Orcs Must Die! – Review – Xbox 360 (XBLA)

Orcs don’t deserve to live. More appropriately they deserve to die. To be gibbed about in amazing fashion. So batten down the hatches, place some traps, grab some reinforcements, and prepare to destroy endless hordes of the creatures.

Story: Orcs Must Die! leaves you as the nooby apprentice who takes over after his master suffers an ill-timed death. Leaving you and you alone to take his place and master the art that is defending the rift from impending hordes of orcs.

Gameplay: The game presents you with different levels, traps, and weapons as you advance, each making the game play a little differently each time. Each level lets you select a certain amount of weapons and traps before beginning so you can make your own strategy each time. It’s not long before things start to get crazy and orcs seemingly come out of the woodworks as you struggle to corral them to their own doom. It’s a lot harder than it sounds; not even a third of the way through the game I found myself stuck for an hour or so on just one level. Frustrating at times, yes, but more often rewarding as tens of orcs are gibbed in amazing fashion over and over. The sense of accomplishment and awe when you have a part of the level where everything dies is one that will be felt often and is really the driving force behind the game.

Each trap is certainly unique as the developers came up with a ton of ways to kill orcs. From the awesome wall blades and arrow walls to the obscene steam traps, the game gives you a ton of ways to destroy the horde.

Graphics/Audio: Orcs Must Die! looks good for an arcade game, but it’s at its best when the body parts are flying. The dialogue isn’t afraid to be cheesy but it’s not like it’s heard very often.

Multiplayer: There is no multiplayer outside of Leaderboards. However, those are often all a game needs to become addicting. Finding one of the millions of ways to beat a friend can be frustrating and compelling.

Overall: Orcs really offers a lot for its price. For 1200 Microsoft Points ($15), you get to be witness to the death of an entire horde of orcs and their brethren. Differing strategies offer a ton of replayability as you strive to destroy your friends scores.

Pros:

• Lots of orcs to kill.
• Lots of ways to kill said orcs.
• The amazing feeling when everything works right.

Cons:

• Can be frustrating at time.
• Maybe a little too large of a difficulty curve.

Score: 9.0/10

A copy of this game was provided by the developer for reviewing purposes.

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