The reason why I lost interest so quickly probably has something to do with the fact that I never played Fortnite and don't understand why the millions of people that do play Fornite, play Fortnite.
I also could be completely wrong about my comparison between this game and Fornite. How would I know having never played Fortnite afterall.
So I started playing this because I am not really enjoying Dragon Age: The Veilguard because it just seems like a slog of walk here, talk to that person, solve this absurdly easy puzzle, get into a battle with creatures where the battle is going to be essentially exactly the same as all the other battles you have been of. Roll dodge your way through the entire battle, rinse, repeat. Not a fan you could say and the only reason I am still playing it is because I lack anything else to do. It's a shame that Diablo 4 couldn't hold my attention beyond 140 hours I guess.
Anyway! Orcs Must Die 3 is a tower defense game disguised as something that is a bit of an FPS game. You have to design traps for wave after wave of an oncoming Orc horde that is released upon your little hallways for a certain amount of waves and if you are successful, you win. Good times.
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You go through various stages that slowly introduce you to new enemies and traps that you have available to you and you are left to your own devices about which sort of traps you are going to have in your setup, it's all pretty straight-forward and easy to understand. The controls take a minute to fully grasp and especially during the active portions of the match where enemies are coming and you are still trying to work out how to actually place a trap can be a bit frustrating. You'll figure it out though, it's not rocket science.
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I only had a few traps at my disposal and more are introduced to you as you progress further into the game. Some of the traps look like they could be pretty cool and I think it should be quite obvious that the more expensive the traps are, the more effective they are going to be. At first you really only have the money to release a bunch of floor spikes and just like all the ranking systems online indicate, these things should be gotten away from as soon as possible. They just don't do enough damage and take too long to recharge.
Unlike real tower defense games, you are also running around and shooting and throwing grenades at the upcoming horde but since you take damage as well you can't really do this on your own the entire time. You need the traps.
Placement is important and a bit later on you are dealing with the same trick they use in every tower-defense game I have ever played in that the enemies are going to come at you from multiple directions or gates during each level.
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THere is no one way to complete a level and just like with anything online there is a community of very self-assured individuals that have spent a lot more time on this than I have that have determined the best possible loadout of traps in certain chokepoints that will optimize your defenses. I'm not that kind of gamer and mostly throw my traps out there willy-nilly and then just get to chucking grenades and green things.
This was fun for a bit but in the end I just didn't find the gameplay to be engaging enough for me to really care after about 90 minutes. Sure,you can upgrade your traps and your handheld weapons but to what end? So you can run the same basement looking dungeons again but this time, with greater efficiency? I just dont' really consider something like this to be very fun for very long.
It becomes a bit more irksome for me after I start to feel as though this is a game that would have been much better with a mouse and keyboard, which is often the case with tower defense games, even if they are not calling it that.
There is a multiplayer that I didn't play as well as couch co-op but since I rarely allow anyone into my apartment that doesn't have a warrant, we will never know what that side of things is like.
In the end I just don't feel as though this game, which looks good and is easy to understand, has enough to offer to hold anyone's attention for very long. I tapped out after about 2 hours and have no intention of going back. It was free, so I don't really have any complaints. If I had paid for it though, I think I would be pissed.