Orcs Must Die 2 Review

While all of these additions are good, the core gameplay of Orcs 2 remains mostly unchanged from the original. The third-person combat is somewhat more diverse than in the original game, but it remains rather unsatisfying and can become tedious when dealing with large hordes of low-level Orcs. Enemy variety is one area that Orcs 2 has seen improvement, with some damage sponges, one enemy that regenerates health, and another that breaks apart into smaller versions of itself when you kill it. The different enemies that must be managed in different ways can lead to some tense moments of trying to deal with multiple tough Orcs moving toward the rift. The excitement however comes from preventing enemy Orcs from passing, not actually shooting them.

The levels themselves are deviously crafted and are clearly designed around co-op play. I was able to work my way through the game playing solo, but many levels have two main branches coming at the rift from opposite directions that beg for two players. The teleporters from the first game return once you get further in and these allow you to quickly jump across the map to deal with incoming hordes, but later levels become quite difficult and very frantic as you run around trying to deal with the most pressing threat that has managed to slip past your traps. The addition of environmental traps is sometimes helpful, but often it is more effective to simply shoot the Orcs rather than trying to trigger them. Lowering the difficulty to apprentice removes not only some but all of the challenge, while the default difficulty makes for a very stiff challenge in the later levels. Near the end I found myself having to repeat levels multiple times until I was able to memorize which enemies would show up in which waves and which paths they would take in order to effectively place traps.

If you play through the game with a friend, the experience improves significantly. While being able to cover both sides of the rift at the same time makes for a slightly less frantic experience, the number of enemies thrown at you in co-op is increased dramatically, making careful trap placement and skillful use of weapons and abilities a must. Orcs Must Die 2 was clearly designed with co-op play in mind, from the levels to the character abilities, and the character building and trap-upgrading aspects, multiple difficulty levels and endless mode make for excellent replayability. There is more than enough content here to justify the 15 dollar price tag.

Orcs Must Die 2 retains the cartoony look of its predecessor with cell-shaded visuals lacking in fine detail but going along with the goofy vibe of the setting and story. As far as this style of visuals go, Orcs 2 looks rather washed out and lacks colour, meaning the aesthetic is merely serviceable. The audio is of comparable mediocrity, with raunchy music setting the light mood for Orc killing and sound effects lacking punch. The up side to the basic visuals is that Orcs 2 runs very well on outdated hardware, with my mid range two-year old laptop (Intel i5-2410m @2.3ghz; 6gb ddr3 RAM; GT540m GPU; Win 7 64 home premium) easily running the game on the highest detail settings with only minor slowdowns near the end of some of the later levels.

Orcs Must Die 2 is a successful sequel and tower defense game that has some very good replay value thanks to well designed maps, two-player co-op and more traps and character options than can be explored in a single run through of the fifteen levels. The third person action still lacks impact, but the great enemy variety makes for lots of frantic gameplay with Orcs flying in all directions. For fifteen dollars, Orcs Must Die 2 is a decent choice for those looking for a fast-paced and challenging tower defense game that can be enjoyed with a friend.