In 2011, the game development studio Robot Entertainment released its first full title Orcs Must Die! on PC and the Xbox Live Arcade. It was a unique take on the tower defense genre that brought its players to ground level where they could battle back the titular orcs alongside a number of unique traps placed throughout an often winding, enclosed space.
At Gamescom 2019, the developers announced Orcs Must Die! 3 as a timed exclusive title for Google Stadia. The Gamescom trailer showed off a graphical fidelity using Unreal Engine 4 that could never have been achieved in 2012 when Orcs Must Die! 2 was released and put a heavy focus on the upcoming title's new "War Scenarios" that will pit players against an army of hundreds. Now, Game Rant sat down with Robot Entertainment Design Director Jerome K. Jones to talk about Orcs Must Die! 3 and its massive new mode.
According to Jones, the first two Orcs games had "rules" the developers (mostly) followed when designing each traditional indoor scenario, such as each individual wave capping out around 100 enemies. He describes War Scenarios as having an "epic" scale, as if players have stepped outside of the castle corridors which constrain the series' typical map design, a scale not unusual for the studio partially responsible for Age of Empires Online:
"A wave in a War Scenario is sometimes as many units as an entire regular indoor scenario. Well over 1,000 [enemies] can appear in a complete War Scenario."
A single wave for an indoor scenario in Orcs Must Die! 1 or 2 lasts between 30 seconds and two minutes on average. Jones said the first of the five War Scenarios featured as part of Orcs Must Die! 3's 18-scenario story campaign can take a half hour to complete for even a "great player."
Jones said the new mode's standard design is intentionally the same as all previous titles but the spin-off Orcs Must Die! Unchained, so as not to confuse its core objective. Yet there are a few differences: everyone will have a unique boss encounter, players receive more "rift points" to build their defenses, and the battlefields will be segmented into two portions. War Scenarios will be playable at Apprentice (easy), War Mage (medium), and Rift Lord (hard) difficulties, and in all but the hardest setting, there will be "Go Breaks" between every wave so players can re-organize, re-apply traps, and more.
"I think fans will be pleased...It's intimidating when you see the army sort of cascade over the ridges and come into the battlefield...But the War Machines are meant to deal with the intimidating numbers...The Mega Boom Barrel Launcher, when it hits, might kill 50 orcs with one shot."
That Mega Boom Barrel Launcher is the main War Machine showcased in the Orcs Must Die! 3 Gamescom trailer. These are an evolution of the standard traps that veterans of the series are used to. Some like the Mega Boom Barrel Launcher and the Rapid-Fire Ballista with penetrating rounds will be manned by the player. Jones described a few of the War Machines players can expect to see such as a gigantic Flip Trap, giant killer beehive, and a tornado in a box; all large and often beholden to the series' comedic core.
To accommodate the immense sizes of both the opposing army and the player's War Machines, Jones said War Scenario maps will be huge and covered in trap grid "everywhere" within its boundaries. The traditional scenarios of Orcs games have always allowed players to set down traps on the floor, walls, and ceiling with as few limits as possible, and War Scenarios on the 4K-supporting streaming platform aim to follow that design philosophy.
Another way that War Scenarios will evolve what players love about classic Orcs Must Die! gameplay is by replicating the sense of being pushed back and adapting to advancing hordes by using of two-part battles. Orc armies begin outside of a castle and advance on its gate, which loses health if players cannot keep them at bay. Once the gate breaks, players will have to begin setting traps inside of the castle to keep their opponents from reaching the rifts, but Jones said, " Believe it or not, we have some really good players at the office who can beat War Scenarios without ever losing their gate."
The most difficult thing about designing Orcs Must Die! 3 is keeping it accessible to a variety of play styles, according to Jones. He said the game will allow players to move through content at their desired pace; whether they are happy passing each level with one out of five skulls on Apprentice difficulty, or whether they consider any game a "loss" if they earn anything less than five skulls.
Robot Entertainment developers have gathered a group of "crazy, hardcore Orcs players" who they call the "Red Pod." Jones said these players have different interests, be it completing levels at high difficulty settings or performing trick kills on enemies, and are some of the most critical fans of the game. Between the Red Pod and others who have tried the upcoming game, Jones says it has been "received pretty well," with many impressed by the War Scenarios.
"When I get feedback, I answer all of it. I'll bet you on this game alone I've read between 5,000 and 10,000 lines of feedback over the dev process," Jones said. "We really respect and are sincere about getting and responding to feedback. We're good at it, and we're relentless about it."
Between the 18-scenario story campaign with three difficulties and endless variants, as well as unlockable post-game content, Jones says Orcs Must Die! 3 will have more hours than any other game in the series. Robot Entertainment will also support it with weekly challenges during its period of Stadia exclusivity. Those challenges, such as completing War Scenarios with certain traps, will allow players to collect skulls to upgrade their tools and buy skins.
Jones also said there could be DLC in the future to add things like additional scenarios for players to tackle because, "I think in the future as we get better at making War Scenarios, we'll have more of them and more ways to play them." However, that component of the game's lifespan has not been completely worked out, but it seems fans of the franchise will be going bigger with this latest entry in the Orcs Must Die! franchise.
Orcs Must Die! 3 releases in Spring 2020.