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Level 9's breakthrough game and the game that first showcases its new robust
engine, Knight Orc was one of the first games to give a voice to a villain: in this
case, you play an orc named Grindleguts, who was abandoned by his buddies after a
night of (what else) partying. The orcs, caught unawares by a troop of human knights,
arrange for a "Contest of Champions" to take place in the morning. They tie our
anti-hero Grindleguts to a horse and give him a lance to defend himself. Then the
trouble begins in earnest, as you must deal with one urgent life-or-death situation
after another, and it is quite some time before you are free from gut-wrenching time
constraints to deal with puzzles at a more leisurely pace. The puzzles, jokes,
characters and parser are all up to par with the best that Infocom had to offer. I
suspect that this game did not receive the props that it should have due to its
subject manner - playing the "bad guy" didn't really become in style until Syndicate.
While Grindleguts is a greedy, violent, angry little pit he is also a character
worthy of our respect. Especially among the piles of spods he's running around with.
I suspect that the background characters in Knight Orc are set to mirror the kind of
individuals we (the gaming community) can't - in theory - stand or relate to in real
life. Jocks, girls, urchins, soldiers... when that lot are in our world (a game)
they should, naturally, be considered the outsiders. Knight Orc describes them with
as much distaste as we normally get in "their" environments. If you take the time to
enjoy this game - to smell the roses - Knight Orc will return your attention with an
incredible amount of pleasure. Arguably the best game from Level 9, and a must-have. |
