Demons Age – Backstory Revealed
Bigmoon Entertainment today shared the first details of the backstory for Demons Age, a classic-style turn-based roleplaying game with modern graphics and a deep, rich storyline.
Many More Orcs Must Die!
I loved Orcs Must Die! I spent many hours gleefully squishing, stabbing, and burning orcs.. and trying to beat friends on the scoreboard, of course! Good times, good times.. 😉
Orcs Must Die! 2 carries on where the first game left off.. though with a bunch of new traps and weapons, and a second playable character, the Sorceress. And it’s still got that lovely art style..
Orcs Must Die Some More
Another game I tried out during ScampLAN was Orcs Must Die!
I previously played the demo, and while I thought the game was a lot of fun, I could see myself getting tired of it.. especially without co-op or versus mode. Therefore, I didn’t pick up the game, though I will keep my eye on it in case of a nice Steam offer 😉
The full game has more maps and a wider range of traps, though.. including some throwable acid pots which were very nice against small enemies. These were easier to use than the Boom Barrels, as they detonate with a right click.. or shatter when a trap goes off, rather than relying on you being able to shoot it in the middle of a horde of Orcs.
The demo had limited maps, so I was keen to look at the new ones on offer. Some of these had numerous routes for the enemies to take, meaning there was even more ground to cover.. for these I set up lots of traps down one path while I fought enemies down the other, rather than try to take them all on nearer the Rift.
The new defenses included Wall Blades, Spring Traps, and the Floor Scorcher.. I used Spring Traps and Floor Scorchers to knock enemies back, though I wished for a faster reset on both!
I was pleased to see new enemies too, as they add a bit of variation. The Kobolds were fast and rather good at slipping past my defenses.. though acid pots were great for wiping groups of them out.. and the Ogres were tough..
I didn’t get as far as looking at the upgrades for the new defenses, or at some of the other weapons for the Warmage.. but yeah.. waiting for that Steam offer 😉
Dungeon Defenders
Dungeon Defenders is a Tower Defense Action-RPG game by Trendy Entertainment.. delayed some months, but finally released yesterday. There have been a few combination tower defense and action games lately, and like the others, there are two phases per round: the Build phase, where you place barriers and traps, then the Action phase, where the enemies come..
Our enemies here are goblins, orcs, dark elves and similar, and they head towards the Eternia Crystal in the centre of your castle, while you use your player character’s abilities to help fend them off, as well as repairing and upgrading your defenses as you go..
There are four classes of player characters to choose from: Apprentice, Huntress, Squire and Monk, each with their own abilities and defenses, and apparently more to come later. The characters all level up and acquire loot through the game too, unlocking more defensive options and stronger abilities.
The game has a singleplayer mode, as well as co-op for up to four players, and a PvP mode. We had a few problems getting into the game to start with.. being unable to connect to the servers or each other.. we managed to launch the game around an additional update coming out, but after validating the game files and restarting a few times, we were able to get into a co-op game together.
Starting off, you are placed in the host’s Tavern.. this has a number of other features I’ve not yet explored. From here, you can choose whether you’re doing a Campaign or a Challenge, and choose the level and difficulty.
For our first co-op playthrough, I took the Apprentice, who specialises in elemental towers and magical attacks. He starts off with a Magic Missile Tower.. but it wasn’t too long before I was also able to use Magic Barricades. I’m looking forward to the Fireball and Lightening towers, but I’ll need to level up more first!
The enemies will go out of their way to attack your defenses, but you can repair them, and with enough mana, upgrade them too.
Killing enemies awards mana, and at the end of every level you can open chests around the map, which provide mana as well as various pieces of loot.. armour and weapons. Loot comes with varying stats on it, and some pieces are class-specific, so as it dropped we shared it out accordingly.. my friends were playing as the Squire and the Monk.
After defeating all waves on the first level, we were able to move straight on to the next level, which had enemies coming from three sides. We were doing well enough until the Kobolds arrived.. but they explode, and cause rather a lot of damage..
If you are killed, you have a short count-down to respawning.. but if the enemies have reached your crystal, that’s time you don’t want to spend laying on the floor 😉
The three of us were unable to beat the second level on this attempt, but as the characters have levelled up and gained some nice loot, I’m sure we’ll do better next time..
Orcs Must Die!
Orcs Must Die is an action strategy game by Robot Entertainment, where you guard against waves of Orcs, using traps, weapons and spells. I tried the demo, which has three fortresses and a limited selection of traps.. enough to get an idea of what the full game will be like on release next week.
I quite like the character art 🙂
The Orcs aren’t too smart, and therefore make perfect enemies.. I also found their comments quite funny as they made their way over my traps 🙂
The three traps in the demo are the Tar Trap, which slows enemies, Floor Spikes, and my favourite, the Arrow Wall, which hits quite hard and also knocks the Orcs back.. I liked setting this up so the Orcs would end up on another trap!
I was less keen on the Boom Barrel.. although cheap, it requires detonating, and I’d rather spend the active part of the round shooting or pushing the Orcs back with the Wind Belt.
In addition to the traps, you also have weapons.. the Crossbow, the Bladestaff, and the Wind Belt, unlocked later in the demo. Of the three, I found the Wind Belt to be the best weapon as it allowed you to send the Orcs back over the traps again.. and the special attack allows you pick up a single enemy.. not particularly useful, but rather funny 🙂
Sadly, the game is only single-player.. although there are leaderboards where you can try to beat your friends’ scores, this just isn’t as much fun as playing alongside friends, and I think it would wear thin after only a short while.