History VideoGame / OrcsMustDie

* DropTheHammer: The Apprentice can unlock a Dwarven Warhammer, with a SpinAttack.

* EmergencyWeapon: Though the Dwarf Guardians primarily attack by [[ThrowDownTheBomblet throwing grenades]] at medium range, they have [[DropTheHammer a hammer]] that they can use to defend themselves in melee combat. However, lacking the paladins' damage mitigation and the elves' long range means that they are particularly vulnerable to ranged threats, such as crossbow orcs.

''Orcs Must Die!'' is a TowerDefense game, developed by Robot Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released for UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade on October 5, 2011, and on {{UsefulNotes/Steam}} on October 12. The sequel was released on July 30th, 2012.

''Orcs Must Die! 3'' came to UsefulNotes/GoogleStadia as a timed exclusive, with other platforms eventually to follow, in August 2020. The game was announced as a return to form, taking after ''Orcs Must Die! 2'''s two-player co-op PvE. Taking place decades after the events of ''Unchained'', the game follows two new apprentices, Egan and Kelsey, as they deal with the orc hordes.

* OldSaveBonus: On {{UsefulNotes/Steam}}, if you own the original ''Orcs Must Die!'', you gain access to ten levels from the original game.

* RecycledScript: [[spoiler:The Order must fight once again a notable former member who has fallen to the temptation of controlling the Orc armies.]]

* OlderAndWiser: Gabriella plays this straight after twenty years. Max...[[IdiotHero is just older]].

* BladeOnAStick: The Bladestaff, the Apprentice's melee weapon. The upgraded version (which all players get to use) has two bladed ends, where The Master's had only one.

* PurelyCosmeticGender: Zigzagged. Unlike Maximillian and Gabriella in 2 (who had higher health and mana respectively), Egan and Kelsey have identical health and mana pools. That said, they do have different moves upon pressing the jump button while in the air. Kelsey with glide while Egan will do a ground pound that stuns all enemies in his vicinity.

* NoNameGiven: Averted this time around. Since this game came after ''Unchained'', which already named several characters previously known only by their professions, the new characters are also named by default, though the Sorceress is still generally refered to by her title.
* NowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: For the first two War Campaign maps, you control a younger Master Cygnus or his forgotten friend-turned-evil Vorwick in a flashback. And for the Desperate Measures campaign, you play as Maximillian (aka the War Mage) and Gabriella (aka the Sorceress).

* WeaponOfChoice: Initially, each character has a primary of theirs that must be equipped at all times (the bow for Egan, Maximillian's blunderbuss from ''2'' for Kelsey, the lightning staff for Cygnus, and the elven blades for Vorwick.) Upon completing the initial campaign, you gain the ability to swap their weapons out for something else.

** Barricades are even duller than Tar trap doing nothing but blocking the path of the Orc mob... Which is ''extremely'' important if you don't want to go through the horrendous task of defending multiple points at once.

* ActionizedSequel: ''3'' manages to be even more focused on action than its predecessors, which is saying something. The game no longer penalizes the player for dying during combat, which encourages them to jump into action even more than before without risking their precious Perfect Victory.

* BalefulPolymorph: The Ring of Polymorph can turn any monster into any other, or even a chicken.

* NoNameGiven: Averted this time around. Since this game came after ''Unchained'', which already named several characters previously known only by their professions, the new characters are also named by default.

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Through most of the campaign, the most enemy-access doors any fortress has is maybe three. The final fortress has ''[[UpToEleven eight.]]'' [[DeathCourse And a rolling log]] [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom of doom]] for ''every single one.''

* DifficultySpike: Many of the levels in ''Orcs Must Die! 2'' are balanced for co-op play. This means that the difficulty ramps up more quickly for single-player campaigns than it did in the original.

* FragileSpeedster: Kobolds. They have an annoying habit of outrunning your traps [[OneHitKill but go down from a single crossbow bolt.]] This can still be damned dangerous, because the traps they dodge take time to reset, letting slower enemies make it through unharmed...

** Closing the portals at the end of the first game had some unseen consequences. Without magic from the other world to ensure good crops or cure plagues and disease, famine and death are rampant. [[spoiler:The War Mage and Sorceress's old master reopens them because the world is screwed either way, and with his ex-students they can at least keep the orcs at bay.]]
** Between the order, and Orcs being gone, the War Mage is out of a job and reduced to working as a miner. A lot of people also blame him for the loss of magic and the current state of affairs.

** While orcs may not be able to surmount the barricades, they can smash them down relatively quickly. However, they only do this when they are unable to see a path around it to a target on the other side (like a rift, guardian, or TheApprentice.) This makes them primarily useful to [[ArtificialStupidity force orcs to walk into an area dense with lethal traps instead of just smashing a safer way around]].

--->'''The Apprentice''': "This flimsy waist-high wooden barricade'll stop 'em!"

* LastOfHisKind: As you progress through the campaign, the Apprentice starts to suspect that he may be the only War Mage left. [[spoiler:The Sorceress confirms this, in an attempt to demoralize him. It doesn't work]].

* LaughablyEvil: The orcs, obviously. More than occasionally they come with comments that will draw a smile on the player's face. Sometimes they even scream out "[[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas MOMMY!]]"

* TheMagicGoesAway: The result of the War Mage closing the rifts at the end of the first game, since magic flows from the other side. This causes catastrophic damage as the world relies heavily upon magic, [[spoiler:leading the War Mage's teacher to reopen them.]]

* MightyGlacier: The armored ogres are fairly slow and take a ton a punishment. However upon setting sights on a player [[LightningBruiser they becomes enraged and scarily fast for something of their size]].

-->'''Orc''': "Can I be the good guy?"

* MortonsFork: [[spoiler:Instead of facing a [[BolivianArmyEnding Bolivian Army Ending]] the Apprentice decides to close the rift, foiling the Sorceress's plan but also [[TheMagicGoesAway robbing his world of magic]]. But just as the Sorceress had predicted the world suffers greatly from the lack of magic.]]
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Apprentice realizes he can win by closing all rifts permanently when notices the Sorceress ''really'' panicking.

* NoArcInArchery: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] for the Apprentice as his is [[AWizardDidIt a magic crossbow]]. Not so justified for the elves and crossbow orcs though.

* TheOrder: The Apprentice, his master, the archers and [[{{Paladin}} paladins]] all belong to one.

-->'''The Apprentice''': "Best. Job. ''Ever!''"
* PyrrhicVictory: What happens after The Apprentice defeats The Sorceress. [[spoiler:By sealing the rifts he also permanently seals off all the magic breaking the mind control spells The Sorceress was using to dominate the horde. However his world also loses all the magic resulting in famine and disease]].

* ReassignmentBackfire: A longterm one in the case of the Master and his Apprentice. The Master notes that he himself is a terrible teacher, but the Apprentice was the worst type of student. All the other best and brightest War Mages and Apprentices were assigned to each other and then put on the frontlines against the Orcs. Yet when the Apprentice is the last one standing (and the last best hope of the world), the Master gets the last laugh on all his colleagues.

* ShieldBearingMook: Later levels give some of the basic orcs shields. They generally only take one hit to destroy, but prevent that first hit from being [[BoomHeadshot a headshot.]]

* SpikeBallsOfDoom: The player can use them in the swinging mace trap, where they are positioned as a weighted pendulum swinging from a ceiling mount. The sequel adds a physics effect to the swinging mace trap. Any non-large creature not killed outright by the swinging mace will be sent flinging in the direction of the mace's swing. This can be both good (throwing enemies off cliffs or into other traps) and bad (throwing them outside of carefully prepared trap gauntlets) so they cannot be counted on as being quite as foolproof as in the first game.
* StatusEffects: Enemies can be [[ManOnFire lit on fire]], [[VideogameCrueltyPotential frozen, stunned, poisoned, bled]], [[HumiliationConga charmed...]]

* StuckItems: In the first game, the crossbow is always in the first spell slot. Averted in the sequel where you can go without your default weapon if you want.

* SpringsSpringsEverywhere: Spring Traps. Though, these affect the enemies rather then you and always launch them in a specific direction, which you set when first placing them.

* TakeAThirdOption: Eventually the Apprentice realizes he has a SadisticChoice on his hands: he can fight the Orcs until he dies or let them through the rift... [[spoiler:Nah. He chooses to permanently close the rifts at cost of also permanently sealing all the magic in his world]].

* TheUnFought: [[spoiler:You never actually fight the sorceress; it is heavily implied in the ending she dies at the hands of the orcs after losing her magical control over them. In the opening of the sequel, she runs through a reopened rift, right into the Apprentice, and teams up with him to fight the orcs]].

* VillainousBreakdown: In the beginning, the Sorceress is cold, condescending and doesn't take the Apprentice seriously. However, when the Sorceress realizes that the Apprentice [[spoiler:means to seal the rifts]], she starts to '''really''' lose it. By the end of the last level, she's almost mindlessly screaming at the Apprentice (with frustrated WhyWontYouDie included) in vain hopes that he doesn't go through with it.

* WeNeedADistraction: Orcs will stop to attack bomb barrels, Decoy traps and guardians. Paladins are especially good at this, tanking groups of Orcs while you hit them with an AreaOfEffect attack. Kobolds will run right past them.

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:The Old Mage was NotQuiteDead yet, and with the magic almost gone, he used his power to bring The Sorceress and The Apprentice together knowing that it would led to them working together. The plan was that both [[AllYourPowersCombined would work better together than they would as individuals.]] At that point, they could stop the orcs and stop the famine that The Apprentice [[MortonsFork inadvertently caused by sealing the rifts to save the world.]]]]

** She also has access to Ice Vents which fire short bursts of cold that can freeze enemies solid for a few seconds. Like say...[[{{Combo}} right in front of an Acid Sprayer!]]

-->'''Sorceress''': The sweet burn of acid, how I love it!\\
'''Sorceress''': This will be painful - I tried it on myself!

* {{Nerf}}: The [[SpikeBallsOfDoom Swinging Mace]] trap from the first game has been revamped a bit. Its damage appears to be lessened slightly, and is now subject to physics, knocking the enemies it does not kill outright in the direction of its swing (and often outside its own area of effect.)
** The rift healing was considerably toned town to a much slower health regeneration and it no longer boosts mana regeneration either. Levels from Act 1 doesn't even feature any rifts to protect as you play from the War Mage's home world.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The Apprentice was forced to seal the rifts which wreaked havoc on the environment. This game is all about him fixing the problem, again, [[IdiotHero in mostly ignorance.]] By the time of the events of ''Unchained'', things have gone in the opposite direction, as now there's ''multiple'' large rifts being opened to many worlds.
* NoNameGiven: None of the main characters receive any names yet. You have the War Mage, The Sorceress and The Master.

* OrderReborn: [[spoiler:The game concludes with the Sorceress and Apprentice working together to rebuild the Order. Ironic, since the Sorceress is the main reason the Order was reduced to one member in the first place. {{Justified}} as her goal was to end corruption and, [[DestructiveSaviour for all his faults]], The Apprentice is anything BUT corrupt.]]

-->'''Sorceress''': Yes, ''[[BigYes yes]]''! Give me more, more ''death''!

*** Completing a nightmare level using only weapons, trinkets, dwarves, archers and paladins nabs you the ''VideoGame/KingdomRush'' achievement.

* ActionizedSequel: ''3'' manages to be even more focused on action than its predecessors which is saying something. The game no longer penalizes the player for dying during combat which encourages them to jump into action even more than before without risking their precious Perfect Victory.

* ArmorIsUseless: Played straight with Vorwick who even though is wearing full plate armor dies as easily as any playable character. But averted ''hard'' with Armored Ogres that can take tons of punishment (though said armor also makes them weak to lightning damage).

* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: Apprentice (Easy), War Mage (Normal) and Rift Lord (Hard, previously known as Nightmare).

* MissingMainCharacter: The opening intro has Gabriella, the Sorceress, informing the new Apprentices, Egan and Kelsey, that "Maximillian (the War Mage) is gone". [[spoiler:He shows up at the very end of the game]].

* ObviouslyEvil: The game makes no attempt to hide how evil Vorwick is, which is often lampshaded by Egan and Kelsey; in his very first appearance he is already talking with an ominously evil voice while going on endlessly about how the order should JustThinkOfThePotential of the orcs instead of fighting them.

* TimeSkip: The game takes place roughly two decades after the previous games. As such, Master Cygnus is (presumed) dead, [[spoiler: And given that only the oldest living warmage can conjure up rifts, yet Vorwick is able to, this either confirms he has died or Vorvick has found a hitherto unknown way around that requirement]]. Gabriella the Sorceress has succeeded him and Maximillian (who now has a full head of white hair) is missing.

* SpikeBallsOfDoom: The player can use them in the swinging mace trap, where they are positioned as a weighted pendulum swinging from a ceiling mount.
** The sequel (see section below) adds a physics effect to the swinging mace trap. Any non-large creature not killed outright by the swinging mace will be sent flinging in the direction of the mace's swing. This can be both good (throwing enemies off cliffs or into other traps) and bad (throwing them outside of carefully prepared trap gauntlets) so they cannot be counted on as being quite as foolproof as in the first game.
* StandardStatusEffects: Enemies can be [[ManOnFire lit on fire]], [[VideogameCrueltyPotential frozen, stunned, poisoned, bled]], [[HumiliationConga charmed...]]

* NotSoDifferent: A lot of the two characters' lines are awfully similar.
-->"More orcs! Let's go!"\\
"You're ''enjoying'' this!"\\
"So're you."\\
".... Yes. I am!"

* TheBusCameBack: Maximillian and Gabriella serve as the protagonists of the "Drastic Steps" DLC, whereas in the original storyline they were supporting characters.

* ObviouslyEvil: The game makes no attempt to hide how evil Vorwick is; in his very first appearance he is already talking with an ominously evil voice while going on endlessly about how the order should JustThinkOfThePotential of the orcs instead of fighting them.

* TimeSkip: The game takes place roughly two decades after the previous games. As such, Master Cygnus is (presumed) dead, [[spoiler: And given that only the oldest living warmage can conjure up rifts, yet Vorwick is able to, this either confirms he has died or Vorvick has found a hitherto unknown way around that requirement]]. Gabriella the Sorceress has succeeded him and Maximillian is missing.

A sequel was released on July 30th 2012, with basically more of everything, a second character choice ([[spoiler:[[HeelFaceTurn The Sorceress]]]]), and a co-operative mode.

* CaptainObviousReveal: Invoked and lampshaded. For most of the main campaign's story, the Sorceress is away researching where the new invasion of orcs is coming from, while revealing tidbits about Cygnus and Vorwick's history in which Vorwick is ObviouslyEvil. When the Sorceress is about to reveal the conclusion of her extensive, arduous research, Kelsey cuts in and summarizes what happened, noting that it was obvious because she reads so many stories.

* CaptainObviousReveal: Lampshaded. For most of the main campaign's story, the Sorceress is away researching where the new invasion of orcs is coming from, while revealing tidbits about Cygnus and Vorwick's history in which Vorwick is ObviouslyEvil. When the Sorceress is about to reveal the conclusion of her extensive, arduous research, Kelsey cuts in and summarizes what happened, noting that it was obvious because she reads so many stories.

* TimeSkip: The game takes place roughly two decades after the previous games. As such, Master Cygnus is dead, Gabriella the Sorceress has succeeded him and Maximillian is missing.