Overview
With a redesigned spellbook, players have a broader range of options to build a deadly arsenal of defenses. Investing hard-earned skulls allows players to cater to their favorite methods of burning, grinding, tossing, or dismembering orcs. Orcs Must Die! 2 begins days after the ending of the original game. With the rifts closed and the magical Order dead, the War Mage finds himself suddenly thrust into a new battle against the mindless orc mob. He has a powerful, if questionable, new companion. The Sorceress, an ex-War Mage responsible for the destruction of the Order.
The Elemental Tetrad
MECHANICS
Like its predecessor, Orcs Must Die! 2 is a variation on a tower defense game. As either the War Mage or Sorceress in the campaign mode, the player must attempt to defend Riftsfrom an onslaught of orc armies that emerge from one or more doors in a given level. The orc armies arrive in waves, between which the player is given time to recover and place additional traps.
To defeat the orcs, the player selects a number of traps, spells, and equipment from their Spellbook . Placing traps can be done at any time, but costs a certain amount of in-game currency to do so; this money is either given at the start of the level and as bonuses between level, for killing orcs, or as coins that can be picked up by the player. The player can also fight directly using weapons from their Spellbook.
Every orc that makes it through the player’s traps to a Rift will cost a number of Rift points. If the Rift points drop to zero, the level is considered lost and the player will have to start again. Otherwise, if the player successfully completes the level, they are awarded a number of skulls. Skulls are used to improve traps and equipment that will permanently remain with that player, allowing players to return to earlier levels with improved traps and equipment as to improve their score.
The game includes a cooperative mode, where one player plays as the War Mage and the other as the Sorceress; within the campaign, the two characters gain traps and equipment in different order as rewards for completing levels
The game has a new storyline (this is not important) and a new game mode (this is important). The two characters correspond to different weapons and traps.
There are more than 20 different orcs, so you need the help of a good friend urgently at this time. The endless mode can be unlocked after clearing a map, which greatly enriches the playability of the game after the introduction of the cooperative mode. The hell difficulty will be unlocked after the default difficulty is cleared. It is estimated that the assistance of good friends is needed at this time.
Compared with its predecessor, the second generation greatly enriches the unlockable weapons and traps (more than 50 types). Each weapon and trap has three different upgrade schemes (more than 225 types), and each scheme has multiple levels. Enriched the game content, as can be seen from the skill book, the upgradeable items in the game are divided into 4 categories: traps, weapons, accessories, and clothing.
This classification is more intimate and easy to manage. Like the previous game, players need to obtain skeletons from battles, and then unlock and upgrade more powerful equipment. It also makes game skeletons more scarce. From this point of view, the sincerity of the game producer is still very obvious.
At the same time, there has been a small change in the way skeletons are obtained in the game. In the previous game, the number of skeletons for clearing the level is only related to the number of orcs released when the level is cleared and the time for clearing the level. There are at most 5 skeletons in each level. Now not only can you get the basic 5 skeletons for each level, but you can also get extra skeleton rewards, and you can also brush skeletons as much as you want in the endless mode.
STORY
The game takes place a few days after the events of Orcs Must Die! The Sorceress is hiding from The Mob when mysteriously, a Rift opens next to her. She steps through, and finds herself in the Dwarven Mines, right in front of The War Mage. She enlists his help in fighting off the Orcs. The two discover that more and more rifts are opening in different locations. They decide to enter the rift and return to the Dead World.
It is revealed that the War Mage’s master had not died; he was still alive, and had opened a small weak rift to allow the Sorceress to escape and battle the Mob together. After the War Mage and the Sorceress begin to communicate with their master, he explains that he started to open the Rifts again because the world beyond the Rifts could not cope without the magic they provided.
AESTHETICS
Rendered in a cartoon style like its predecessor. At the beginning of the game, several hand-painted CGs are brought into the game. After all, such a small game does not need those exaggerated CGs that can instantly catch the player’s attention to do scene animations.
After officially entering the game, although most of the game scenes take place in the underground tunnel, the player will not feel dim. On the contrary, a large number of static/dynamic light source effects such as a large number of light sources, trap trigger effects, and magic explosions make the overall picture of the game look very comfortable. This kind of soft and delicate cartoon picture rendering is worthy of the volume of the game.
It is commendable that the physical collision effect shown by the game engine is still awesome! When the orcs are attacked by different traps, for example, they are shattered to flesh and blood after being frozen, shattered after being corrupted into green skeletons, burned until the masts and sculls fly into ashes, and exploded to death after being crushed show different attack effects.
There are also outstanding effects such as being headshot when being attacked by the protagonist, being smashed by a powerful firecracker, and flying by the witch’s magic.
Another commendable point is that the game characters and monster models are very good. No matter how the viewing angle is, there is no sense of jaggedness. The ugly and fierce expressions between different monsters are lifelike, and the body movements are natural and smooth.
The game music is magnificent and humorous.
The voice in the game is also good, the girl’s voice is quite individual, it sounds like the voice of a strong sister, and the prince still has the accent of the sloppy uncle, but it’s also great. There will be a dialogue between the two at the beginning of each game, and the content is very interesting.
The last thing to talk about is the sound effect of the game. The game has a relatively good sense of impact. The reason is that the excellent sound and light special effects heighten the sense of impact of the game. The different effects of different weapons, magic and traps on the orcs in the game have greatly improved the excellent sound and light special effects to a higher level, and I like it again!
TECHNOLOGY
It was developed using Version. And Havok Vision Game Engine is a discontinued, cross-platform, 3D game engine originally authored by Trinigy and later acquired by Havok. Microsoft Game Studios publishing the sequel for Microsoft Windows on July 30, 2012 in the United States. So it is an old game which means it has low system requirements and the computers we use now can run very smoothly.
Lenses
#24 Lens of Novelty
It is a tower defense game that eschews the traditional top-down view of similar games, instead using a third-person action-oriented viewpoint. In traditional tower defense games, we can only rely on towers for defense, so we usually can only build towers in each round of the game, which will undoubtedly lack passion and aesthetic fatigue. In this game, we can control MC to fight in real time and cooperate with the towers we built, which is both strategic and combative. It also increases the fault tolerance rate for our game, making the game experience smoother.
#34 Lens of Skill
As a tower defense game, the location and timing of tower construction are very strategic. At the same time, because we need to control characters to fight, this also leaves us with more chances in each game. The game has a certain degree of difficulty, but we can improve our proficiency through continuous attempts, so as to win the game.
#44 Lens of Cooperation
A cooperative mode has been added to this game, so we can no longer fight alone, but cooperate with our teammates to discuss defense strategies and control characters to fight together, which greatly expands the fun of the game. This also creates a larger entertaining space. I like this cooperative mode very much, it definitely enhances the relationship between me and my teammates, and at the same time left a good memory for my childhood.
#63 Lens of Feedback
In the game, we need to resist a large number of orc attacks, so one of the highlights of the game is the sense of blow in the battle. The physical collision effect is awesome! When the orcs are attacked by different traps, for example, they are shattered to flesh and blood after being frozen, shattered after being corrupted into green skeletons, burned until the masts and sculls fly into ashes, and exploded to death after being crushed show different attack effects. There are also outstanding effects such as being headshot when being attacked by the protagonist, being smashed by a powerful firecracker, and flying by the witch’s magic. Every time we attack or destroy an enemy, the real-time attack feedback greatly stimulates our sense. It makes us more willing to continue playing.
Conclusion
I think Orcs Must Die! 2 is an eye-catching game. It has special game mechanics and refreshing gameplay. You and your companions will have double the fun at the same time. If you haven’t touched it, I highly recommend you to play this game, I believe you will love it.