Orcs Must Die! 2

I got to a point where I had a few levels left on the game, but got stuck. Then I gave up and looked at YouTube, then took a break from the game. Today, I came back and finished it up.

The controls are like a typical FPS as far as shooting, and setting up traps is as easy as point and click. Rapid fire would have been kinda nice though. I can only play so much Orcs Must Die before I get defeated by carpal tunnel. Same as when I played Aquaria...

The graphics are basically the same as the first one. Very polished, very stylized, and perfect for the game.



The game play is the same as before, except they seem to like forcing you to defend two rifts. Perhaps as a prod toward co-op... hmm?

The sound effects are the same as well, good feedback when shooting stuff, very good voice overs for the characters. Overall just great.

The one minor annoyance I have is that you have to choose to be the Sorceress or War Mage at the start. As you progress through the game, they have a few traps that are specific to that character, and you hear more of their side of the story (I assume). FYI, the War Mage gets the floor tar trap... that is the best trap ever... and I beat the game without it. *sad face* After I completed the game with the Sorceress, I wondered if I could play with the War Mage and just burn through the game real quick. Nope, you get no skulls from your other character, no trap unlocks, no levels unlocked, nothing.

The one awesome thing they added is the ability to reset what you spent your skulls on, so you can try out enhancing other traps/weapons/trinkets/etc. Or, in most cases, optimize which should be enhanced for the level at hand.

To help prevent you getting stuck I will recommend a few things:
1) sometimes the best traps are no traps (I seriously breezed through a level using only templars and archers)2) you will always have to be involved in the fight, so make sure you're fighting where your defenses are weakest
3)  barricades - you will always need these (see exception in rule #4)
4) the decoy trap is almost required for stopping Trolls, and this goes a lot smoother if you have a weapon that does a lot of damage (enhanced crossbow + head shots)



I would definitely recommend picking it up, especially if you enjoyed the first one.