Orcs Must Die! Series Review (Xbox, PlayStation & PC)

Orcs Must Die! often feels like a well-oiled machine—slick, stylish, and oh-so-squelchy and competent. But, in other instances, it feels like a pantomime with one too many moving pieces, like a cog with a nonsensical blueprint that doesn’t have the technical skill to house its components. It feels sloppy, unorthodox, yet just as satisfying, weirdly. It’s a strange thing, really — the act of volleying between battlegrounds without the slightest clue of what it will bring. Personally, I have yet to figure out what it takes to incubate a well-oiled machine. In most scenarios, I’ll throw caution to the wind, because I’ve often found that Orcs Must Die! is a lot more interesting when there are multiple forks in the road to navigate. To have a foolhardy plan is great, but to enjoy Orcs Must Die! to its fullest extent, it’s often better to flow with the wind, without a plan, and with the power of wishful thinking to steer you toward victory.

I’d like to say that Orcs Must Die! is a lot easier than your traditional tower defense game. I could argue that, thanks to its adoption of a third-person approach that allows you to spectate the battlefield and make live alterations, you could quite easily romp through most of Orcs Must Die! without needing to master the art of wartime combat. The truth is, it isn’t as tough as a traditional tower defense game, though it does come with a lot of stubborn flaws and irritating curveballs. For example, if a line of defense blows to smithereens, then you might as well abandon the battlefield and start from scratch. Why? Well because, if so much as a single outpost falls to ruin, then the chances of having your precious Rift—an evacuation point that the Orcs battle to reach—dismantled become tediously high. Like an ordinary tower defense game, then — but with Orcs and Rifts.

The idea behind Orcs Must Die! is that each player—a War Mage with access to an arsenal of weapons, traps and other defensive contraptions—must defend a Rift on a battlefield whilst simultaneously building and combating hordes of Orcs. The objective, in short, is to keep the Rift from receiving a set amount of Orcs passing through it until the final wave sheds its toughest enemies. Simply put, if the Rift suffers from too much foot traffic, then it’s an instant game over. There’s a little more to it than that — but you get the point. You have a battlefield, a network of entry points, and a Rift to protect at all costs. With each enemy that you kill, you earn an in-game currency, with which you can use to unlock and install more traps, platoons, and projectiles to help fend off the oncoming armies. That, in short, is Orcs Must Die.

All in all, Orcs Must Die! is an easy series to jump into and learn on the fly. Thankfully, it doesn’t require you to onboard anything particularly complicated in order to enjoy it, nor does it demand that you enroll in a masterclass in tower defense mechanics to grasp the basics or even obliterate your opponents. It’s simply the case of splurging a set amount of coins on traps and strategically allocating them on the battlefield, and then using a melee or ranged weapon to hold the line and annihilate hordes as they attempt to breach your barriers. Granted, it can be awfully stressful at times, and the latter stages of each battle can raise the stakes and make the act of defending your Rift feel deflating and overwhelming. Even still, with a ton of traps and defensive synergies to explore, the game does ensure that you always have a new tactic to trial. In other words, it has replay value — and that counts for a lot.

After each bout that you successfully quell in Orcs Must Die!, you have the opportunity to upgrade your traps and venture deep into higher class structures—launch pads, spring traps, volatile cesspits, spiked walls, and so on and so forth. And there’s a lot of items to experiment with here, truly, with several of its battlefields allowing you the freedom to create epic labyrinths and sprawling dungeons of fire and gunk, crossbow bolts and razor sharp ceilings. It’s chaotic, but that’s sort of what it strives for.

While the Orcs Must Die! saga might not be one of the most intense wartime affairs in the world, it is one that makes a good effort to substitute a lot of its shortcomings with a good selection of its own in-game elements, comical strands and vibrant audiovisual themes. The animations are smooth, the off-the-cuff dialogue is giggle-worthy at the very least, and the campaigns, in general, contain sizable collections of stages and grand-scale battles to sift through, as well as a huge variety of obtainable traps, weapons, and units. Granted, Orcs Must Die! isn’t the Belle of the tower defense-centric ball, but to give credit where it’s due, it does make for an incredibly fun experience.

Verdict

Orcs Must Die! takes the classic tower defense formula and transforms it into its own vibrant rift of bloodbaths and barbaric spoils, fast-paced thrills and nail-biting conditions, with its signature comical twist and candy-popping audiovisual elements providing an original incantation to shake up an otherwise familiar spell-binding experience. To call it the best of the bunch is a bit of a stretch. Though, to give credit where it’s due, it is a series that brings a lot of color, creativity and flamboyance to an otherwise dull and dreary format. And that counts for a lot, truly.

If you’re looking to sink your knuckles into a tower defense series that doesn’t take itself too seriously, then you might just be suited for the fiendish rifts of Orcs Must Die! and its comically righteous quarters. It’s a little different from your usual tower defense gig I’ll admit, but it’s also a lot of fun to chomp through, especially if you’re one for throwing caution to the wind and getting your hands a little dirty. It’s clean, brutish, and above all, an excellent alternative for a traditional wartime strategy sim.