After the conservative step forward that wasOrcs Must Die 3, the cult-favorite franchise is back withOrcs Must Die! Deathtrap, a sequel that is both more inventive and more derivative than its predecessors.Deathtrap’s greatest departure from series' convention is its roguelike gameplay, while the meat and potatoes of the experience is left more or less untouched. This can be a mixed bag. On the one hand, why fix what isn’t broken? But at the same time, some of the game’s broader structural elements can feel tacked-on and underbaked.
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrapadheres to the satisfying blend of real-time combat and carefully wrought strategy that won the franchise its fans back in 2011. The premise is simple: Orcs will attack the player’s base, an object called the Rift, in waves, and the player must use a variety of traps and split-second button skill to establish supremacy on the battlefield. It’s a brutal, fast-paced, and deadly sandbox that is sure to please tower defense fans, but those looking for a game with more meat on its bones may be left disappointed.
Deathtrapstrips away many raiments of earlier games, including a traditional narrative and alternate modes likeOrc Must Die 3’s War Scenarios, focusing instead on the aforementioned design pillars that make the game tick. The result is a lean, mean, Orc-killing machine of a game—something that’s unlikely to nab many shiny awards, but more than likely to put a devilish grin on your face thanks to its cartoonishly sadistic action.
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Offers Unfettered Co-op Fun
After a brief stage-setting cinematic,Orcs Must Die! Deathtraplays its cards on the table: players can embark on missions from their home base,playing as one of seven War Mages, each with a distinct suite of abilities that sets them apart from each other. The War Mages all feel great to play despite their relative mechanical simplicity. Players won’t be pulling offOverwatch-level kill streaks or mind-blowing acts of destruction, but the diverse character roster does what it’s supposed to.
The secret sauce ofDeathtrap, just like theOrcsgames before it, is the collection of traps that players have at their disposal. Before each wave of Orcs rolls in, players will be apprised of the paths that these monsters will take to reach the Rift, which is surprisingly delicate. It doesn’t take many Orcs to deplete the Rift’s hit points, which results in a loss. You can cut down the substantial horde of Orcs by learning these paths and funneling the creatures to strategic chokepoints laden with deadly traps. Floor spikes, ceiling-mounted acid showers, and automated crossbow turrets are just some of the lethal machines in the player’s arsenal, which can be expanded and upgraded by spending in-game resources back at the Fortress hub area.
As always, creating the perfect Orc-killing setup is tremendously gratifying. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of carefully routing Orcs to a hallway replete with wall, floor, and ceiling traps, watching with macabre glee as the eager monsters slowly meet their doom on their way to your doorstep.Deathtrapoffers a slew of large and appropriately complex maps, and learning their layouts makes subsequent runs easier. You’ll gain invaluable knowledge from both your successes and failures, eventually mastering each arena’s geography and using it to your advantage. This makes the game intrinsically rewarding, which is a good thing, since the material rewards and progression systems are a bit lacking.
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrapruns beautifully. I played it on a PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 and an RTX 4060, at max settings, and the FPS never dropped below 70, even with dozens of Orcs on-screen at once.
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Is a Great DIY Combat Sandbox, But a Lackluster Roguelike
Deathtrapisn’t a traditional roguelike by any means, but it also isn’t shy about what it borrows from the genre. After each enemy wave, players will be able to choose from a selection of upgrades that will stay with them until the end of that run. These can impact both trap and combat performance, but they are a bit underwhelming and feel tacked-on. The best roguelike progression systems have upgrades that compound on each other in interesting or unexpected ways, upholding that “no two runs are the same” design philosophy, butDeathtrap’s short-term upgradeslack the weight and creativity that make such a system rewarding. Rather, the game’s upgrades are both underwhelming and uncreative, with too many of them granting menial, incremental buffs like a 10% increase in damage for a specific trap or trap type. It’s better than nothing, but it’s rare to feel that sense of ever-growing power that makes roguelike progression so addicting.
Cross-run progression is similarly dull, with a permanent skill tree whose most expensive items include upgrades like a 10% increase in post-revival health and a 3% increase in critical hit chance. Added together, these upgrades can definitely increase a player’s effectiveness, but with each War Mage being somewhat mechanically shallow, it would have been nice for progression to be a bit more meaningful, adding new dimensions to the moment-to-moment gameplay instead of just static, unexciting stat boosts.
Once again, the thumping heart of the game proves to be the trap system. Unlocking new traps is what deepens the experience over time, as each new tool is basically a new toy to play with, ensuring that strategy and forethought remain fresh andexciting long after War Mage combat grows stagnant. Still, the action-oriented War Mage gameplay is presented as half of the experience—just as important as the trap-laying—so it’s a bit disappointing that it’s not as dynamic and deep as its tower-defense counterpart.
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Is Better With Friends
Aside from the roguelike progression system,Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap’s biggest changefrom the series' convention is the increase in max squad size from two to four. The gamecanbe played solo, but it comes alive during cooperative play, which elevates all aspects of the gameplay loop. Planning is far more enjoyable with a partner or three, as players can bounce ideas off each other and discover new angles of attack through collaboration. The relatively bland combat of each War Mage is also less of an issue, as different Mages uphold different archetypes and can synergize nicely with each other. For example, while a player might struggle playing as the close-combat healer Kalos in solo mode, he can become an invaluable support tool when paired with a long-range attack character like Vaan or Wren.
More than other games in the series,Orcs Must Die! Deathtrapfeels designed for co-op playfirst and foremost. Each playable character has weaknesses, like low DPS or a dearth of offensive special abilities, and these can be compensated for by pairing them with another character with opposite strengths and weaknesses.Deathtraphas a very complementary design in this sense, making its co-op gameplay far more interesting and complex than its single-player options.
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrapis a day-one Game Pass release, which will help concurrent player numbers and buttress the game’s strong cooperative multiplayer.
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrapis good, but in a very workmanlike sort of way. Although it’s not the most surprising or inventive multiplayer game on the market, it upholds the strong balance of strategy and real-time gameplay that made the franchise so beloved in the first place. Fans of previous entries may be somewhat split on things like the roguelike progression and heavier emphasis on multiplayer at the cost of solo play, but the strengths of the series are still there, and in some ways, they’re more finely tuned than ever.
WHERE TO PLAY
Orcs Must Die! Deathtrapwill release on PC and Xbox Series X|S on July 09, 2025. Game Rant was provided a Steam code for this review.
