Warm up your war-magery! The sequel to Robot Entertainment's 3rd-person tower defense/hack and slash hit will be landing with the splat of many orc corpses on July 30th.

The dev press release proclaims: "Orcs Must Die! 2 thrusts players and their friends back into battle against a terrifying mob of orcs and other monsters. With a redesigned spellbook, players will have a broader range of options to build a deadly arsenal of defenses. Investing hard-earned skulls in an enormous new upgrade system will allow players to cater to their favorite methods of burning, grinding, tossing, or dismembering orcs."

In addition to being able to play the entire game co-op (courtesy of the new Sorceress character, who is described as focusing more on finesse than the classic War Mage), the upgrade system has been overhauled so that you can replay the same level for skulls as many times as you want. As opposed to the original, which only awarded you skulls for performing better on a level than you had previously. We're also promised more traps, weapons, spells, and enemies.

As a final note, the release reveals, "As a special bonus, players who own the original Orcs Must Die! on PC will unlock exclusive content in the sequel." So if you haven't yet checked out the original, now may be the time to immerse yourself up the the waist in goblin-based carnage.

The tower defense genre was dying off quickly by 2011. After some huge successes like Plants vs Zombies, the genre had been marred by a slew of cheap tie-ins (particularly on iPhone) and a gameplay paradigm that never seemed to evolve. Then came Orcs Must Die, a wildly original and incredibly fun take on the same-old formula. It turned the world's slowest, most boring genre into a fresh and exciting new hit that was extremely popular with fans.

The Apprentice's incessantly snarky comments may not have won over our hearts, but gameplay that revolved around finding new ways to kill thousands of orcs certainly did. Now, just 6 months later there's a sequel in the works, and we had a chance to try it out this weekend at PAX East.

So far it seems like Robot Entertainment knows that they had a great title on their hands with the original OMD. The general gameplay remains mostly unchanged except for a few key tweaks and additions. First and foremost is cooperative play, the one thing that fans of the original had been clamoring for since first laying hands on the original.



We're happy to report that cooperative play is utterly seamless, and it's a revelation to be able to rely on a partner to help take care of things. In the original title, the more difficult maps could get downright stressful as the hordes mounted and you lost control of the mob. Being able to coordinate with a teammate cuts down on that substantially...if you coordinate.

Fortunately, it's much less essential to communicate during waves. The level my partner and I played consisted of two routes and a ramp in the middle. So it was fairly simple to block off the ramp then both of us could focus on one side independently. Only when things got especially hairy did we have to chat and strategize.

There are some tools that facilitate cooperation though. Players can bring a healing tool that restores their health at all times when it's equipped, but can heal their partner with its alternate fire. The developer leading our demo session said there are fewer ways to get healed now (though he didn't elaborate on what was cut out) so cooperation can be important.



We were also told that the weavers are gone this time. In the previous game they served as a leveling system, allowing you to select new powers and buffs in each level. They're being replaced by the ability to level up traps even more than before. Each trap and ability will have multiple levels to buy, adding more customization to the meta-game, but possibly less for each level.

You'll also notice some changes to the main weapon carried by the main character. It's now a much slower-paced shotgun-esque weapon, though our demo lead said that the original crossbow can be acquired later in the game. The sorceress co-op companion carries a much faster shooting staff that has four separate firing modes. The quick fire will be familiar to fans of the original orcs. It's bolts shoot at a similar rate as the old crossbow if you're rapidly clicking.

Holding the mouse will get you two different stages of power. The final stage becomes something of a magic missile that explodes enemies on contact and hits nearby orcs with splash damage. The alternate fire is the most interesting though. One click gives you a ranged charm spell which forces any enemy to fight for you for a few seconds.

Orcs Must Die 2 doesn't seem to be taking any risks at all. That said, most fans of the original will probably be extremely pleased to hear that. So while it's not exactly the most exciting new game on the horizon, it's a retread of a formula we're already love.

Deus Ex: a game so good it gave us actual neuroses about its sequels. Invisible War, a shonky but interesting and sometimes hilarious shooter, became reviled as a crime against gaming for declaring itself to be Deus Ex 2. And when Human Revolution started looking seriously, seriously good, none of us could quite believe it.

But it happened. This third game has the wealth of alternate routes and versatile tools that made Deus Ex great, and expands it with huge city hubs, packed with more sidequests and background story than the original ever had. It reworks the system for augmenting yourself to give you trickier choices between more powerful abilities. And all of those abilities are more slickly designed and satisfying to use. It’s not better in every way, by any means, but nothing else comes this close.



It’s an action game, which our neuroses tell us is automatically bad, but most of the concessions to blockbuster accessibility are genuinely, and surprisingly positive. Melee was almost comically unconvincing in Deus Ex 1: now it’s jaw-droppingly brutal and consistently satisfying. A cover system seemed like a frightening departure, but it ended up making for a much more developed and complex stealth option.

Mainly, though, it’s just so good to have it back. It’s Deus Ex! But shinier! And we haven’t played it through 26 times yet! And DLC is coming out for it! And everyone’s sharing stories about the incredible things that happened to them, and all the ways the quests can play out, and all the people they punched in the face, and what aug builds they want next. Deus Ex 4 is bound to be shit, though.

Read our Deus Ex: Human Revolution review for more.

Highly recommended: Battlefield 3, Orcs Must Die!

Orcs Must Die! was super cheap in the recent Steam Autumn Sale. If you missed it then, you've got another chance to pick it up for just £2.99 / $3.74 as part of this week's midweek deal on Steam. That's a quarter of the price you'd normally pay, for a game that scooped 90% in our Orcs Must Die! review. The deal lasts for another five hours or so.

It's a tower defence game with a twist. You play an arrogant wizard's apprentice tasked with holding back the green tide. The Orcs charge in huge hordes towards a portal that you must defend with inventive traps, deployable minions and your trusty rapid firing magical crossbow. Once you complete a level, your score is posted to a leaderboard automatically populated the scores your Steam friends earned. Things can get very competitive, very fast and the Orcs' enthusiasm for running headfirst into terrible danger never falters. We can't stop playing it.

Do you hear that faint wailing in the background? That's the sound of a thousand bank accounts going "noooo!" at the appearance of the Autumn Steam Sale. Thankfully for our wallets, it only lasts until Sunday, with dozens of new deals every day. Consider it a warm up for the monolithic Steam Christmas sale next month.

The sale kicked off yesterday, but you've still got six hours to grab some of the fantastic day one deals. The marvellous Orcs Must Die is just £2.99 / $3.74 (we gave it a score of 90 in our Orcs Must Die review). Portal 2 is selling for just £6.79 / $10.19. If you haven't played Mass Effect yet, the first game is £2.49 / $4.99, and Mass Effect 2 is 75% off at £4.99 / $12.49.

If you're more partial to an arcade explodathon starring Gordon Freeman, Renegade Ops is £4.99 / $7.49 (or you can grab a four pack for £9.99 / $14.99). All of Dejobaan's games are also on sale as well, including AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome.

These games are also on sale for the next few hours:

Call of Duty: Black Ops
Duke Nukem Forever
Test Drive Unlimited 2
Risen
Sam & Max series
Men of War series
Oddworld series

 
These deals will switch out in 5 hours and 42 minutes from the time of writing. Keep an eye on the Steam front page for the next set of deals then.

Orcs Must Die! has done something I’d thought impossible: it’s a tower defense game that actually gets deeper and more rewarding the longer you play it. The joy comes not just from the sadistic delight of watching a wall-trap viciously fillet a crowd of almost lovable cartoon orcs with a series of spinning-blades, but also from the Portal-like cycle of running into a tricky problem, taking a break to ponder it, and then racing back to try a new solution.

With friends’ scores taunting me on my personalized leader board (my Sunday night was ruined by Dan Stapleton knocking me off the top of every single level), I’m constantly trying to design even better murdermazes on early levels. The first time through I only had a few tools, but in playing through the lengthy series of levels I’ve now unlocked at least a dozen different traps and special powers. Every time I got a new toy, my mind immediately ran wild with the possibilities of elegant abattoirs that I could create on some of the nettlesome early maps.



Spiked pressure plates on the floor are all well and good, but a spring trap that launches flailing orcs helplessly into pools of lava is more stylish. I also delighted in the cruel irony of a push trap that shoves surviving orcs back into the same gauntlet of traps they just escaped.

The traps are the most fun way to dispatch orcs and their allies (like fast-moving rat men and huge, hard-hitting ogres), but using my War Mage to personally slay, shoot, and fry them in third-person view can often be the difference between victory and defeat.

He’s basically Gandalf’s intern – a wizardly fratboy of dubious competence and limitless arrogance. I don’t like his attitude, but when he’s equipped with the awesomely powerful Flame Gauntlets, it’s hard to deny he’s an essential part of any defense. Still, you get more points for killing orcs with an elaborate combination of traps and minions (archers, for instance), so earning a high score is a gruesome balancing act of slaughtering the hordes by hand and feeding them into your machinery of death.



And even with its whimsical, World of Warcraft-derived art style, it certainly is gruesome. There are moments of eye-popping carnage as orcs are chopped into pieces, or sent catapulting through crowds of their fellows before plummeting into waiting acid pools.

Orcs Must Die!’s levels defy easy solutions, and that’s what sets it apart from other tower defense games. Solutions themselves change in hugely interesting ways as you bring more advanced items and powers back from the later levels, giving a challenge that not only doesn’t pale with experience, but actually grows richer. Not since Lemmings has a game so seamlessly mixed engaging mechanics, humor, cuteness, and gleeful cruelty.