Of Orcs and Men Preview

While their Game of Thrones title wasn't met with the best possible reception, the folks at Cyanide are probably aiming to do better with their upcoming action-RPG Of Orcs and Men, which has been previewed by Hooked Gamers, based on a GamesCom presentation. Look no further if you want a sampling:
You will get in all sorts of hairy situations and having two characters to control can be rather daunting, especially as combat is done in real time rather than turn-based. Fortunately, the game speed can be slowed down to give you more time to make the decision to switch between characters to issue new commands.

As the game progresses, so does the difficulty. While there should always be more than one way to win a fight, the game will really push the player to use more of the green team's abilities and stances during its later stages. Styx can engage in melee or throw knives from a distance, but his ultimate strength is sneaking up to people and assassinate them with a well-placed backstab. A useful move early on, but during the later stages, enemies may bring along hounds that have the ability to sniff out stealthy Goblins, preventing Styx from using his backstab move.

There's no hiding for the hulking Arkaïl so he has developed both a defensive and an offensive stance. In a defensive stance he basically keeps enemies occupied as much as he can, limiting the damage he suffers and waiting for Styx to deliver the fatal blows. In his offensive stance, he's more likely to take damage but he will dish out a lot more himself as well. You will need to be careful though. If Arkaïl's takes too much of a beating, his amassed rage will reach a critical point where you will lose all control over his actions. This will increase the damage he deals, decrease the damage he takes, but he will attack anything that moves, even Styx.