Saturday Morning Gaming: Orcs Must Die!
Back in 2011, a little game called “Orcs Must Die!” came out. It melded Action RPG mechanics with Tower Defense mechanics… and did a heck of a job with it.
You are The Hero. The last War Mage in The Order. The orc horde is breaking through into your dimension for theirs… and you have to use the little magic you’ve learned so far to protect the world from the teeming millions of orcs.
Here’s you:
Here’s the rift that you’re protecting:
You’ve got a crossbow and a spellbook.
Here’s your spellbook:
Okay. It’s a little light. That’s okay. You’re going to fill it up quickly. For now, let’s just take the spike trap.
The orcs are going to come out that door and run down the hallway and try to touch the Rift. Don’t let them!
So since you know the track they’re going to take, place your spike traps appropriately.
We’ve got 2400 points to spend, spike traps cost 300 points each… let’s drop 8 of the things.
There.
Now we just have to press G to unleash the horde…
And let the traps do their work.
The beauty of the game is that if you tried to play with only traps, you’d fail. So you have to run around with your crossbow and bladestaff and take care of the orcs that get through the traps.
And while the crossbow and bladestaff are pretty good, they aren’t good enough for you to beat the game with *JUST* them. So you have to pick up traps (or spells) and use those.
Everything works together and there are wonderful synergies between this trap and that trap and finding out which two traps work best together is part of the joy of the game. Every map you beat, you get a new spell for your spellbook and discover new ways to take out the orcs (and the other monsters that want to take out your rift).
All the while, new little tidbits of the story come out as you play the game. You learn about the world you’re in, the world the orcs are in, and what’s going on that they’re making this particularly strong push. The voice actors for the game are wonderful (from your former boss narrating the story to the voice actor of The Hero to the voice actors for the orcs making the push to the rift to the ones that constitute a spoiler, they’re all wonderful).
It’s, seriously, a delight to play. And the sequel was even better! New traps to go along with your old favorites, new weapons, and new maps.
AND ORCS MUST DIE! 3 HAS FINALLY BEEN RELEASED ON STEAM! (After being a Stadia exclusive.)
So… what are you playing?
Looks fun! I may check it out, especially since it’s on Steam. Stadia – yech!
I haven’t been playing anything new and actually haven’t been playing much this summer so far. My go-to games are world of tanks, Civ 6, and Hearts-of-Iron 4.
But I did recently start a new Cyberpunk 2077 playthrough, this time with a female character. I’m going slow though, as I’m hoping for some DLC to drop soon. But it’s interesting to see all the little details I missed/forgot about in the first playthrough. The game still looks great and plays well even on my underpowered laptop.
PS: Which one of the three Orcs Must Die iterations would you recommend? The latest version?Report
I have picked up Orcs Must Die 3 but haven’t played it yet. I have too many errands to run!
But it’s on the agenda for tonight.Report
Realized I didn’t answer this question!
Which one of the three Orcs Must Die iterations would you recommend? The latest version?
I would start with the first.
1. The story is good. Good enough to enjoy through the whole thing (the second one, for example, continues the story and contains spoilers for the first one.)
2. Maybe the game isn’t for you. Personally, I think that the game is awesome. But if the game sucked, I’d rather pay $10 to find that out than $30.
3. The mechanics are really solid. Like, I go back and play the original from time to time. Two improves on One, but it’s one of those rare games where the original is still enjoyable. Like, I can’t play XCom: Enemy Within anymore because of XCom 2. I try and start XCom and think “I could be playing XCom 2 instead.” This game is just fun.
I got 3 as much for the additional story and the new maps as much as I did for the new tech updates. The original is good. I’d start with it.Report
Cool, thanks!Report
Still plugging away at Darkest Dungeon–yesterday was the first run at the DD itself in this game, which ended in failure. The Vestal I chose for this run had a particularly useless combination of skills (I hadn’t bothered buying unlocks for her), so naturally she was the only survivor.
I see that “Orcs Must Die! Complete Pack” can be mine for $13, so taking your advice to Andy above, I may give the first one a whirl.Report
I started Orcs 3 yesterday and, on the first map, I wouldn’t say I *LOST*… but I expected to exceed expectations and I did pretty mediocre.
So I started with the first Orcs Must Die! and, holy cow, it remains awesome. I’m still discovering new stuff and new trap synergies. In the past, I always preferred to play with traps to playing with stuff like the Achemist’s Satchel.
“Well, let’s just give it a *TRY*”, I thought this time.
Holy cow. This game is awesome.Report
I love OMD. It is a solid game, challenging, but also quick enough you can knock off a level in 30-60 minutes. And it’s not a graphics/resources hog, so I can play it on my older laptop.
Still working my way through Rebel Galaxy Outlaw & Hard Space Ship Breaker.Report