Orcs Must Die! 3 Reviews

Never played these series before but I really enjoyed a simulator of killing r*s****s. At my 21st hour I think that there's a really small pool of usable traps but maybe I'm too noob to know about all trap combos.

Yes and yes, best game forever and ever.

simple, to the point, have fun shooting orcs, no non-sense mechanics.

This game has no stats anywhere. Would you like to know the relative merits of a sword vs. a staff vs. an axe? Too bad! There is no in-game mechanism to determine any damage values for any weapons, traps, how much damage you're dealing to enemies, etc. Due to this the game got stale extremely quickly.

[b] TLDR: [/b] if this game looks like something you might enjoy, I'm pretty sure you WILL enjoy it. just get it. first off, I have another roughly 90 more hours of this game on Epic and I own the dlcs but haven't played them yet (waiting on my friend). let's start with the bad! keep in mind this is a tower defense game, the difficulty scales over time, which means scaling quantity of the enemies as well as their health and move speed... and for some reason whenever there are too many enemies on screen (roughly 30 or so which is very low in the endless mode) the traps that function by targeting enemies just stop targeting enemies (for optimization reasons I guess, which is no excuse in this genre) which means all such traps stop functioning, making them completely useless in the situations when you need them most... meaning literally almost half the traps in the game are unusable if you're aiming for higher scores. what a joke. another issue is that some projectile based traps (ex. my favorite trap Arcane Dragons) get blocked due to some weird collision bug that randomly happens in the engine (I guess?) and this bug usually persists the whole run, also making this type of traps almost useless IF it happens (for reference there's like a 10% chance of that happening every 10 minutes of play). my next problem is with enemies that are completely IMMUNE to an element, which is annoying in itself but whatever - it forces you to change up your build and play around it... BUT why the FRICK are there only enemies immune to FIRE damage specifically? HUH? why do the devs only hate fire and not the other 5 or so elements in the game?? makes no sense bruh. (not counting the flying enemies from the extra campaign since you'll find out that you deal with those in a very different way than the typical enemies). enemy variety is pretty good otherwise. the last issue has to do with the level design - realistically the most important aspect of a tower defense game. the design itself is pretty good BUT there are areas and details in some maps which are very questionable at best. I would overlook it if this wasn't their third game with the exact same maps they've been recycling since OMD1, so I would have hoped they would refine at least the old ones over the course of 3 games, but apparently that's too much to expect. a neutral point worth mentioning is that the game can be played either solo or as 2 player co-op (2 players max). and listen, the game is at least 10x more difficult solo than it is in co-op. so if you want to 5 skull some of the harder maps on solo endless, you might be in for quite a challenge if you try to figure it out yourself. just saying for anyone who it might concern. okay on to glazing. right off the bat: [b] OMD3 is the most fun I've ever had in a co-op game, [/b] straight up. the core gameplay loop is very solid, the game overall plays super well, it feels and flows amazing. figuring out ways to beat the maps and figuring out the most efficient way of using one of your builds to its maximum potential in any given map in order to get the highest score you can in endless mode is incredibly satisfying and probably the most fun aspect in the game for me personally. the [b] gameplay balancing [/b] is pretty great for a game like this with so much variety and so many combos. there's obviously power gaps (especially in the endgame), some power-creeping and the targeting weapons only being usable early on etc... BUT trust me, with the build variety of OMD3, its balancing is honestly pretty impressive. the trap variety is decent enough that even if you were to remove all of the target-based traps (+Arcane Dragons) that stop functioning in harder levels, there are still quite a few ways to play the game. this is the reason I believe the issues mentioned above aren't game-breaking and the game is still good enough even in the worst case scenarios. one surprisingly well designed part is the [b] combat [/b] along with the weapon system associated with it and the characters (once you complete the campaign). in the campaign you only pick one of the 2 main OMD3 characters and you must use their default weapon (you can equip more weapons but you cannot de-equip the main one), which is limiting but kinda reasonable to prevent overwhelming new players. but after finishing the main campaign, you unlock ALL of the 6 characters (each with unique stats and passives) and you can use any combination of weapons on any character (or use no weapons at all). add a variety of trinkets (passive/active buff items) on top and you're able to make surprisingly cool and deep builds before even slotting any traps. the gameplay is mostly building the trap setups and passive trap combat, but I've been blown away by how fun the direct/active combat with your character is. essentially, both the passive and the active combat are actually good! there's a pretty big [b] progression [/b] aspect (outside of the map progression) and all I have to say about it is that it's decent. could be better but it could also be much worse. you use a currency - skulls, which is used to unlock pretty much everything power related in the game and also to unlock skins for your characters (each has at least one extra, some have up to 3 iirc). you get skulls from completing maps at the corresponding skull rating and enemies also randomly drop skulls (they can be farmed). the skull acquisition is basically perfect, but the way you spend the skulls is boring and a bit arbitrary. also the quest to max your trap/weap/trinket is kinda annoying imo. the skull economy balance feels good, you don't get skulls so fast to a point where it would be overwhelming or make you overpowered quickly, but it's not slow so no need to grind. AND the game has free rerolls - you can refund skulls from anything for free any time you're in the menu, so no pressure when upgrading a trap/weapon you might end up disliking. the [b] graphics [/b] are great, everything legitimately looks high quality. the animations are the highlight for me personally, every animation is smooth and crispy - especially the playable characters and their weapon movesets. but I understand the artstyle might be off-putting to some people. lastly the [b] worldbuilding, lore [/b] (no spoilers) and the tone - the most subjective section. I haven't played OMD1 nor OMD2, but I'm a lore nerd and I researched the storyline of the OMD franchise, so I have a decent idea about the overarching story anyway. that being said, this is very obviously not a story-heavy game as the main focus is absolutely the gameplay. there are several cutscenes and the characters comment on story developments with like 2 lines each new map, but that's it. still, just from the presentation and exposition I'd say the world of OMD is quite immersive. OMD3 has a simple storyline to keep you somewhat invested and slowly build your curiosity throughout without distracting much from the gameplay if you choose to ignore it altogether. don't expect a masterpiece but the lore of this game is so simple and so lighthearted that there's basically nothing to hate. one thing people may hate however, is the super lighthearted tone and the goofy humor - especially the mascot of the series (Max), who is basically a cartoon character. you can see the goofiness even in the enemy designs, so if you're looking for a serious adult game, then the OMD vibe will likely put you off. I personally didn't mind the humor apart from a few of Max's cringe "comedic" instances. overall I'd say the writing and worldbuilding approach of OMD is better than that of 90% of games (100% a hot take). all in all, (until they patch the bugs) Orcs Must Die 3 is not a great game but it is a good game and more importantly it is a fun game above all else - especially if you have a co-op partner to play with, then it just might be the best game.

I enjoyed the game! Sadly, it's only two player, but my one friend and I have fun and it's a fun waste of about 15-20 hours of your life.

I'm rating this up but i'd sooner rate it mixed if i could. The first campaign and story mode revolving around the two kids was fun for the most part. A distinct lack of flyers let the game focus on what it does well, tower defense and being able to fight alongside your defenses with much fun to be had with trap combinations. I especially love the new weapons added that give many varieities for attack. Hand Gatling feels alright but the Flamethrower is amazing for example (atleast until the fiend enemies). War Scenarios during the main campaign felt fun and different at first, but very slowly turned into a chore at the length of the missions, and the later ones not even using the war scenario traps, instead favoring indoor killboxes, making them into super ultra long and boring levels with nothing good to them. If the game kept fliers out and stopped after the main campaign, then it would've confidently been positive. However the post game and first DLC really hammered home why Fliers are the biggest ruiner of the OMD games, Traps never being good against them with a lack of placements, and just answers. Any of the seldom answers get countered because they send 5 different types of bats, each having elemental immunities making it impossible to let traps actually deal with them. Doesn't help that pathings for these fliers are usually annoying and out of the way, requiring you to hope your traps can handle orcs, but you can't watch them to see what's wrong because you're too busy dealing with fliers. The 3rd dlc has some unique enemies and the sort but ironic flier fatigue by that point has ruined the game, and losing 1 life to some random enemy who slipped by requiring a restart on the slower and longer maps feels awful. The game struggles with things that Dungeon Defenders 1 perfected years ago. This game is fine with a friend and can have some family guy funny moments if you wanna call them that, but otherwise stay away as a solo player.

I am still not sure whether (given the opportunity) I would rate this game as Negative or Neutral. For the first half of the main campaign, I had so much fun. After disappointing second game, this seemed like a real successor to the first game. It was on par with OMD1 and it had a chance to overcome it. But then came the second half of the main campaign which had problems that stayed even in DLCs. Namely: map design purposely done so that you can´t use barricades to combines lines into one; very little initial cash with cash rewards for killing and surviving waves being little too; unbalanced traps so that you are basically soft-forced to play with certain traps - or don´t, but then game becomes pretty difficult on mid difficulty and suddenly game´s focus shifts from traps to weapons because the non-meta traps are just so weak even when fully upgraded. I also think some enemies might be a bit too busted. I admit this might sound like a "skill issue" but then it would be nice if the game had any real accessibility options so that even noobs like me could properly enjoy it. As for the DLCs, I find "Cold as Eyes" to be pretty enjoyable. The second DLC (Tipping the Scales) was worse, one of the reasons being the last level which is just completely unfair (beucase of the reasons mentioned above). As for the story, I don´t know, I wasn´t really listening and I never really cared for the 2 new characters. And as for the co-op, I have nobody to play with but I suspect the game is more manageable this way. If I had a chance, I would play it with a friend because I think that would (at least of surface) eliminate the problems I have with the game. Overall, it´s a shame that after the very strong start, the game fell apart. I still had fun (if I didn´t, I would not unlock all levels) but the game just didn´t reach its potential. And given the state of OMD4 (Deathtrap), I think OMD1 will remain uncontested. 6/10

Impossible to play nowadays online. Bought to play with my son. Unfortunately, doesn´t work.

A good TPS/FPS game for the tons of headshots. Traps with slowdown and freeze effect are useful.