Orcs Must Die! 2

I'd been meaning to get Orcs Must Die! one for a while, when all of a sudden humble bundle had a sale that included both Orcs Must Die! and Orcs Must Die! 2. It was at point I pretty much decided to skip out on the first one and just go right into Orcs Must Die! 2, because it had achievements and the other one didn't. I know, I have problems.

Orcs Must Die! 2 is pretty much a tower defense game, much like Kingdom Rush. Its gimmick though is that you aren't an overlord looking down on the map, but a character on the field placing towers and fighting the waves with the towers as they come. The game was developed and published by Robot Entertainment exclusively on Windows.

Gameplay wise the tower defense aspect of the game is pretty uniform with other tower defense games, there is a nice variety of towers that are balanced fairly well with regard to their damage, range, price and utility overall in the various levels and map designs. I personally enjoyed the new addition or what I though was a new addition to the genre of actually having to fight the wave yourself with the towers. Being either the Warmage or the Sorceress and controlling them through that third person view as they fight and use special abilities to help clear the wave with the towers really added a new level of tension and fun to the game that I really enjoyed and I think makes it more engaging then the older tower defense game model.

With regard to the aesthetics of the game, I can pretty safely say that I really enjoyed it. The music is pretty forgettable but the art style the game has is quite fantastic in my opinion. I really enjoyed the whole cartoony style since it was combined with the pretty vicious effects of dismemberment, burning, freezing, smashing, exploding, petrifying, and just generally grizzly ends to make a very amusing and visceral game without being dark or disgusting. I personally feel this is what makes the games more replayable and more attractive at least for me compared to a game like Sanctum 2.

This might be due to the fact that I got the game on the cheap thanks to Humble Bundle, but I really liked the game and it was pretty spot on when it came to my expectations of the game. I will admit that there is limited replayability when it comes to the game, but there are a number of steps taken to actually improve on this. There is a weekly challenge that changes, there are various difficulty levels, multiple modes of gameplay, endless level mode and of course co-op play with a single friend. As a whole these factors really seal the deal for me, it a very cheap game that is fun to play, not to short and doesn't require you to tether yourself to computer to actually make progress in the game. I personally would really recommend the game, one because I want more people to play it and two because its actually a good game.