The Dwarf Run is an indie point and click role-playing game developed by Alexander Mirdzveli. Dwarf Run takes classic point and click elements from the 1990s era of gaming, and revives them in this modern day puzzle adventure game. I was given a free Steam code for this game so I will be reviewing it in great detail.

Solving Puzzles

Yes, I said puzzles. Lots, and lots of tedious puzzles that you will spend hours wreaking your brain over trying to solve. The story is about a Dwarf, his father, an elf, and a human wizard, that go out on a grand adventure to find a special something. You will use your team to solve puzzles, explore, and fight evil monsters to push your way through dungeons. I got frustrated and wanted to quit, and yet… I kept playing it. Something about the game was upsetting but also quite addictive. The game consists of pointing and clicking on an object to either look at it, talk to it, or interact with it in some way. The characters will then provide some type of feedback to give you clues on what to do.

You will then use the items you obtain to figure out which object goes where so that you can move forward, which will normally give you more items and a series of new quests to keep you moving along to solve more difficult puzzles. After you get the flow of the game you can start to understand the logic behind how it all works to move to the next area a bit faster, but sadly I spent like an hour at the starting point scratching my head like a monkey trying to open the box by banging rocks on it (with no luck). If you are like me, I wrote a Dwarf Run Walkthrough guide to help you along to get passed the starting area and defeat that darned Skeleton boss.

The written dialogue has humor to keep the game lighthearted and silly to put a smile on your face, and the graphics- although a bit crude at first, eventually grew on me. After playing for about two hours I stopped caring about the music and the graphics because my brain was 100% devoted to solving the puzzles and moving the story along.

Unique Combat System

The combat system is a unique turn-based system that actually takes quite a bit of strategy to win… And I do mean quite a bit!

You have to really plan out your stats and balance the level up points to survive or else you will find yourself in quite the pickle. Luckily, the game lets you “Cheat” to reset your last level so that you can find a new tactic that works. You have to manage the gear you find wisely (because they don’t give you enough in the starting area) to survive, and budget your projectiles; like rocks and arrows, to last you while you are trapped inside the dungeon. This made the game very challenging and a puzzle within itself as you had to plan and strategize the best course of action to survive long term.

There were parts where I would stop to think “Use arrows on this group of skeletons trying to kill me? Or, save them for another threat that may or may not be worse down the road?” Those were the type of decisions I had to face, which made the game really fun to play.

The level up and stat system is extremely difficult to manage because every single status point really matters with this game, so you really have to think what is the most important stat with the limited amount of points you start out with to help you win battles. When you enter a battle sequence the game normally resets the position of all the characters to set up the fight, but the actual battles takes place in the same game map, there are no new battle scenes. In this way, you can plan out your battles based on your current surroundings to find something that best works for you, such as moving around the corner of the cave so that archers can’t shoot you.

The combat gives you a set amount of actions points to move or attack during battle. When you Move your characters it will take actions points, but you can move them anywhere you want on the ground around you without too many restrictions. Attacking also takes action points and raises fatigue.

If you become fatigued you can no longer attack, so you have to take time to rest to recover. If you take too much damage it will began to affect your accuracy, causing you to miss more. This now creates dire scenarios because as your life falls and gets weaker and you become more fatigued, you will miss more with your attacks, tire faster, and eventually cannot attack back. But at the same time, all of the monsters use the exact same system, so I had to really plan out my battles to survive to make it work in my favor.

Will you like it?

If you grew up playing hardcore puzzle point and click games this will be right up your alley. If you loved playing role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, then you will probably also really love this game. The battles takes some getting used to and the puzzles will really get on your nerves, but at the same time I enjoyed playing it because of the challenge it offered and the fact that the game doesn’t hold your hand.

The biggest flaws I found with the game was probably the graphics. Hands down, when you start it up and see the first intro sequence you will see what I mean. Just give it a chance and stick with it. The next flaw is the difficulty level. You can adjust it at anytime in the options, but for some people you may find the puzzles to be more of a chore instead of being fun. I recorded a bit of gameplay footage so you can take a look at that below to see if you like what you see or not.

Overall, I would give the game a solid 7 out of 10, just because it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. The Dwarf Run currently has a low price tag of $8.99, so if you would like to see more you can check out The Dwarf Run on its official Steam Page.

Author: Nick