Orcs & Elves is a turn-based role-playing game based on improved DOOM RPG engine. The story follows an elf named Elli who, along with a talking magic wand Ellon, heads to the depths of a devastated dwarven citadel to find out what happened there, battling foes of many kinds, finding mysterious items and meeting various people.

The game uses a first person perspective and dungeons are grid-based, similar to the Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder series; the player can only move between squares, forward, backward, strafe left or right, turn in 90 degree increments. Enemies and dungeon features are drawn with sprite graphics. There are some 3D objects in the dungeons as well, and the game employs some 3D camera movements in the cutscenes. The dungeons mostly consist of one level, though it is possible to move between different parts of the dungeons and revisit the previous dungeons as necessary.