Orcs Must Die! 2 Demo

Orcs have rarely been portrayed as good guys in video games, or movies for that matter. Their green skin, general lack of wits and a predisposition toward axes and war makes them rather hard to love, especially since the other races always look down on them. The game at hand is no different, because you are encouraged to kill as many of them as possible, preferably by using creative traps to do so.

Orcs Must Die! 2 is the sequel to the highly-acclaimed first part and it basically tries to deliver the same product in a much more refined and polished state, with a variety of improvements added as well. Hence, it is still a quirky tower defense game in which you have to use traps and spells in order to stop wave after wave of greenskins from destroying your castle.

This time around, you can play with an War Mage and the Sorceress, although they are not so different from each other when you really get down to it. They do have some interesting abilities, on the other hand, which can be exploited during the matches and used to gain the upper hand against the invading army of orcs. The traps, however, are much more useful and versatile, not to mention fun to see in action.

A lot of emphasis is put on the co-op mode as well, because it definitely is much more fun and rewarding to get through the waves with a friend on your side. Certain perks are only available in co-op as well, such as the fact that you get more research points and extra tower slots in the beginning. There are plenty of game types to choose from as well, such as the Endless Mode, in which you can just keep on playing for as long as you can survive.

The technical aspects have been improved as well, especially when it comes to the graphics engine. Everything is as colorful as it was before, but there’s a lot more detail in the environment, while the characters are blessed with much smoother animations this time around. Some effort went into the optimization department as well, although you may still experience some errors from time to time, depending on the circumstances and your system.

All things considered, Orcs Must Die! 2 is about as good as it can get when it comes to tower defense, with the only thing missing being some additional character classes to choose from. Other than that, the co-op is the strong point and the gameplay is engaging even after slightly longer sessions, which is all you can wish for.