“Why hasn’t anyone else done something like this?” That’s the first question that came to mind when I heard about We Are the Dwarves

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“ It’s like if you took a Drizzt Do’Urden Forgotten Realms book and mashed it together with Lost in Space.

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“ I can let everything unfold in real time or pause combat to give myself time to reassess my options if things are going bad.

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“ My two favorite parts of the game were playing with Forcer in a zero-gravity environment and Shadow’s introduction.

In We Are the Dwarves, the stars are dying, leaving the dwarven race on the brink of extinction. Three kingdoms come together to form an expedition, sending three dwarven astronauts on a mission to find a new home. Smashfist, Forcer, and Shadow, from the Red, Yellow, and Blue Kingdoms, respectively, are put in a ship and fired off into deep space. The expedition hits a snag and the astronauts crash land, ending up stranded in uncharted territory.“We started with a game featuring dwarves and thought a universe comprising stone and caves would be the best setting for them,” said Whale Rock Games’ project lead Alexey Moskovchenko. “We realized we had an inverted universe model, so we made the main characters astronauts.”My preview started out with axe-wielding melee dwarf Smashfist. He serves as the tank and crowd control, which comes in handy when fighting groups of enemies. Forcer is the ranged character, using his shotgun and grenades to cause heavy damage, while protecting him or the group with an area of effect force field. Lastly, Shadow, the stealthy dwarf, blends melee and ranged combat with his ability to hide or evade enemies.We Are the Dwarves can get hard. I died a lot. Wading into a group of enemies like Sludge Workers and their eggs, which hatch if they’re disturbed by noise, is a bad idea. Whale Rock’s intent is for players to survey the lay of the land and the approach to combat situations. I can let everything unfold in real time or pause combat to give myself time to reassess my options if things are going bad.It’s sound in theory but not in execution. Once I got to where I had Smashfist and Forcer together, I tried to bulldoze my way through levels. In one particular section, I kept trying to attract a Wild Crab and kill it before the projectile-spitting Swamp Jumpers heard the fighting and joined in. I found myself in a frustrating loop of do-overs. When I tried to gather the enemies up with Smashfist and hit them all with Forcer’s area-of-effect grenade, the enemies would spread out and I’d be lucky to hit one or two out of four enemies. They’re tough!My two favorite parts of the game were playing with Forcer in a zero-gravity environment and Shadow’s introduction. It took a while to get the hang of navigating a level riddled with rocks and enemies surrounding a Star Parasite, a faux star made up of crystalline colonies of parasites and bacteria. Touching anything causes damage, and it took a while to get the hang of maneuvering with a shotgun and spacesuit brakes, but once I did, it was the best time I had with the game. I’d love to see more levels like this one. The emphasis is on solving the puzzle of the stage itself rather than combat with a pack of enemies.After playing with all three dwarves, I wondered about the abilities one dwarf has over another. Why does Forcer get the ability to distract enemies with a noisemaker when it would seem ideal for Shadow? In a level late in the preview, I exhausted every option of getting around a group of enemies with Shadow’s stealth and couldn’t figure a way past them. If Shadow had Forcer’s distract ability, it would have made getting around in that situation easier.We Are the Dwarves has rough edges. Moskovchenko assures the characters’ roles become more cohesive and the game’s flow improves once the three dwarves are reunited. I wasn’t thrilled with the action-focused levels. The game’s non-combat scenarios shined most. Maneuvering in zero gravity was a blast and the stealth portions of the game showed promise. If Whale Rock Games can hit the right difficulty cadence – I go walloped on both normal and easy difficulties in the preview build – I’m sure We Are the Dwarves will be a fun fantasy/outer space spelunking romp.

Michael Martin is a contributor to IGN. Talk some Street Fighter with him on Twitter at @Bizarro_Mike