Orcs Must Die!

[Solly]

I've never really been a fan of Tower Defense games. Everything in the genre kind of blurs together for me, and the idea of having to protect a person or object from hordes of enemies is always a pain in the ass when practiced outside of the genre. Naturally, I didn't think a Tower Defense game would be for me, until I discovered "Orcs."

Filed under the Action Tower sub-genre, Orcs Must Die! is part tower-defense and strategy, part third-person shooter and action. You control the last War Mage and go around to various fortresses to protect "Rifts," the sources of all the world's magic, which double as gateways between the Orc and Human worlds, with the help of traps and magic weapons.

What OMD does differently than a lot of other Tower Defense games is that it puts the player right in the middle of the action, in a large 3D environment, so it never ends up feeling like busywork to me. There are a lot of traps to unlock and upgrade, a lot of weapons to master, and a lot of really creative ways to use them to kill monsters.

It's also got a sequel, which is even better. Orcs Must Die 2 features more traps, more weapons, more enemies, and another playable character with her own unique items. It's also got cooperative multiplayer, which is a lot of fun.

The first game is available on XBLA, but both games are on Steam.

Orcs Must Die on Steam.

Orcs Must Die 2 on Steam.

I reccomend trying them out, because they're a lot of fun. They both have demos, so you can see if you like it first. The first game feels like the more pure experience, but the second one wins out on content.

Anyone else here play?