The next booster pack for Orcs Must Die! 2 comes out tomorrow/later today, and it’s called Family Ties. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any scarier than an angry orc coming for your face, now you will meet the missus: A new enemy, the ‘Ball and Chain’, a humungous female orc wielding a humungous mace that’ll have you crying for your Mummy.

So that’s pretty cool in and of itself, but what about all the other stuff? There’s three new levels, new endless mode conversions, new weapons and trinkets to make you powerful enough to stand up to the ol’ B&C, new costumes and a new way to earn yourself a skull.

The Family Ties booster pack for Orcs Must Die! 2 comes out September 26 UK time, so probably some time later today, or in fact, tomorrow, and will set us back 5 Australian Megabuxx.

Source: Press Release

The first DLC for Orcs Must Die! 2 — well, they call it a ‘booster pack’ — has been announced! Robot Entertainment say that their booster pack, Fire & Water will add new enemies and traps, not to mention three new levels to try them all out on.

In particular though the new enemies sound cool, with fire and water themed iterations of the game’s older enemy, the earth lords. As with the earth lords, the fire and water lords break down into elementals and then -lings, but when they hit the -ling stage, they start to do new and crazy things. Firelings will come and hunt you down and explode you, while waterlings will find the dormant puddles left behind by defeated waterdudes and suck them up to become water elementals again! Horrifying!

The new content will be available on Steam as of August 29 and will be $4.99 USD.

Source: Blue’s News

The original Orcs Must Die! came out of nowhere and blew us all away with a delightfully slick combination of tower defence, orc-murdering, and sassy quips that beat out many other games in the Christmas release window despite being sold for a criminally cheap $15. Naturally though, the first thing that everybody thought upon finishing the game was: “Man! That would have been amazing in co-op.”

And so it was, a mere six months later, that Orcs Must Die! 2 was born.

The six month turnaround time should give you a pretty solid idea of what to expect from OMD!2 – it is, in many ways, less of a sequel and more of a general re-working of the original game. With more enemies, more levels, more traps, and of course the primary addition of co-op, it’s very much aimed at keeping the fans happy, rather than making any substantial changes – indeed, the music, textures, engine, and even most of the sassy quips are 90% recycled.

As one of the aforementioned fans, I still had a good time. But it’s important to keep things in perspective.

An orc problem shared

The game’s storyline picks up right where the first game ended, with the evil Sorceress from the first game – who now turns out to not, actually, be that evil after all – teaming up with the War Mage to help stem the tides of smelly green hooligans. Single-player mode plays out exactly as before (and the Sorceress is also available to play there), but co-op mode splits the cash and loadout-slots between you. Each player maintains their own spellbook of traps, trinkets and items, and is responsible for purchasing their own upgrades – but you now only get six slots to put your items in, rather than the ten you’d get in single player.

Like everything about the original game, co-op in OMD!2 is just plain slick. You can play in either LAN or online, joining is a simple one-click affair that works brilliantly through Steam, and the game features inbuilt voice chat to keep you working in perfect harmony. Both players have access to (nearly) all the same tools, with the exception of a handful of unique items.

The War Mage functions as before, but the Sorceress’s key mechanic is the ability to alt-fire her default weapon and charm an enemy for a few seconds. Doing so turns out to be nearly crucial to most battles, as it slows down the inexorable advance of the orcs and works on even the toughest enemies, meaning a frost ogre will stop heading for the rift and turn to bash five of its friends to death while you frantically wait for your mana to recharge enough to blast it with delightfully-overpowered lightning.

It’s dangerous to go alone

The main issue with the inclusion of co-op into OMD!2 is that it feels like Robot Entertainment put so much work into making co-op seamless and enjoyable that they accidentally made the game incredibly difficult in single-player. The exact same maps are used for both single- and multi-player, and as a result most of them are hair-pullingly difficult on your own, to the point where I was unable to progress any further on the standard War Mage difficulty and had to drop it down to Apprentice to keep going. The addition of an Endless Mode allows you to grind for skulls to buy more traps and items, but it still feels like balancing for single-player was somewhat of an afterthought (and one that in many cases, would probably require some serious re-working of the maps).

On the subject of difficulty, the jump between Apprentice and War Mage is less of a jump and more of a sheer cliff face. Apprentice difficulty is laughably easy even on the final map, whereas the same map on War Mage difficulty is a struggle to even one-skull (especially if you’re doing it alone). Perhaps this was intentional, as the game takes every opportunity to remind you that you could be grinding away in Endless Mode to earn a few more skulls and try again.

It’s all about the skulls

You’ll want more skulls too, because OMD!2 features a new upgrade system that allows you to upgrade your traps and trinkets to higher and higher levels with the use of more skulls. Most traps can be upgrade three times, and then enchanted again with another special quality (bleed damage, slow enemies, etc) through the use of more skulls. This gives you a real opportunity to focus your playstyle on the types of traps (or spells, or guardians) that appeal to you, by using the skulls to buff them to outrageous levels.

And if you change your mind at any time, you can hit the ‘Refund Skulls’ button and get it all back, then spend it again however you want. It’s a super-neat mechanic, and one that you’ll probably find yourself doing a lot as you try to evaluate the perfect strategy for a particular level. For me, it’s all about spike and arrow traps. Can’t go wrong with spike and arrow traps.

2+2 = 4

At its core, OMD!2 is a good co-op title, but it falls just short of being a great one. The two of you might be playing together, but the whole is never really greater than the sum of its parts. There’s no real synergy between players, only the opportunity for you both to giggle as your carefully constructed shared-deathtrap hallways mulches through another wave of enemies.

As much fun as it is to both run around casting spells, flinging bombs and leaping into lava, Robot have somewhat missed the opportunity to create situations inside the game that require players to actually work together. The second player feels like they are primarily there in order to balance out the DPS equation, rather than to really open up any additional options – and the fact that the two players share 99% of the same armoury really makes this apparent.

Something like the addition of unique enemies that required two people simultaneously to bring down (like a heavy orc with a an impenetrable front-shield), or traps that could only be funded by both players, or switches around the maps which both players needed to stand on to activate, or, well, anything – is something that would have seen this go from a fun shared experience to a genuine co-op delight. As it is, OMD!2 is just another slice of the same, delicious cake you enjoyed back in December – only this time, you’ve been given an extra fork.

Good:

• Same slick action-tower defence mechanics from the original
• …plus co-op
• Says it all, really

Bad:

• Feels primarily designed for co-op, leaving single-player unnecessarily difficult
• Never really takes advantage of potential offered by having another player

Orcs Must Die! 2 is available on Steam for $14.99, where you can also download a free demo.

If you’re one of the many handsome people with great taste who, like me, enjoyed the original Orcs Must Die!, then you’ll be pleased to know that the demo for Orcs Must Die! 2 is now available on Steam. The game launches on Monday, giving you the full weekend to evaluate it and decide if you’d like to buy it (at 10% off if you pre-order).

Oh hey, you can also buy the original OMD! for $2.49 over the weekend, which is an absolute steal.

Source: VG247

If you’re looking forward to Orcs Must Die! 2 because you loved the last one so much, Robot Entertainment might just have a surprise for you. Owners of the original Orcs Must Die! on Steam will find, when they start up the sequel on July 30th, that they have unlocked a special ‘classic mode’. This special mode of gameplay for returning lovers of the game will feature levels from the original Orcs Must Die! remixed with new enemies and available to be played cooperatively with your buddies! If that sounds up your alley, but you don’t already have it, check it out on Steam’s Summer Sale where it’s currently 50% off.

Source: Destructoid