E3: Orcs Must Die! Hands-On Preview

When I first saw Orcs Must Die! the graphics reminded me a little bit of World of Warcraft, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I knew I had to get my hands on this game during E3. And boy, am I glad I did. For me, this game actually turned out to be one of the better surprises of the show as I found myself wanting to go back and play more. It provides a nice mix of strategy, action and a bit of humor, all thrown together for you to casually enjoy (and blow off some steam) after getting home from work or school.

First, let’s talk about the game itself. Orcs Must Die! is a tower-defense game, but with a spin. Instead of your typical top-down view, you are actually right in the middle of the action. Your goal is to kill wave after wave of Orcs as they assault your fortress and try to get to the Rift. If enough Orcs get through you lose. If you manage to successfully survive the waves, you win. It’s as simple as that. Orcs Must Die! delivers a vibrant place for you to strategize, plan, kill and watch the carnage unfold. At E3 I had a chance to play 3 levels on the PC, which varied in the degree of difficulty.

I loaded up “The Corner” to get myself started. The game begins with the Orcs pounding on the entrance door, trying to get into your fortress. Don’t worry though, the “invasion” won’t start until you have placed all of your traps and are ready for action. You first step is to put together your load-out for this level which consists of various traps and spells that will be at your disposal. Keep in mind though that once you’ve made your selection it’s locked in for the entire level, so choose wisely. It helps to first run around the level a bit and get accustomed to your surroundings in order to help you decide on the best strategy, traps and spells to use.

In “The Corner”, I had a choice of equipping different traps which included floor spikes, wall-type traps which either chop up Orcs to bits or shoot arrows out as they pass by, and tar pits that can be placed on the ground to slow Orcs down. There is also a handy explosive barrel for you use to take out groups of Orcs, but it’s a one-time use item and has to be replaced after blown up. As you select your traps and spells through the Spellbook, you can also get an idea of what kind of enemies you’ll be facing during this level. In “The Corner” I was expected to ward off some Orc Warriors and Crossbow Orcs (long-range class), but other levels will feature flying units, fast runners, heavy armor Orcs and big, mean Ogres which can take on loads of damage and provide you with a real challenge.

Once you are happy with your selections, you can lock them in by closing the Spellbook and begin placing your traps throughout the level. How you place the traps is completely up to you. Blue colored light rays, streak through the level and alert you as to which path the Orcs will take; this will help you set up traps in the right areas. Each trap will also display an indicator showing where it can be placed and what kind of area coverage it will provide. It’s also important for you to observe the environment as various elements within the level can also be used to ward off the enemy. For example, you can shoot a chandelier which will fall down to the ground, killing any Orcs that happen to be underneath it.

In order to keep the game balanced, you’ll start off with a preset amount of cash in your budget and each trap will cost you a little money. You must plan carefully as you purchase and place your traps to make sure that they are as effective as possible. As you play the game and take down wave after wave of Orcs, you’ll gain some extra money to buy and place additional traps. Or if you find a trap isn’t working as you thought it would, you can sell it for a full refund.

Now that your traps are in place, you’re ready for the invasion to begin and the game will change more towards an action-style type of gameplay. The first wave of Orcs begins rushing in and if you placed your traps correctly, get ready to witness some amazing carnage. This is where it gets a bit humorous. Orcs get chopped up to bits, shot at, heck they can even be launched into mid air if you placed the special “launch traps” around on the floor. I got in a few good laughs on this part of the game. And while the Orcs get slaughtered, there is no need to worry about being hurt by your own traps as they do no damage to you (except for the explosive barrel, that one will hurt you if you are near it when it goes off).

One thing of note is that your traps do have a brief cooldown period, so some Orcs will make it through without being killed and that’s where the action comes in. Now, it’s up to you to chase them down and kill them either with your long-range weapon, a crossbow, (Headshot!) or grab a melee weapon for close-up combat. Whichever option you choose, just stop them from reaching the Rift. Keep your eyes on your health, especially in close combat. But if you get hurt, you can always head to the Rift to heal yourself, or pick up a potion should one of the Orcs drop it. If you die, 5 Rift points will be taken off your score, but you respawn instantly and can get right back into combat.

Wave after wave of Orcs will come. There is a short break in between each wave, allowing you a few seconds to heal up, and place some more new traps with the extra money you’ve earned. Sometimes you’ll get whats called a “Go Break”, this will actually pause the Orc invasion until you are ready to start the next wave. Here you get fully healed, gain extra cash and most importantly, you get time to refine your traps and place new ones at your own pace. I thought this was a nice game mechanic which pulls you from the action-mode you’re in and puts you back into strategy-mode again, allowing you to make any necessary strategic changes based on the results you’ve achieved so far. In order to assist you with your decisions, the mini-map will provide a heatmap showing you which of your traps are effective and where the Orcs are able to get by without a problem.

In addition to the traps, there are also spells you can use to assist in dealing with the Orcs. These spells use up your mana (but it will automatically regenerate) and they will allow you to stun, freeze, set Orcs on fire, blow them away and more. Some levels will also feature tools such as a turret to help you deal some extra damage and take down more powerful Orcs like the Ogre type.

Once you have survived all of the waves, or enough Orcs got into the Rift (each escaped Orc will equal 1 Rift point off your score), or if you die enough times, the game is over. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with Orcs Must Die! There are many different approaches to each level: you can build an elaborate, strategic maze of traps and hunt down the Orcs that get through it, or go in “guns blazing” so to speak and try to kill as many as you can, letting the traps finish off the rest. Whatever you decide to do, that’s ultimately your choice.

Orcs Must Die! is scheduled to come out as single player downloadable title towards the end of Summer 2011 on PC and major consoles. Whether we’ll see a multiplayer version or a DLC, time will tell (no solid plans at the moment, say the developers). But for now, it seems like this fun, strategically action-packed and very colorful title is shaping up quite nicely and I can’t wait to get my hands on the full version once its released. Because after all… Orcs Must Die!