It’s been 13 years since I reviewed the first entry to this series, and now here I am reviewing the fifth game with Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap. Many people felt that Robot Entertainment played it too safe with Orcs Must Die! 3, and they wouldn’t be wrong. However, they’ve taken some gambles with the gameplay loop here, though it’s still a welcome trip back to a world of orc slaying. Even “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” covered this eventuality, and I might be paraphrasing here. Professor Severus Snape: “So when the time comes… the orcs must die?” Professor Albus Dumbledore: “Yes. Yes… the orcs must die”.
Deathtrap eschews the number from its title and substitutes a subtitle instead. Because this is not a mainline entry, likely do to the fact that this plays like a roguelike and not a story-based game. There’s a little bit of story here, but it doesn’t go too hard on any part of it beyond there are orcs, and they must die through devious traps and outward attacks. And in a lot of ways that’s all you really need. The game sends you to the hub of the whole game, known as the Order Fortress which has been established via the game’s story over the past few in-game decades. The Order Fortress is where where you can practice, swap mages, talk to NPCs, unlock items, or level them up. It’s also a great gathering area for you and your friends if playing in co-op. If you’re new to the series, there are tutorials in form of videos to teach you everything you need to do. They actually play in-game, and I don’t mind the presentation or the quality, I find it better than to be stuck in a mundane tutorial when all you want to do is play.
Orcs Must Die! has a gameplay formula, and Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is no different. You’ll be sent to a map and you’ll get an ethereal preview of where the orcs will be breaching from and what path they’ll take exactly. From there, you alone or with friends will devise choke points and decide what traps are needed when along their route to ensure maximum effectiveness. Because should an orc reach the rift, the number of rift points (consider it health) will decrease. If all rift points are depleted, it’s game over and you go back to the hub to start everything over again. In all reality, you can let orcs go through the rift, as there is no penalty for it. You just need to have one rift point left after all waves in order to complete it. There is no reason for perfection other than it being an external goal.
The roguelike missions in this game will send you to random maps, either set during daytime or night. You might see the same locations, but things will be moved around each time. It’s then you’ll run through a series of waves, usually six before a missions is deemed successful (provided you’ve not lost all your rift points). The structure is mission, mission, and ends with a fight against a boss. Now if you simply run out of time, you are allowed a single quicksave to stop and resume your game at a later time. From the main menu you do have to be careful to load your last quicksave, else you’ll start a new game. Thankfully the game will cash out the skulls (in-game currency for everything) when it does.
For the first time in the series’ history, there is four player co-op. In accordance with that, there are now six mages to play as, with none of them locked from the start. The first one is Vaan, who is like the War Mage of the original game Orcs Must Die!, armed with a crossbow. Wren is like the Sorceress of the Orcs Must Die! and Orcs Must Die! 2, with a magic wand at her side. Harlow carries a blunderbuss, Mac has a wrench staff, Kalos is a bear that has slow but devastating melee attacks, and Sophie is my personal favorite, a cat that melees with dual daggers. With four players in co-op and six characters, there are many opportunities to mixing ‘n’ match ingfor synergy and playing off each other. All mages have an ultimate, and a trap ability that’s unique to one another. For instance, Vaan is good to have in a group due to the fact his ultimate can place a barrier around the rift for a limited amount of time to prevent rift points from being lost during a particularly tough battle. There are skill trees for each character, so there will be a significant amount of grinding to get them all leveled up. There are some secret outfits to acquire, and some not-so-secret outfits to unlock, based on certain criteria like 10 mission wins as a character are just a few examples.
Perks are called threads here. Once unlocked, will appear between waves to choose from. Threads you can unlock range from damage from hunters reduced by 50%, auto crossbow only targets fliers, minecart track cost is reduced, damage increased by how much rune coin is held, and so on. The hub area has a shop where you use your hard-earned skulls to unlock them at your discretion. There are also quests from in-game actions that can unlock different threads, as well. This still comes down to RNG for them to appear and limited as to whether they can be used.
All traps you use have upgrades. You’ll use skulls earned to make them cheaper to place, increase damage, or shorten the reset timer. All traps basically have this upgrade path, with variations like duration, range, and other factors tied to the particular trap. There’s an in-game shop at the hub that lets you buy more traps with greater variance, but not necessarily better items. Things like acid geyser, molten gold, poison gas emitter, and wall charger offer different elemental types of damage that would be more effective against certain types of enemies. It all comes down to your play style and preference. There’s over 25 new traps to unlock in addition to the default set that you have. They are thankfully categorized into their placement of ceiling, wall, and floor. Affording all of the traps and their upgrades is certainly going to take time.
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a visually stunning but artistically lacking game. It swaps the series’ trademark gloom for bloom. And in some ways the game can look oddly flat, but it’s running on Unreal Engine 5. Gone is the trademark font, it does seem to be missing a bit of its personality with its UI and overall design. But the game is undeniably Orcs Must Die!, accompanied by the gothic guitar and organ soundtrack. The game ran great, I was able to get
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
The roguelike spin on missions is refreshing for a series that have had static maps and predictable routes in prior games. It’s a well-made game, yet it still feels all too familiar to its predecessors in this tower defense strategy game. What really put me off was how much grinding there is to do with skill trees per character, traps, and threads to invest in. This is a game where you’re in it for the long haul. Though I can’t deny the fact that it is a visual spectacle with lots of gore and blood to spilled the moment a game starts, it’s the simple things that the game gets so right. The lack of a proper campaign will leave you wanting more, but Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is still a chaotic good time.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes