The premise of all my game gem posts is to showcase games that you don't have time to play or may not have heard about, but still want to know why they're a great game. For the people at a stage in their life where they have enough money to buy games, but not enough time to play them.
This edition is a surprising favorite of mine, called Orcs Must Die 2. You may have heard of this game and thought it was a cheesy game, I know I did. I only downloaded it because it was recommended as a great co-op game. I live far away from my best friend, so it's our main method of communication.
Orcs Must Die 2 is a direct storyline sequel to the first game but has a cooperative mode for the storyline. It's the real story too, not some side story for 2 player mode. Orcs must die 1 is single-player only.
The premise of the game is a 3D tower defense, but you control a mage or sorcerer, who is the best defense, and it's inside different castles and other locations. You are an apprentice training how to keep the magic barrier in place to prevent otherworldly orcs and other nasty things from getting through to civilization. This gets broken, so you're tasked with setting up different traps to prevent them from reaching the portals.
The traps include spikes, springs, arrows, smashing things, repelling things, etc. Once you set them up, you "let" the orcs break-in. The effect is a very satisfying death count and refining the trap setting process to kill as much as you can is mentally stimulating. The ones that get through, you kill manually. You need the traps because you can't kill them all manually.
The two-player mode just doubles the fun. Both of you set up traps. You have a trap limit per level and person, both of you have your arsenal of weapons to use against the monsters, and both have a health limit. Talking via skype or other programs is ideal.
What makes the game fun?
It's a very comical game, as the main protagonist has a.....Ryan Reynolds like humor that's toned down? Or maybe a Shrek-like humor if that makes sense. The orcs also exaggerate their pain. So they're jumping on one leg after getting burned, or moan when they die. It's not Gears of War like violence.
It's a thinking game. You need to know what traps are best and where to put them. You have infinite time to plan your trap layout. There are also waves within each level, so you can reset the traps after you complete each wave of monsters. They show you which type of monsters will come out of the next wave, so you can adjust accordingly.
It's a progression game. You get to upgrade your weapons, traps, items to make you a better defender. These are points you earn from each level and you get to keep your upgrades for each level.
It has different levels of winning. If you let some monsters through, it's ok, you just won't get the highest score.
It's a suspenseful game. Seeing a monster take an alternate path and then running them down with arrows before they reach the portal is a wonderful, adrenaline rush. Or basically going full Legolas mode and trying to arrow a crowd of orcs because your trap setup is shit makes you laugh at yourself.
It has a lot of variety. You can install spring pads by a cliff and see an orc get bounced off into nothingness, or you can install coals on the ground and see them burn. You can spend more money installing a gigantic mace that annihilates a crowd of orcs or a big troll, or install 20 wall arrow deployers with sticky goo on the ground to makes them walk slower, to watch them shower in arrows.
Last, but not least - The gameplay mechanics are perfect. Gameplay is very important to me, more so than graphics. If a game is hard to control, or there's misalignment or lag, it's nearly a dealbreaker in itself (Dungeon Defenders is an example). This game has a perfect mouse response and it's needed.
The following video I found to be the best example of what gameplay is like, but watching the game is nowhere near what you feel playing that game. It would be like the difference between watching chess vs. playing it.
Lastly, yes Orcs Must Die 3 just came out and I'll play it soon. From what I read, they made it less about traps and more about you killing the orcs manually, which is the opposite direction I'd have hoped for.
Thanks for reading.
Previous Game Gem Posts
Minecraft Mod - Lord of the Rings - Full Recreation of Middle Earth (Game Gem #1)
@steveparma/minecraft-mod-lord-of-the-rings-full-recreation-of-middle-earth-game-gems-1
Minecraft Server - Uncensored Library- A library of censored information (Game Gem #2)
@steveparma/minecraft-mod-uncensored-full-recreation-of-middle-earth-game-gems-2
Minecraft Disneyland - Rebuilding An Entire Themepark 1:1 (game gem #3)
@steveparma/minecraft-disneyland-rebuilding-an-entire-themepark-1-1-game-gems-3
Factorio - An Extremely Addictive Logistics Game (game gem #4)
@steveparma/factorio-an-extremely-addictive-logistics
The only crypto based game that I'm involved in, besides Splinterlands of course.
@steveparma/crypto-staking-game-neko-inu-soft-release-in-usa