''Orcs Must Die!'' is an
action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
-
tower defense
Tower defense (TD) is a subgenre of strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usually achieved by placing defensive struc ...
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
developed and published by
Robot Entertainment
Robot Entertainment is an American video game development and publishing company created by the founders of the defunct Ensemble Studios, after being shut down by Microsoft. Other members of the company founded another studio, Bonfire Studios. Ro ...
and Mastertronic. It is a tower defense game that eschews the traditional top-down view of similar games, instead using a third-person action-oriented viewpoint. After being demonstrated at
Penny Arcade Expo
PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX w ...
East 2011, the game was released via
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...
on October 5, 2011, and for
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
PCs on October 12, 2011.
Gameplay
''Orcs Must Die!'' is a variant of a
tower defense
Tower defense (TD) is a subgenre of strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usually achieved by placing defensive struc ...
game; the player as the War Mage must defend one or more Rifts on each level from an onslaught of orcs and other creatures that emerge from one or more entrances and traverse the level. Generally, each orc that reaches a Rift deducts a point from the starting Rift Score while specialized orcs may take off more points; if the Rift Score drops to zero, the level is lost and the player will have to start again.
The orc armies arrive in increasingly more difficult waves, with each level having between four and twelve waves. In general, waves will begin a few seconds after the player defeats the prior one, but roughly every three waves on all bar Nightmare difficulty, the player is given a break where they can set up traps and initiate the next wave when they are ready.
As the War Mage, the player has the ability to place numerous traps and arm themselves with weapons and equipment to defeat the orcs. The player selects a number of traps and equipment (up to ten) from their current Spellbook; once the player starts placing traps they will be bound to this selection. Traps can be placed on any appropriate surface, but each trap costs in-game currency to place, and traps will have variable costs based on their effectiveness. Traps typically work once and then have a reset period before they will activate again. Such traps include floor, wall, and ceiling traps, and several Guardians that will act on their own accord. The player is given an amount of money to spend on trap placement at the start, and earns more by defeating the orcs and after completing waves; money can also be dropped by certain monsters that must be collected by the player. Traps can be placed at any time, including in combat, and between waves, placed traps can be removed and refunded for their cost. Later, the player gains access to Weavers, who for various costs can boost certain effects on the player or traps placed in the manner of a
technology tree
In strategy games, a technology, tech, or research tree is a hierarchical visual representation of the possible sequences of upgrades a player can take (most often through the act of research). Because these trees are technically directed and ac ...
; these effects only last for that level.
Once the player initiates a wave, they can run about the level to participate in combat or place additional traps. The player must watch their health and mana used for their weapons but orcs may drop health and mana potions that will replenish these; alternatively the player can heal while in proximity of the Rift. If the player should lose all their health or fall off the level, they will respawn back at the Rift but this will cost them a number of Rift Points.
After defeating the last wave, the player is awarded a number of skulls, up to 5 (or on Apprentice difficulty, limited to two), based on their score (reflecting how many Rift points remain) and the time needed to defeat all the waves. Skulls are used to buy improvements to traps and weapons in the player's spellbook, such as increasing damage, reducing cost, or making them more effective against the orcs. The player, after completing each level the first time, is also rewarded with a new trap type for their Spellbook they can use in subsequent levels. These improvements remain with the player, so that they may return to earlier levels with these improved traps to earn more skulls.
Plot
The story revolves around the Order, an elite faction of wizards and warriors who guard the Rifts, magical openings between the human world and the 'Dead World', which provide a source of magical power throughout both worlds. Using this power, the Order is able to maintain a perfect world for humanity by using magic to manipulate nature. In order to protect the human world, they have constructed magic-powered fortresses throughout the Dead World to guard the Rifts, particularly from the adversarial faction known as 'the Mob' - a brutish horde of creatures such as
Orc
An Orc (or Ork) is a fictional humanoid monster like a goblin. Orcs were brought into modern usage by the fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially '' The Lord of the Rings''. In Tolkien's works, Orcs are a brutish, aggressive, ugl ...
s,
Ogre
An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a legendary monster depicted as a large, hideous, man-like being that eats ordinary human beings, especially infants and children. Ogres frequently feature in mythology, folklore, and fiction throughout the world ...
s and
Gnolls which, despite being unintelligent, would otherwise pose a major threat to the human world due to their vast numbers.
After a surprise attack by the Mob, the
player character, known only as the Hero (voiced by Rob McCollum), finds himself as the last living member of the Order, as the Mob appears to have suddenly obtained a surge in both strength and intelligence. Taking it upon himself to defend the human world, he defends the fortresses from the Mob one by one (much to the bewilderment of his teacher, who narrates the storyline). The Hero eventually learns that the Mob has been empowered by the Sorceress (voiced by
Colleen Clinkenbeard), a past student of the Order who, despite showing overwhelming potential to help defend humanity, instead chose to seek power for herself and used magic to seize control of the Mob.
As the Mob's attacks become more and more aggressive, the Hero eventually chooses to ensure the safety of the human world by stepping back through a Rift and closing them all forever by means of a simple spell. Although this means that the Mob can never reach the human world, it also means that humanity is no longer able to use magic to sustain itself, and the whole world, which has become dependent on magic, begins to deteriorate. In the Dead World, the Sorceress is rendered powerless as the Rifts can no longer provide her with magic, and she is left at the mercy of the Mob, who have been reduced to their original, savage state.
Development and release
Reception
The game received "favorable" reviews on both platforms according to the
review aggregation
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
.
''
Joystiq
''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG ''Wor ...
'' called the Xbox 360 version a "finely-tuned whirling chamber of death".
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
praised the length of the campaign as well as the combat system.
It sold over 50,000 units on Xbox and substantially more on PC.
Sequels
''Orcs Must Die! 2'' was announced by
Robot Entertainment
Robot Entertainment is an American video game development and publishing company created by the founders of the defunct Ensemble Studios, after being shut down by Microsoft. Other members of the company founded another studio, Bonfire Studios. Ro ...
on April 2, 2012 and released on July 30, 2012. The sequel includes two-player co-op with the introduction of the Sorceress in a playable role. ''Orcs Must Die! Unchained'', the third game in the series, initially released as a beta version in 2014, was released on April 18, 2017 for the Windows platform, while the PlayStation 4 version was released on July 18, 2017. It was released under a
free-to-play
Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...
model.
''Orcs Must Die! 3'' was announced during a
Stadia
Stadia may refer to:
* One of the plurals of stadium, along with "stadiums"
* The plural of stadion, an ancient Greek unit of distance, which equals to 600 Greek feet (''podes'').
* Stadia (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, now in Turkey
* Stadi ...
connect on August 19, 2019. It released on Stadia with single-player and two-player co-op on July 14, 2020 as a
timed exclusive
This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players.
0–9
A
...
.
Robot Entertainment has not yet announced when it will launch on other platforms. Unlike previous games, which generally had a dungeon and
Tower Defense
Tower defense (TD) is a subgenre of strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usually achieved by placing defensive struc ...
design with limited pathways for enemies to attack from, ''Orcs Must Die! 3'' features larger, open battlefields in a feature called "War Scenarios.
References
External links
Official website*
{{Authority control
2011 video games
Fantasy video games
Microsoft games
Tower defense video games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games with expansion packs
Windows games
Xbox 360 Live Arcade games
Mastertronic games
Orcs in popular culture
D.I.C.E. Award for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year winners
Robot Entertainment games