The Dwarves

Girdlegard is a harsh but colorful fantasy realm where one dwarf’s search for belonging becomes a war against monsters, ancient evils, and overwhelming odds. The Dwarves adapts Markus Heitz’s novel into a story-led RPG that favors character interaction and branching travel over endless loot grinding. Its tone lands somewhere between earnest high fantasy and the rough humor of a band of stubborn warriors who refuse to yield, even when surrounded by hundreds of enemies. Tungdil Goldhand, raised among humans and uncertain of his place in dwarven society, anchors a lengthy adventure across mountains, deserts, fortresses, and dangerous political divides.

Combat puts a small party of specialized heroes against huge crowds of orcs, ogres, undead, dark mages, and other threats. Battles run in real time, but pausing lets you issue orders, line up abilities, reposition vulnerable allies, and decide which dangerous targets need attention first. Each of the 15 available characters brings a distinct fighting style, from heavy frontline disruption to ranged support and powerful crowd-clearing attacks, so success depends on building a team that can control a chaotic battlefield. Outside combat, Tungdil travels a large illustrated world map, speaks with allies and strangers, investigates side situations, solves occasional puzzles, and makes decisions that can affect later events and available encounters.

The standout feature is its crowd combat system: enemies collide, bunch up, stagger, and react physically, making a single well-placed charge or explosive ability feel dramatically effective. Rather than presenting a conventional open-world RPG, the game plays more like a choice-driven fantasy campaign punctuated by tactical arena clashes, with an emphasis on story consequences and memorable companions. Its presentation is not as polished as the biggest action RPGs, and the combat can become demanding when enemy swarms exploit poor positioning, but the pause system gives thoughtful players the tools to recover. Fans of Dragon Age’s party-focused storytelling, real-time tactics, and classic dwarf-centric fantasy should find plenty to enjoy, while newcomers should expect a narrative adventure first and a deep character-build RPG second.