Orcs Must Die! 2
Last year, Robot Entertainment gave us a great Tower Defense title in Orcs Must Die!. With the growing popularity of Tower Defense games, it’s only right that Orcs Must Die! would get a proper sequel.
Orcs Must Die! 2 picks up right after the first one ends. The Apprentice (the hero from the first game) has successfully closed the rifts between worlds, making sure that the evil Sorceress and her army of Orcs wouldn’t be able to wreak havoc in other worlds. Unfortunately, when he closed the rifts, it shut off all the magic in the world, making life hard for humans. The Sorceress also lost her power over the Orcs, leading them to revolt. The Mage that mentored the apprentice apparently knew of this great danger because he used the last of his powers to open the rifts, allowing the Sorceress to reach our world. Together, the Sorceress and the Apprentice must find a way to fend off the Orc invasion without closing the rifts.
The sequel, Orcs Must Die! 2, follows the same formula as the first game. Each level requires you to keep Orcs (and various other creatures) from reaching the rift(s) to our world using weapons, magic, and an assortment of traps. At the start of each level, you’re given time to pick what traps, weapons, and magic are placed into their inventory. You’re also given money used to place their chosen traps into the environment. Once a wave is started, enemies will start marching towards the rifts. Both killing Orcs and collecting fallen coins will provide you with money to buy and place more traps. After a few waves, the game will pause to give you more time to formulate a strategy before starting the next few waves.
If you’ve played other TD games, you’ll be familiar with most of the mechanics. As is the trend with TD games more recently, Robot Entertainment incorporated a third person view and added in more action elements. Players don’t just have to wait for the Orcs to mindlessly walk into a trap; they can go after them with shotguns, crossbows, magic spells and more. Really, this title is a third person shooter layered over a Tower Defense model. In Orcs Must Die! 2, the action is heightened with new enemies and enhanced map designs that require a fast trigger finger as well as traditional strategic thinking. To help gamers battle back the horde, gamers have the option to play the game with a co-op partner. This new feature addresses the only “real” issue that was seen in the first title; playing with a friend is ten times more fun than playing alone. You have someone to cover you as you lay down traps as well as someone to freak out with when giant Earth Elementals break through your defenses!
Adding to the fun is the fact that while both characters have access to the same weapons, traps, and magic, they also have their own ways of taking down Orcs. The Apprentice can use a shotgun, a wall trap that shoots arrows at enemies, and tar pit floor traps. The Sorceress can take over an enemy’s mind for a short period of time, forcing them to attack their own kind. She also has a wall trap that spews acid on any approaching enemies within range. The Apprentice is better for killing large amounts of enemies (his shotgun fires grenades as a secondary ammo source) while the Sorceress is better suited to control groups of enemies, slowing their advances towards the rift. They both have the same amount of health but the Sorceress has more manna to use on spells. Using their skills to support one another makes for fun, third person action. That said, if both players wanted to use the apprentice, that’s fine as well. You won’t be forced to play in a certain role just because your co-op buddy picked a character before you.
Orcs Must Die! 2 is a blast to play. Finding the best places to put traps, knowing when to use the last of your manna to heal a teammate, and deciding to use one trap over another are examples of some of the choices gamers will face. Over the course of the game, newer weapons and traps will become unlocked, granting even more options. One of my favorite weapons is a lighting gauntlet that creates a lighting storm with its secondary attack; it literally creates a cloud that hovers over an area, striking nearby enemies with lighting. Some items will need to be unlocked with Skulls. Skulls are granted at the end of a level based on your score; the better you do the more skulls you can get. Not only are the skulls used to unlock items, they are also used to improve the items you have. With enough skulls I was able to not only strengthen the arrows that shoot out of my wall trap, but I was also able to give them a chilling effect that would cause any surviving enemies to move slowly for a short period of time. No need to worry about using all of your skulls; if you feel that you’ve wasted them on something you can always respect (resetting the skulls). You won’t get penalized and will be able to pick and choose where to place your acquired skulls.
With a large armory of weapons, defenses, and magical trinkets, there are multiple solutions to any one problem. That said, over time I found that the first few unlocked traps was all I needed to progress through the game. With the newer traps being more expensive to use, the lower costing yet super effect traps were used the most. Of course, there are other factors, like creative placement; placing a spring trap near a cliff will cause baddies to be launched over the side. The higher priced traps weren’t always as effective though, due to the fact that their power needed to be balanced. A trap that sucks in and grinds up enemies had a tendency to jam. You could always upgrade this trap, making the time it takes to unjam itself shorter. But why do that when you can use less skulls to upgrade a lower ranked arrow wall instead; it attacks multiple enemies at a time and you can have more of them placed at a time because they cost less to place. No comparison!
This hurts the gameplay in a few ways. Strategically, the game could be more fun if gamers were required to experiment more. Sure, you could get a better score (and higher spot on the leaderboards) by using different traps in creative ways. But you could also do that by using the same strategy over and over. When the game finally requires for more varied approach, you won’t have built up those skills needed to progress. Basically, because you weren’t required to think out of the box earlier on, you’ll have it tough towards the end. Experimenting when you have a crazy amount of enemies converging on multiple rifts can lead to frustration.
Everything else about Orcs Must Die! 2 is great. There are multiple modes of play, visually everything looks great, and the music is pretty cool (I found myself bobbing my head a few times). The soundtrack features an odd combination of rock and hip hop with a medieval theme layered on top. Graphically, the visauls really pop; it’s like playing a Saturday morning cartoon. When it comes to game modes, not only do you have the single player/co-op story mode option but also a new mode called Endless. Just as the name suggests, you and a friend will need to battle endless waves of increasingly difficult enemies. This mode is pretty fun because it requires more strategic gameplay than what’s found in the campaign. On top of all of these things, are the varying difficulty levels and leaderboards adding to the overall replay value.
Outside of my minor complaint, there is no reason not to get this title. Unless you don’t have a computer, in which case I’d tell you to go buy one of those first!
Gameplay:
9
Orcs Must Die! 2 is a really fun game. I wish it required me to use more varied traps to be successful though.
Graphics:
9
I really like the stylized graphics.
Sound:
8
The sound effects sound as they should. The music is what stands out the most though!
What's New:
6
A lot of Tower Defense games have been released lately. Unfortunately, based on those other titles, Orcs Must Die! 2 didn’t bring a lot of new ideas to the genre.
Replay Value:
9
The game is really fun to play, has co-op, multiple modes, various difficulty settings, and a ranking system. All of those things combined will keep you coming back for more!
Final Score:
8.2