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Review: Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap

7/10

Summary

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap challenges you and up to three other players to fend off relentless waves of orcs. With a variety of traps at your disposal, you can devise creative strategies and work together to take them down. While the cooperative gameplay is engaging, it can become repetitive over time and isn’t well-suited for solo play. To fully enjoy the experience, you’ll need friends who appreciate tower defense games.

Developer – Robot Entertainment

Publisher – Robot Entertainment

Platforms – PC (reviewed), Xbox Series X|S

Review copy given by Developer

In a world where magic is vital to survival, it’s coveted by beings who plan to use magic in nefarious ways. Various realms are being invaded by orcs and it’s up to you to stop them. Previous orc invasions have cost them their powerful and unifying leader, splitting orcs into factions. You must fight the leaders of these factions and ensure the realms don’t fall victim to the orcs. Thanks to the power of trap technology, stopping the orcs is a real possibility.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap brings the fury of the orcs against calculated tower defense. A team of up to four players must set traps and stop the orcs from destroying a magical rift. By ensuring you set up barricades and traps in the proper way, you can stop most of the orcs from coming through. Any stragglers will be stopped by the heroes setting the traps, using a variety of unique abilities. Or the stragglers eventually turn into a horde, overpowering you and destroying the rift.

Every player has access to a hero with unique advantages. Everyone’s traps will be the same allowing you to plan and coordinate different formations. The orcs will come from several directions with more entrances opening up as the waves go by. You must continue to prepare every wave as the hordes gradually grow in strength and number. While it is possible to play on your own, playing with friends helps you handle tougher waves.

Every time you select a map, you choose a modifier that makes your game tougher. However, this is balanced by choosing a boon between enemy waves. The modifier and boons are different with every playthrough, providing some variety between games. What you choose depends on your short-term needs and what synergizes with your strategy. Both modifiers and boons carry over to new maps until the game ends, forcing you to be selective.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap encourages coordination and teamwork, making it a great multiplayer game. Even if you are playing solo, you can practice trap formations or test new strategies. Everyone works with the same resources and map layouts, with players choosing what traps they will use. Fortunately, even the standard set of traps everyone starts with is useful for high-level play. This allows beginners to play along with veterans and contribute equally.

Unfortunately, it’s not easy for beginners to dive into a game and start playing. Traps do not come with explanations forcing you to hope for the best. While you can view the explanations outside of combat, it’s not intuitive. There are also no sample demonstrations of traps, forcing you to guess and hope for the best. While learning is part of the fun and you will make mistakes, not having more tutorials hurts newer players.

The gameplay also becomes repetitive after a while making it difficult to retain interest. While you do have goals like unlocking new traps and upgrades, it’s a long process to get them all. That also means slogging through countless waves with friends just to get what you want. You can progress through the story if you like but it’s tough without allies. If your friends can’t maintain interest, playing the game solo may be too much for some players.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is fun to play and gives you a good tower defense fix if you are looking for one. It’s great to play with friends though if you are new to the series, you must spend time learning how to play. Gameplay can also get repetitive if you play too frequently and there’s not much to aim for. This is a good game for people who love the series or want some good tower defense games. If you don’t fall into either category, this game won’t be a good fit.

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