The first game I played by Spiders was Mars War logs (made after oOaM) and oOaM like MWL has a hard bitter feel to the story, and the game itself feels general purpose mean to tell that story. oOaM now has a sequel my friend informed me (Styx) and I am curious to check that out.

The gameplay consists of using two man squad. A brutish tank and a stealthy rogue. you scout out an area with the rogue, backstab as much opposition as you can until getting caught where you then deliver an assault to the now softened up guard regiement. It's not a bad concept.

The combat itself resembles a active pause battle system (or smart pause) that slows down time to issue commands. you have different kinds of moves, however I wasn't really impressed by the combat so much. Some battles are drastically harder than others as you don't get the luxury of ambush with your asssassin (Styx) and together, managing both the brute and the assassin is often overwhelming. There are interesting mechanics with the brute's rage, and the assassin's focus power, but it onyl goes so far. Like Mars War logs the combat isn't that gratifying.

The story is pretty decent, the cahracters are rather well done. and lilke mars war logs, the outfits/modular armor you can place on your character is pretty cool visually and has a nice aesthetic, especially with the brute. (Whoever models the Spider's games does a really good job! If you going to upgrade your character it's nice to feel like what you might put on your character looks cool right?)

The game itself felt more linear than Mars War Logs, in how you can approach or skip sidequests. (Moving from one area to next, sort of like original Witcher) 'hub areas' where you pick the quests are much more condensed. IMO that's a better appraoch to the main focus of a central story line the way the game pans out.

One of the really strong suites of this game worth a mention is the really well done orchestral soundtrack which fits the mood of the game throughout... Particularly the main theme which recurs time to time in certain sequences.

In conclusion, Of Orcs and Men s a a action-adventure (semi-rpg) tale about the orc, a goblin, racism amongst the humans, characters with lots of adversity, and a strong underlying soundtrack, a decent story that is held back by mediocre gameplay elements.