Orc purge

Orcs. The go to bad guy for almost any sort of fantasy type adventure, these green-skinned bad boys and girls are back in the spotlight for Orcs Must Die 3! Recently freed from the exclusivity of Stadia this tower defense gem has come to other consoles and frankly shouldn’t be missed. As one who only knew of this series but had never experienced it before smashing some Orcs first hand in OMD3, I can say that this may be one of my top games of 2021.

The basic premise of the game has players playing as a hero, and they are defending against an onslaught of Orcs who will move from point A to B. Simple premise, but the fast and frantic gameplay that comes from this setup is pure joy. At the start of each level players are given time to run around and look at the environment, I cannot stress how important this is. Since I hadn’t played this before, I skipped this step and ended up playing catchup trying to cull the horde of orcs that were running wild in the castle. But if players play this game as it should be, once they get a feel for the area they will be able to deploy a wide array of traps and tactics. OMD 3 offers a wide assortment of nefarious devices to use to eliminate the orchish foes, some 60+ in fact. This includes old standbys like Spike Floors, Arrow Walls, and Tar traps, but if you want to get spicy, there is Launcher plates, Grinder Walls (makes a mess) and more.

MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, Stadia, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99

Some of the best fun is to be had when a cleverly crafted path of traps devolves into a free for all panic where players franticly try to put new traps down and kill as many orcs as possible with weapons, all while trying to protect the last 3 health points to the rift. While the hero has a health and mana bar, if they fall in combat (and you will) they will respawn at the rift. However, if players allow enough Orcs, Trolls, and those really fast rat things to deplete the rift to 0 then it’s game over. Luckily, players can pull some creatures off their pre-determined path by just the player’s very presence, which can help out in a pinch. For each orc put down, players will be awarded with the in-game currency. This is what is used to purchase new traps and doesn’t come with at level end. Players will want to spend every last cent they have to stop these Orcs, also when some traps aren’t working or I just plain misplaced them, I could sell those back and receive a full refund. This is a really nice touch and allowed me to play with more strategies and tactics without having to be punished for my creativity if it didn’t work out how I thought.

The main campaign will see players fight through about 18 levels but there is a side campaign entitled Drastic Steps that will add to the orc slaying. Each of the levels are split up into waves, these will get larger as they progress with the initial levels only having 5. At the outset of each, players will be allowed to choose which traps and weapons they want to use. They are limited to available slots in the hotbar, so they won’t be able to take the entire arsenal on missions. Which is a great way to force players into various strategies, but the levels they fight on won’t be made for certain death traps owned. So, don’t depend on just one type, get used to a variety of traps and spread the upgrade points around.

As players complete each level they will earn skulls, and these will be used to not only unlock weapons and traps but also upgrade them as well. Different traps have different upgrades once they have been used to kill a finite number of orcs. For instance, they can choose between lighting damage or arcane damage to the spike traps once they impale 100 orcs. The flexibility offered in the game is top notch, as players aren’t locked into any upgrade. They can switch between them as needed due to weaknesses in various enemies; players can even just refund all of your upgrade skulls and respec all of your traps if you want to.

Orcs Must Die 3 is quite the package, on Series X the game runs flawlessly at 4K 60FPS even with tons of Orcs, traps and the like littering the already beautiful levels. The game itself has tons of replay value built into it, the number of traps and tactics that can be used feels almost endless. In fact, Endless is one of the included game modes, as well as the afore mentioned Main Campaign and Drastic Steps but it’s the included Scramble mode that I think most people will find the real challenge. Just like the name implies, Scramble will assign a randomized set of tools to use. Each of these have various buffs/debuffs which will either make player’s life easier… or a living… well you know. Mercifully the game will allow rerolling items, but the risk vs reward that comes with that makes every chance a palm sweating moment, especially for those high score seekers.

This game works best in Co-Op; sadly, it doesn’t have a matchmaking feature so players will have to either get lucky and find a lobby or have some friends who can get into the game. While playing, there were very few issues with multiplayer, hiccups would occur when it came to currency not acting correctly and one of us got trapped in a loop of falling through the map but nothing that a reset couldn’t fix. The level of overall difficulty will be easier to manage when playing with a friend, as one may find the game at higher levels extremely hard alone.

There is lots to love about Orcs Must Die 3, from the cartoon colored levels to the depth of coming up with working strategies and tactics to cull the oncoming swarm. The combat is fast and frantic, and the weapon variety is plentiful and most of all fun. If I had to level a complaint at this game, it would be the announcer. The audio is passable for everything else but the lines that the announcer uses gets repetitive quite quickly. But even with that slight annoyance, the game as a whole is a triumph of sandbox fun. As tower defense games go, this should be the new gold standard as it’s chock full of strategy but levels that with being able to actually control your hero and let you go hands on with the action. Hopefully this one doesn’t get forgotten due to its exclusivity to Stadia because it will be a real shame if this is the last Orcs Must Die…especially since I am now a huge fan.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.