Orcs & Elves

Orcs & Elves emerged as a fantasy answer to the success of Doom RPG, bringing another ambitious dungeon crawler to phones, this time set in a world of orcs, elves, and dark medieval-style corridors. The player moves through mazes in first-person view, solves simple puzzles, collects equipment, and fights monsters, with id Software, the studio behind Doom itself, involved in the development.

id Software's participation lent the game a stamp of quality and care that not every publisher could afford for a mobile title at the time, and it showed in the polish of the maze movement and the atmosphere, which tried to approach that of computer and console RPGs of the era. Controls were adapted to the keypad of phones of the day, movement across a square grid and turn-based combat kept the gameplay clear even on a small display, so the player didn't have to deal with any quick reactions, just gradual decisions about the next step. Like Doom RPG, it was a paid title distributed through mobile app stores of the time, not a free preinstalled game.

Orcs & Elves confirmed that the early era of Java games on mobile phones could host fairly ambitious RPG projects with real game design, not just lightweight arcade games meant for a few minutes of fun. Today the game is practically unavailable, J2ME app stores disappeared and with them the official way to obtain the title.

Why play it: recommended for players interested in the history of mobile RPGs who will appreciate the involvement of id Software, though the game itself can today only be found through enthusiast archives.