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The fantasy genre is a great choice for video games. It's full of colorful characters, outlandish stories, fantastical settings, and all the other things that can make a game compelling to play. However, we can't help but notice something.
Not enough of these games take advantage of dwarves! Dwarves are a race of stout, strong, (usually) bearded humanoids who are almost always associated with smithing and living underground. In honor of this wonderful race, we've collected the very best video games that include dwarves into this article.
7 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The dwarves in The Witcher are one of the Elder Races, along with the elves and the gnomes. They're called "Elder" Races by humans because they lived on the Continent before humanity did. Just like most other depictions of dwarves, these ones are short, stout, jolly over a shared ale, and dangerous on the battlefield.
Zolton Chivay, depicted above, is probably the most well-known dwarf from The Witcher. He's a friend of Geralt's, and actually was the one to give Geralt his sword! The sword is a type of Sword called Sihil, which is made through advanced dwarven craftsmanship and is covered in dwarven runes.
6 God Of War
God of War is based on Norse mythology, as you may know! Dwarves in the myths are humanoid creatures that are often connected with smithing, mining, and crafting - just as we've come to expect from depictions of this species in fantasy franchises.
You're probably familiar with a pair of dwarven brothers who appeared in God of War (2018): Brok and Sindi. Just like in The Witcher, these dwarves created the protagonist's (Kratos') weapon: an axe called Leviathan. They also made Thor's hammer, Mjölnir!
5 Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance
Unfortunately, the latest Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) game, Dark Alliance, didn't review very well, citing bugs and floaty combat. However, it's getting a spot on this list just by virtue of including the dwarves from D&D which so many nerds are familiar with.
King Bruenor Battlehammer, a dwarven character who appears in Dark Alliance, is a beloved character who was part of an adventuring party known as the Companions of the Hall. Despite the game's drawbacks, playing as him in-game was pretty cool!
4 The Dwarves
The name says it all for this game. It's a real-time strategy game based on a novel of the same name. It released to mixed reviews, but players seemed to generally enjoy it despite some flaws in the game mechanics.
Unlike the other entries in this list, this game is ALL dwarves! Dwarf fans can easily get their fix here. The original novel it was based on is by a German author, Markus Heitz, and is the first in a series. It followed the story of an orphan dwarf named Tungdil Goldhand who was raised by humans.
3 Total War: Warhammer
Total War: Warhammer is broken up into three installments, the last of which is coming out in mid-February 2022. Total War games usually feature historical settings, but in this series they've dived into the fantasy world of Warhammer! That means that dwarves were one of the first four playable factions available at launch.
The dwarves in Total War: Warhammer are pretty intense. They hold onto grudges so tightly that they write them all down in a book, called The Great Book of Grudges, in the blood of their kings. Hilariously, this book of grudges is an actual gameplay mechanic for players who chose to play with dwarves.
2 Dragon Age
Dwarves appear in all three Dragon Age games, to greater or lesser degrees. They're basically what we've come to expect of fantasy dwarves - living underground, smithing, mining - with a few fun tweaks that make them fit in the vast lore of the games. For example, much of their economy relies on the mining and sale of lyrium (which is like mana for mages).
Fans of the franchise do sometimes complain that the dwarves of Dragon Age don't get as much attention as other races, though, like the elves (whose cultural stories have become especially important in the most recent game).
1 Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War
We could hardly discuss dwarves in video games without talking about games based on the Lord of the Rings franchise, could we? Though there are tons of games based on J.R.R. Tolkien's novels, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is the most recent one.
Dwarves in Lord of the Rings are some of the most memorable (partially because we just see them so often). Torvin, a dwarven hunter, appears in Shadow of Morder and the Desolation of Mordor DLC for Shadow of War. We need more!