Tower defense games are fun, and so is killing hordes of orcs. If you combine the two you get Robot Entertainment’s game series, Orcs Must Die! a fun twist on the team-defense genre. Robot Entertainment was awesome and sent me a copy of the fifth installment to the game series, Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap.
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap continues the story of the game’s series where our playable heroes, known as the War Mages, defend rifts that lead into peaceful worlds from hoards of Orcs and their monstrous allies who attack in waves but are stopped by the War Mages and the deadly traps they leave for them!
Now, onto the game itself! When it comes to the controls for Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is surprisingly natural to take up if it’s your first time playing the game, and according to the tutorial (from my understanding) the controls are the same as they were in past games of the series. Also, it helps when on screen it shows what buttons you should press and for what, which helps as you learn the game.
When it comes to sound, it’s great! The sound design is good, the voice acting is amazing, and I love hearing the Orcs’ banter. If you listen closely, you’ll hear some funny lines of dialogue! I love the art of the game with its cartoonish/fantasy look that also gets slightly gory at times.
When it comes to gameplay, you have six War Mages to choose from (you can unlock a 7th by finding crystal-looking pieces in the main hub). Each character is a different class and has a set of skills that they can bring to the table (if you’re playing co-op), some War Mages are better suited for certain levels but thankfully any updates you have to make for a mage are not necessarily just for that one mage, it’s for all, so any upgrades you made to one character will carry over to the others.
At the start of each level, you can lay traps and follow the projected path the Orcs will be traveling, and when the round starts you can join in on the mayhem and attack enemies as well as letting your traps do some work too. Each level has its own challenges as you try to complete them to reach a level where you can fight a boss. The game can be played solo or co-op, and the difficulty matches the number of players, don’t worry, single player is no walk in the park but it’s still quite fun to play!
Overall, I love Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap, the cartoonish but mature look, the fun dialogue, the challenging gameplay that’s rewarding and won’t cost you real-world money (just Orc skulls). With different characters to choose from, and different traps to unlock and use, you can spend a slow afternoon on this game and feel pretty good afterward. If you like defense games that you can play with your friends or by yourself, orc slaying, and all-around fun fantasy to take your mind off things, Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is for you!
On my scale of 1-10, I give this a 9.5 as though the game from my experience is nearly flawless and fun, I feel for single player, it could use the option to have Bot teammates so you can up the difficulty lightly OR to allow you the chance to advance even more.
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is available NOW for PC and Xbox X/S.
