technical issues on PlayStation 4. Despite this, the game still managed to be somewhat enjoyable thanks to the gripping yet not too original story, and charming characters. Due to gameplay and technical shortcomings, however, only die hard high fantasy fans may find some enjoyment in The Dwarves. Everyone else would do better in looking elsewhere.

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6.5 / 10.0
Dec 3, 2016

A strategy RPG that suffers from a distinct lack of technical polish and unsatisfying combat, The Dwarves superb orchestral soundtrack, intriguing narrative and charismatic cast almost make up for its technical deficiencies, lending hope that future instalments might improve upon what we see here.

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Dec 6, 2016

Underwhelming RPG elements and character customisation, poor loading times and a map screen that now seems to have a mind of its own do hold back the game from being something great. Those with a penchant for a tightly woven narrative and tactical thinking will enjoy the experience, but it is difficult to overlook some of the more glaringly obvious problems.

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4.9 / 10.0
Dec 12, 2016

A good story with good cinematics held captive by terrible performance and bad gameplay. There are some good narrative moments in The Dwarves, but they aren't worth suffering through the game. Just read the book its based on.

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55 / 100
Dec 10, 2016

Selecting areas you can’t go to resulted in a glitchy cursor bouncing around, and the UI in general lacks polish.

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Ken McKown
Top Critic
6 / 10.0
Dec 6, 2016

The world of The Dwarves is interesting, and maybe with some patches down the road this can become a game I can get behind, as it stands now though, this is a tough sell.

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7.2 / 10.0
Dec 2, 2016

The Dwarves has [fun factor] in spades. The game is at once lighthearted in it’s art and humor, but also unsettling and sometimes wincingly violent. The dwarves are fun to be around. I wanted to see more of what they had to say and then take them into battle to put their mallets, axes, and great-weapons to use against the Crowd AI. Fun Factor doesn’t overcome the game’s issues, but it certainly helps mitigate them.

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4.5 / 10.0
Dec 2, 2016

Almost everything from The Dwarves‘ gameplay to the presentation seems unpolished. It’s a real shame, since there are some good ideas, and the book it’s based upon is ripe for a video game adaptation. The mission objectives are far too rigid, the controls too cumbersome, and ultimately it’s a game that constantly gets in the way of itself. Every moment of enjoyment was quickly followed by bouts of annoyance, and this title clearly needed more time in development.

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6.5 / 10.0
Dec 1, 2016

The Dwarves has a lot of potential. If it was made on a AAA budget, I believe it could have been one of the best games this year. But it wasn’t. I thoroughly enjoyed my 15 hours with it, but I’m also well aware of its numerous, easily identifiable, shortcomings.  If your a dwarf connoisseur, then I can recommend this game. If you enjoy fantasy RPGs, and don’t mind tactical (though it’s hardly that) combat, then I can also recommend this game. But if you don’t particularly love either of these things, then The Dwarves from KING Art Games, may not be the dwarves for you.

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3 / 5.0
Dec 9, 2016

The Dwarves is an RPG game inspired by Markus Hetiz's best-seller. Despite having a nice story and a decent graphic section, the long-duration loading times and a very rough camera system, makes the game experience worse and worse.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

RPG Fan
Top Critic
85%
Jan 1, 2017

This is the kind of game that makes you happy Kickstarter is a thing.

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Fextralife
Emergence
Top Critic
7 / 10
Dec 12, 2016

A fun romp through a world where Dwarves take the lead role. The great writing and dialogue make up for lacking itemization and RPG elements. Combat management can be tricky but the few skills in the game have some fun application. Anyone looking for a break from some of the more grueling mechanics of hardcore RPGs will find an engaging story-focused journey through an idyllic fantasy landscape.

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7.5 / 10.0
Nov 28, 2016

The Dwarves is the game that every dwarf fan was waiting for. It has a very well narrated plot and a challenging but satisfying gameplay.

Review in Italian | Read full review

KeenGamer
Michael Keener
Top Critic
6 / 10.0
Dec 4, 2016

The Dwarves had so much potential that it pains me to have actually played what it ended up being due to how torn I feel about it in the end. It was a title I had kept an eye on for months in anticipation, but in the end my hopes and expectations weren't met. There's a chance that perhaps I had them too high, or that I'm being too hard on it, but it truly felt like a bit of a let down. The technical issues are extremely frequent, and I saw the stuttering within seconds of moving my guy for the first time. On the plus side, the fantasy tale and characters are amazing and just as awesome as anyone could hope for.

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