Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Robot Entertainment’s Orcs have a death wish. Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is the fourth entry in the Orcs Must Die! franchise, and, alongside a wily exclamation mark, it brings with it the surety that you will be seeing off green-skinned hordes in a carefully cultivated range of violent and creative ways. This time, you can do it with even more of your friends. The formula remains as strong as ever, but beyond the increased multiplayer options, it feels exceedingly familiar.

Orcs Must Die! began life as one of the darlings of Xbox Live Arcade, bringing together third-person action and tower defence in a crazy, colourful way. You’re tasked with protecting the rift, a magical portal that the Orcs are inexplicably drawn towards without any care for their own safety. They’re so focused on the task at hand that you can lay down knee-high barriers that will blindly force them to take a different route towards the rift, and if you’re smart about it, you can also pop myriad traps and horrible contraptions in their way so that they, you know… die. Oh… wait, Die!

That formula remains largely unchanged in Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap. The levels have been stretched out to accommodate up to four players, though if you’re playing on your own, they’re still approachable. There’s now a broader range of ways to kill the Orcs, though the classic spike traps and wall-mounted arrow launchers are as effective and iconic as ever, which makes them surprisingly hard to leave behind.

There’s six different War Mages to choose from at the outset, each of which has their own unique look, individual abilities and weaponry to fight in addition to their traps. The strange thing is, I don’t think that all of these hero characters have been given the same love and attention. The giant war mage bear, Kalos, looks fantastic, plays well, has weaponry that feels as though it’s making some impact and his special abilities prove genuinely useful during a mission by healing you and your team. Mac, meanwhile, not