Jump to content

[Review] - Orcs Must Die!


Kevnvek
  • Developed by: Robot Entertainment

    Published by: Microsoft Studios

    Platforms: PC and Xbox LIVE Arcade

    Players: 1

    Rated T for Teen by the ESRB

    Darwinism be damned, those crafty orcs have evolved adaptations that make them march straight into battle, directly through deadly traps and into incoming crossbow fire. It's pure science, orcs must die. Orcs Must Die! isn't so much a tower defense game, as it is a strategic third-person action game wherein you must defend your base with the traps and weapons at your disposal. Sure you plan out where to place the spike traps, arrow walls, and such to maim as many passing orcs as possible, but you actually get to be in the fray as well.

 Share

OMD-1.jpg

Orcs Must Die! is about the last of the War Mages defending the fortresses of the Order, an organization dedicated to stopping the orcs from invading their world. In each fortress there is a rift leading back to your home world, which you must stop the orcs from entering. You are given many traps to place as you progress through the game, as well as archers and paladins that will attack nearby enemies. You also have weapons ranging from your trusty crossbow and blade staff, to items that allow you to cast offensive magics. Using all of these, you must kill all of the invaders as they rush into the fortress.

OMD-2.jpg

In the beginning of a level you have time to set up your defenses before pressing a button to commence the battle, and you get other such breaks after every few waves. Otherwise, you normally only get about fifteen seconds between each attack. Attacking enemies vary from standard melee orcs, ranged crossbow-weilding orcs, weak kobolds that rush towards the rift, slow but powerful ogres, flying enemies, and others. You primarily gain money for traps and henchmen by killing enemies, and often will have to place traps during combat to strengthen your defenses. You can also purchase combat upgrades and other perks. You must choose between three different spell weavers to purchase these perks. Each grants you a different tree of abilities to use, focusing on player spells, traps and henchmen, and other bonuses.

OMD-3.jpg

You can construct barriers to direct the orcs' movement. Make sure that the orcs still have a route to the rift, though, or they'll break through the first barrier they get to.

When you're satisfied with your defenses, you can rush to meet the enemy head on with your crossbow, blade staff, or spells. Personally I found the sword to be underpowered, as you take much more damage while using it, whereas the crossbow can be used to great effect to pick off enemies with head shots from a distance.. The spells you can use include a pushing wind spell, a fire spell, an ice spell to freeze opponents in place, and a lightning spell. All weapons and spells have an alternate attack as well, with effects such as stunning.

OMD-4.jpg

The clockwork mace was by far my favorite trap. Combined with slowing oil, wall arrows, spikes, some paladins to take care of stragglers, and the air spell to push enemies back into said swinging death balls if they make it through, you have a fiendishly lethal barricade to stop your enemies in their tracks.

Though the controls for the Xbox 360 controller are fairly good, I found the controls with a keyboard and mouse to be a bit more accessible and precise. This isn't really a fault of the game, just the nature of console controllers in general. There aren't many controls to memorize, but numerical mapping for traps and weapons is much faster than scrolling through weapons and abilities with a button.

OMD-5.jpg

Graphically there isn't much to say for the game, except maybe that it succeeds in having a decent, mildy cartoonish, stylistic look within the limitations of an arcade style game. Nothing looks particularly bad, but it's not as if you can zoom in and see lots of fine detail. The music also has a somewhat whimsical style, presenting you with an almost taunting sounding track as you complete a level.

OMD-6.jpg

Completing levels nets you a certain amount of skulls depending on your performance, with five being the maximum. These are used to upgrade your traps and make them more effective. You can go back to previous levels with newly unlocked and upgraded equipment to improve your score to get more skulls. This gives the game fairly good replayability, and makes it rather addictive. It also has a fair length with twenty-four fortresses to defend.

OMD-7.jpg

Be sure to spend your upgrade points wisely on the traps you really use, because upgrades are irreversible.

After completing the campaign you unlock Nightmare difficulty. In this mode you can replay the same levels but earn an entirely new set of skulls for each level you complete. What makes Nightmare mode so much harder is that you don't get more than three seconds between waves at any time to setup traps. Often you must set your traps during combat. It is much more hectic without the occasional pause to place your defenses.

OMD-8.jpg

Orcs Must Die! provides an interesting twist on tower defense style gameplay, and is yet another good example of genre mixing done well. It never feels too strategy heavy or entirely too much like a basic hack and slash game. It succeeds in having its own style and very solid gameplay. If you are looking for a fun but strategic game, Orcs Must Die! is a fine choice. It is currently out on the Xbox LIVE Arcade, and releases for the PC on October 12th.

 Share


User Feedback

Recommended Comments

There are no comments to display.



Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

  • Members

    No members to show

  • Member Statistics

    539
    Total Members
    1,666
    Most Online
    zhongma1
    Newest Member
    zhongma1
    Joined
  • Twitch Streams

×
×
  • Create New...