14 DAY TRIAL // Orcs Must Die is the peculiarly named first project from studio Robot Entertainment, made out of veterans from the long running Ensemble Studios group, which brought PC gamers the award winning Age of Empires franchise, not to mention the Halo Wars real time strategy title for the Xbox 360.
As you can tell by its name, the goal of the game is to kill Orcs, as the greenskins try to burst into a temple and players, controlling the young yet quite arrogant guardian apprentice, must stop them through direct combat as well as by laying traps and other Orc-killing devices.
So, does Robot Entertainment's first foray into gaming deliver a good mix between tower defense and hack and slash gameplay or should the Orcs desecrate it? Let's take a quick look at its demo on the PC.
Orcs Must Die begins, surprisingly, with a non-Orc death, as the master of a temple dies foolishly while trying to protect it from the Orcs. Now, players, who enter the armor and shoes of the young apprentice, need to take on this guardian role and prevent the legions of monsters from breaking in.
To do this, you have access to a spellbook filled with weapons and traps that you can employ to help you in your protection detail. These range from your ever trusty crossbow, good at long and medium range, especially if you let it cool down and become more precise, to a sword, great for when you're being swarmed by Orcs. Traps include things like spike or tar pits, not to mention arrow walls or the ever popular exploding barrels.
These aren't free, however, as the special abilities of your weapons are tied to a sort of mana gauge, while traps cost in-game points which you earn by … you guessed it, killing Orcs, earning kill multipliers and using traps effectively.
The greenskins come at you in waves, basically like in a tower defense title, following a certain path, which makes it important to carefully place your traps. You can easily sell them and place them in another, more advantageous spot, if your chosen strategy isn't paying off.
Needless to say, once the Orc horde starts rushing in, you'll have to deal with them through a more hands-on approach. As you'll be able to see right in the beginning of the gameplay video, I rushed right into the midst of Orcs, hoping to slay them like in the recent Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, but the greenskins immediately finished me off. As such, I advise you to keep your distance, use your crossbow and only jump in their midst when there aren't many left.
Overall, Orcs Must Die is an amazingly fun game, so you owe it to yourself to try it out whether it's on the Xbox 360 or on PC. Demos are available on both platforms, while a full version is already available on the Xbox 360. The PC edition is released on October 12.
Until then, have a look at a gameplay video from the demo below.
