Author:
Simulacrum
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Date:
8/18/2021 5:46:11 AM
Subject:
My impressions of Orcs Must Die 3
The graphics are decent. The game runs fine with no crashes (in fact, nothing has crashed on this computer with the exception of maybe two Doom Eternal CTDs). About half of the music has been brought over from previous titles; the war scenario tracks are new and extremely good.
The gameplay is a mixed bag. I didn't spend much time with OMD Unleashed, but there seems to be a lot of it in OMD3. The maps tend to sprawl a little too much, and the traps are both weak and expensive. The result is the OMDU 70% shooter / 30% traps formula of OMDU, which was more MOBA than tower defense. It's possible to achieve some fun effects with the traps, but you're really expected to wear down the enemies with barely adequate weapons.
This shooty aspect is intended to make you run around trying to cover every hole in your defense. Doubtless, you're meant to be doing this on a couch with another player. Both of you are supposed to be screaming the whole time.
As with OMD2/U, co-op is the favored mode, but you can get things to work in sp. The preferred co-op approach is evident in the map designs. Most are carefully engineered to discourage single killbox solutions, though they can be pulled off if you sell traps during brief countdowns between enemy attacks.
The problem with OMD3 is that having another person around doesn't make your defense any more effective. The fun part of co-op is strategizing and deciding who will use X traps and cover Y hallways, etc. However, the trap budget is as inadequate for co-op as it is for sp. There just isn't enough money for the traps you need.
Which brings us to the main problem with OMD3. OMD1 was successful because it was a tower defense game with shooty support aspects. The weapons were there if you liked them or got into unexpected trouble, but the emphasis was on creating ingenious orc sausage machines. OMD2 moved to a kind of half-and-half ratio. Traps were still the star attractions, but the weapons and trinkets became too useful to do without. In both games, the trap budget was tight but not so parsimonious that you had to rely mostly on weapon damage. In OMD3, weapons are your main defense, but you can't get along without traps.
This is a serious problem because OMD is not a shooter franchise, yet the "new" Robot Entertainment has chosen this direction for reasons that mystify loyal fans. Gone are the hilarious Rube Goldberg orc hazards of old. Enter silly fantasy weapons, wild player acrobatics, stingy trap budgets, and barely defensible maps.
On a more positive note, the war scenarios are pretty clever and well designed. In these maps, you have to withstand an orc siege by using traps, weapons, and war machinery (archers, catapults, giant spring traps, etc.). These are great fun and hopefully might morph into a full-fledged game in their own right.
So:
1. Baffling design choices.
2. Too much shooting; not enough traps.
3. Stupidly low budgets.
4. Decent graphics and stability; good soundtrack.
5. Fun war scenarios.
3/5 - buy on sale
