Not very many games seem to have followed the now-obvious tactic of combining fantasy monsters with classic John Steinbeck literature – in fact, none at all before this.
Still, it's only a matter of time before the market becomes flooded with them
Of Mice and Men follows two itinerant farmhands in the 1920s, who make their living walking across America – it all goes wrong, of course, and the tremendously sad ending makes all the girls watching the movie adaptation in your GSCE English class have a bit of a cry.1 This new RPG title – Of Orcs and Men – follows two greenskins (a big stupid Orc and a cunning, wiry Goblin) trying to survive against the persecution of their race by horrible Men in a quest across the ancient world. It's similar, see?
Goblin was upset to find his floorful of green jelly was ruined by a corpse
The game seems to feature a lot more murder than the book it draws inspiration from – which is a good thing, in our opinion, as 'Press X To Have A Conversation About Alfalfa' doesn't really do it for us – while the orc engages in big melee brawls, the sneaky goblin type performs stealth kills in a more urban setting. A bit like in criminally under appreciated PS2 classic Shadow of Rome, but with greener skin.
FUN FACT: Orc farts are composed of over 60% smoke
Let's not stop here, though. What's to say we can't make a new genre of games where you replace one letter of a John Steinbeck novel (or novella) with “orcs?” How about The Orcs of Wrath, where an environmental catastrophe forces the greenskin nation out of their farming communities and into the already overstretched lands of the elves, where down-on-his-luck excon orc Tomjode must struggle to provide for his community? With wrath?
Orcs are much better than grapes, we feel
Seriously, we might be on to something here.
Of Orcs and Men is scheduled for a Spring 2012 release. More info and screenshots can be found at the game's website.
1 What? No, there's something in our eye, we're not crying. Probably a woodchip from when we were chainsawing logs to make shelves and OH WHY LENNY WHYYYY (weeps)