Orcs Must Die! 2 Review
Review by Game Informer(9.25/10 – Gold)
This is what last fall’s Orcs Must Die would have been in a perfect world. Orcs Must Die 2 is the same game, but the vastly greater breadth of the experience makes the original look like a demo. You’re still combining direct combat with deadly traps to slaughter wave after wave of barbarous monsters before they reach their goal, but the additions of another playable character, cooperative play, several traps and weapons, and a handful of enemies unleash players’ murderous creativity.
The straightforward application of spike traps, acid sprayers, shotguns, and bladestaffs to squishy orc bodies is more than sufficient at first. Once its basic tower defense-style concepts are established, Orcs Must Die 2 wastes no time in presenting new looks to the player. Multiple paths, spawn points, and goals force you to dash between areas, often fighting a desperate battle to wipe out one band of enemies so you can beat feet to the next trouble spot. New enemies shrug off old strategies, as fliers float over your carefully constructed defenses and hulking ogres casually stroll through horrific gauntlets before bashing your face in with a giant club. Constant re-evaluation of your tactics and loadouts is necessary to progress, much less achieve top rankings for each level – not only giving you leaderboard bragging rights, but also skulls to buy upgrades for your arsenal.
Review by The Escapist (4.5/5)
Not that a lot of people played the original Orcs Must Die for its story, but it was a quirky and fun little layer to give context for all the Rube Goldberg-esque orc genocide. Orcs Must Die 2 picks up shortly after the ending of the first. Magic has left the world leading to all kinds of problems for a society that was depending on it for everyday life, like to control the weather for crop growth and cure disease. However, a twist that I won’t spoil restarts the rifts, which in turn means the apprentice War Mage from the first game, and a new unexpected ally, must once again hold back the green-skinned tide of destruction. While that certainly sounds dire, the presentation still maintains the light-hearted nature of the first.
Review by G4TV (3.5/5)
At its core, Orcs Must Die! 2 is a tower defense arcade game focused on the destruction of thousands of orcs. Yet even in the game’s new story mode, there’s no explanation of why you’re killing the orcs other than to make sure they don’t enter the magical blue Rifts to destroy other worlds. I guess when you title your game Orcs Must Die! 2 there isn’t much need for an explanation.
In order to defend the Rifts this time around you can either play as the War Mage from the first game, or as a brand new character, the Sorceress, who focuses on long-range attacks and has more magic capacity than the War Mage. Each level is different in design, but the task you’re faced with is the same: use the landscape you’re thrown into to set traps and kill as many waves of orcs as fast as possible before they reach the Rifts. It seems, just as was the case with the first game, storytelling definitely took a backseat to gameplay in Orcs Must Die! 2. Any sort of story you get is basically a narrated screenshot and then throughout the dungeons the characters will chit-chat with one another, even if you’re playing single player.
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