Orcs Must Die! 3 - (PC) Steam EUROPE | NORTH AMERICA Digital Key
Orcs Must Die! 3 for PC is an action game heavily involving tower defence. The
game is the fourth in the Orcs Must Die! Series and is the direct sequel to Orcs
Must Die! 2, picking up the action 20 years after Orcs Must Die! 2 ends. The
full series is: Orcs Must Die!; Orcs Must Die! 2, Orcs Must Die: Unchained
(perhaps the least successful of the series), and now this one, which aims to
return the game to its heyday. And in that it succeeds nicely.
ABOUT THE GAME
You play the character of one of several apprentice mages, who are part of The
Order. The Order is a group of wizards and warriors who must use all the weapons
and special skills and traps they can to defeat the hordes of orcs that
endlessly try to access Rifts. Rifts are openings or portals between this (the
human) world and Dead World which is a source of magical energy upon which
wizards (and the general population ultimately) rely.
You must lay out a series of traps in your newly purchased dungeon (or a field,
if your fancy takes you that way), aiming to take out as many orcs as you can
with the traps. You are aided in this by the flow of ‘ghost orcs’ which show you
which way the real orcs will go when they arrive. This helps you to position the
traps, so you can aim them to an area where they will do the most damage.
But don’t make your traps too lethal! Not straight away at least. Getting the
orcs to trigger the whole series of traps boosts your combo points nicely and
the more traps they trigger, the better for your score card in the long run.
There is also a level of slapstick hilarity to the orcs triggering of the traps
– including overkill types like the brightly coloured acid geyser trap and the
saw blade launcher (which can be aimed once you learn the way the bouncing saw
blades will ricochet) – they are flung high in the air in a cartoonish way that
is quite blood-thirstily satisfying.
There is some good banter to be overheard between the war mages (of which one
tends to be obliviously daft, while the other one is sassy)!
Consideration must be given to the way you want to play as your trap inventory
and weapons inventory use up the same slots, so you have to choose what to take
with you and find the right balance between in person firepower and passive trap
setting.
THE NITTY GRITTY
Work through the original 18 levels of story mode, play in endless mode to see
how long you can last, or amuse yourself with the Weekly Challenges.
In this game, there is an oversized arena, where everything is scaled up to
war-like proportions – appropriately, it is called War Scenarios. You will face
up to 1,000 orcs advancing on you, use and fear immense siege weapons and
oversized traps (called War Machines) and generally see if you can cope with
everything being supersized! There are five maps set aside for War Scenarios.
Scramble is a new (semi rogue-like/ lite mode), which was released after the
main game’s release. It is a great way to challenge yourself as you must beat
five levels of increasing difficulty. As if that wasn’t hard enough, in between
levels, you will find yourself under attack, will lose random buffs and may even
find yourself being chased rather than needing to defend a Rift!
However, as much as you are dealt random active penalties, there are also new
and exciting buffs that boost your existing powers (aka random active bonuses).
Scramble only unlocks along with the second story campaign, after you have
progressed some way into the main game, so you will have to at least start the
main game.
Firing into the crowd is great fun, especially if you set yourself specific
targets, or you can use freeze bombs and knockbacks to take out swathes of orcs.
There is no real skill needed, just adrenaline boosting button mashing which is
really satisfying when you are in the mood for it.
Most orcs are green, and come in a range of sizes, but watch out for purple orcs
– these are Fire Fiends who are impervious to freezing and to flames. Another
nasty creature to look out for are gnoll hunters who would rather get hold of
you than get to the Rift.
As you play, aim for the perfect five-skull score on each map. Mix up your play
between traps and combat, letting the traps take out most orcs and then you take
care of the rest. The best way to play is with 2 players in co-operative mode,
as this allows you to tag team each other, and gives you two pairs of eyes and
hands – which can result in double the chance of success!
TRAPS, TRAPS, TRAPS
Types of traps to lay out follow. Remember, you get more points for more damage,
so avoid the high intensity quick kills in favour of lengthy drawn-out low
damage series of traps, boosting the yield for when you do dispatch them.
Arrow attacks – when the trap is triggered a flight of arrows fly out from the
walls
Spike pits – open up under the orcs’ feet
Shock traps – blitz the orcs with lightning/ electricity from above, this has
the cool effect of showing the orc’s skeleton while the blast
