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Review

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Review

It’s all fun and games until you’re under threat from green, weird, crazy orcs

Tower defence is a video game genre I have loved since the Nintendo DS; it’s a genre that has always challenged me and made me think in ways I usually wouldn’t to solve problems. This is also why I love roguelikes, they are both a great source of entertainment, so seeing the Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap trailer gave me a laugh and surprised me as I had never seen the franchise before. Charmed, I had to check it out as it combines two genres I greatly enjoy, and it turned out to be an interesting adventure.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap starts with a simple premise; the orcs have various bosses that you must defeat to protect the rifts. This was the most detailed story progression I saw throughout my playthrough, Deathtrap is more of a game that wanted you to knock the orcs about and have fun, all while defeating the bosses at the end—if you can get that far.

As someone relatively new to the franchise, I find the gameplay mechanics simple to understand. However, initially, there was no hands-on tutorial, which surprised me. Some tutorials were available in video form, but I would have preferred to be placed in a tutorial game myself. Luckily there is a practice arena, which did help my understanding. The map was a bit overwhelming to navigate too, but eventually I got the hang of it. I found this to be the most challenging thing to get my head around as you need to pay attention to it practically the entire time. But once I understood the game mechanics it was easy to go through traps and run around maps, regardless of my initial issues with the game’s systems.

Laser cut technology

When it comes to placing traps down to protect a rift or two, there are many options to unlock and eventually choose from. Deciding how you want to tackle a mission can take a moment as each trap features something different and has realistic, funny reactions from the orcs themselves. There’s also a selection of stage locations to pick from which can be normal, rainy, or night, and this adds in its own set of challenges such as skeletons spawning in. Corruption can also plague a map which stops you from placing traps in certain locations, making it harder to protect the rift.

Getting around stages, you can jump and sprint, however, I found it frustrating that you could not mantle up ledges. This meant rifts would sometimes take too much damage because I simply couldn’t get there quickly enough. The only alternative you have to mantling is to play as Kaos, since he has a huge jump ability which can help you get up somewhere higher. But it’s still a shame all characters don’t have better traversal options.

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Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap has a lot of choices for you to make during each run, that determine how successful you are going to be. Missions are chosen from a selection of three that will have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. For each wave you survive you will pick a single Thread from a choice of three, which are essentially buff and debuffs that will be added to the rest of your run. Some of these Threads include more health to War Mages, two specific types of enemies guaranteed to spawn, and buffs to character abilities. There are many Threads to unlock and choose from, and they will be your biggest help. Rift rewards are also provided at the end of each mission which aid you temporarily.

Choices, choices, choices

There is also a vast skill tree for each War Mage that will transfer to each of them, as well as a small skill tree of their own that will help them with their specific abilities. Although Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap features a range of various locations, abilities, enemies, and Threads, each run can go for about an hour. This does have the potential to unfortunately become repetitive and disengaging, as it may feel overly long at times depending on how you tackle each mission. But you are rewarded for your hard work regardless of how long each run takes or even if you fail or win.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap sports some truly hilarious character designs and brilliant banter lines to break up those long runs. Some of my favourite lines come from Sophie’s available summon, Bartholomew. He drops a playful “I miss my moustache” since he is a large skeleton, and well, doesn’t have one anymore.

Although the voice lines are fantastic, they can be unhelpful at times. For instance, when a new gate opens for orcs to come through, your character will announce it only after you ready up for the next wave. This means if you didn’t notice the new gate prior, you could accidentally ruin your run because you weren’t paying attention.

Oh, look, a friendly skeleton!

The soundtrack features a rock and roll theme and I found the music threw me off when specifically placing traps. This is because the music would become minuscule and almost unheard when I was placing them, which was then juxtaposed with its loud return the moment I was ready to face the orcs. Overall, it is a good score but it would get lost most of the time when fighting, making it harder to appreciate or remember.

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Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is doable solo but it’s a game that would be more enjoyable with a group of friends. The game gives you a lot to manage and play with on your own, but if accompanied by others, the challenges of each wave would be easier to manoeuvre through, especially since there’s a ping system.

When it comes to rewards, you get a lot, but I wish there were different currencies for Threads, trap upgrades, and skill trees. This would mean I could focus on each upgrade one at a time without keeping an eye on what I wanted to buy from different places. There’s only one different currency, gold skulls, and these are for buying new traps at least, which was helpful.

It’s hammer time

Final Thoughts

Overall Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a fun tower defence game that features a vast selection of roguelike elements to help you kill as many orcs as possible. You’ll upgrade and unlock everything you can to survive each wave you go through, all to defeat the ending boss of each run. Despite its lacking soundtrack and story, you’re guaranteed to have fun for hours in co-op or solo.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X // Review code supplied by publisher

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Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Review
Don’t forget to massacre the orcs
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a fun and engaging tower defence roguelike that features many choices that will have you using your brain to think of unique strategies to survive every wave. Although it has some quirks you will be guaranteed to have hours of fun solo or with others.
The Good
Simple Controls
Funny characters and banter
Various traps, maps, and orcs
Challenging tower defence management
The Bad
Better with a group than solo
Runs can become long and repetitive
Lacking story
Unmemorable soundtrack
No hands-on tutorial
6.5
Has A Crack
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  • Robot Entertainment
  • Robot Entertainment
  • Xbox Series X|S / PC
  • January 28, 2025

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Review
Don’t forget to massacre the orcs
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a fun and engaging tower defence roguelike that features many choices that will have you using your brain to think of unique strategies to survive every wave. Although it has some quirks you will be guaranteed to have hours of fun solo or with others.
The Good
Simple Controls
Funny characters and banter
Various traps, maps, and orcs
Challenging tower defence management
The Bad
Better with a group than solo
Runs can become long and repetitive
Lacking story
Unmemorable soundtrack
No hands-on tutorial
6.5
Has A Crack
Written By Jade Garrett

After being given her first DS Jade has been invested in video games ever since. From classic arcade games to AAA titles to obscure indies, she'll give any game she likes the sound of a fair go. Which has left her with a huge backlog to go through. Once she found her other passion, writing, she inevitably combined the two and decided to pursue them together, now she loves helping others find their next favourite title.

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