Orcs Must Die! Review
There must have been something in the air for so many different companies to take the beloved Tower Defense genre and offer us so many fun and exciting variations. Coming right off of my Sanctum review I was eager for more and since Dungeon Defenders was still a couple weeks away Orcs Must Die! filled the role perfectly. Where Sanctum put you into an FPS wrapped in tower defense, Orcs Must Die! wraps tower defense in a magic filled third person shooter with a somewhat unique take on the towers themselves.
Orcs Must Die! follows the typical anti-hero who would rather do anything but his duties. Somehow this lazy ass is the last surviving war-mage, protectors who’ve dedicated their lives to guard the rifts between worlds. It is this rift that allows magic to exist and bad things will happen if the Orcs get to it. So, if it wasn’t clear from the title, your duty is to kill all the Orcs.
To do so you’ll have access to traps, Robot Entertainment’s variation on towers. Traps will come in many ACME-esque forms of common tower defense tropes such as tar pits to slow enemies down, brimstone to do fire DoT, blockades to shape enemy paths, arrow walls to do direct damage in a few hits over a large radius, archer guardians to take care of flying foes, etc. Though there are over a dozen different traps that you will unlock in each new level you play, towards the end of the game’s some two-dozen levels, you’ll find the best combination. This is key since you’re locked into a select number of traps, and magics, chosen at the start of each level.
When you’re done setting traps you can set loose the hordes of orcs who will run down their respective paths towards the rift, or rifts depending on the level. Should you choose to engage enemies head on you have access to two weapons: crossbow and spear; and a handful of magics: wind, ice, fire, and lightning. At first I thought Orcs Must Die! was going to be rather bland and that it was slow and all about traps and such, but when I started playing it I really enjoyed this action element; which is usually the weakest part of this type of game feeling as though it was just thrown on at the end. The gameplay is smooth and pretty fast, and offers a more engaging experience than just watching traps. Getting headshots with the crossbow, freezing enemies in ice then getting in close to finish them off with the spear, or setting down a wall of fire and watch as half a dozen orcs mindlessly walk through the flames and jump around like they only just now realized that fire isn’t a nice thing. While you can go through some of the starter levels without getting into the fray, the combination of weapons and magics you choose to support your preferred traps is an essential part of beating the later levels where sitting back is not an option.
This is especially true when you encounter some of the more difficult enemies where traps alone most likely won’t kill them, at least not your first time through a level. Ogres, and their elemental variations, give and take a lot more damage and require special focus from the player. The right magic and weapon combination can usually make quick work of these guys. Fortunately for you at the beginning of each level when you’re selecting your preferred loadout you’ll get a sneak peek at the wave composition you’ll face through the level (not per wave, that’s something you just have to wait and see).
My favorite part about these types of games is figuring out the best combinations to properly dispatch your foes. As each level gets noticeably harder with more entry points, more waves, more rifts and longer distances between them; you’ll sometimes just squeak by on your first time through a level. At the end of each level you’ll be awarded a score in skulls, up to 5 for a perfect run. After the first few levels you’ll stop getting 5 skulls as the difficulty takes a nice step up to keep you on your toes. Some might think of not caring about getting 5 skulls on each level, but if you’re playing this type of game I’m guessing that’s part of the fun, it would be prudent to point out that these skulls you earn are also the currency used for upgrading traps. While the upgrades themselves won’t break the game, some of them will offer a noticeable improvement over their basic version. Traps can only be upgraded once, but the upgrades are permanent; unlike the other source of upgrades: the Weavers.
Along the way you’ll be unlocking new traps and magics, but you’ll also gain access to three Weaver sisters who can boost different aspects of your gameplay. Within each level you can choose one of the weavers: Steel, Elemental and Knowledge. As you can probably gleam from names, each will focus on one direction of the style of play that you will prefer. Steel focuses on improving trap damage and reset time and guardian health and weapon augments. Elemental weaver will make your chosen magics more powerful and cost less mana to use. The Knowledge weaver is a bit of a mixed bag giving the character health buffs and extra resource generation as well as the ability to give the rifts a powerful lightning defense. You can only choose 1 weaver per level and while sometimes you won’t need, or just plain forget, the support of a weaver, the endgame benefits from figuring out how to use them with the right trap, weapon, magic combinations.
With 2 dozen levels to play and a decent amount of replay value due to Nightmare Mode you'll find yourself devoting several hours into Orcs Must Die! The team at Robot Entertainment definitely put love into this game; it’s charming, funny and a really enjoyable game experience that will distract you long enough while waiting for the next big title.
If you enjoyed this review please check out my blog at Ramblings of a MAD Man where you'll find more reviews (with images and video) and news posts with lots of trailers and info to enjoy.