In Orcs Must Die! The player assumes the role of a war mage and is tasked with defending multiple fortresses from unending armies of orcs and other foul creatures. The war mage is a young apprentice with no combat experience, but he is the last line of defense against the orcs getting through the portals that separate his realm from the one inhabited by the animals.
The gameplay is most comparable to tower defense games, even though the player primarily constructs traps rather than towers in this game. The player takes complete control of the protagonist from a third-person perspective and can participate in the combat, another feature that sets this game apart from other tower defense games. Every level of the game is like its own little fortress, and each one of those fortresses has one or more rifts that need to be protected from the hordes of monsters. Monsters appear in waves, and the player is given time in between waves to strengthen his defenses and prepare for the next round. The player receives money for each monster they kill, which may be used to set up additional traps. It is possible to fail a level if many creatures reach the rifts.
There are many different sorts of monsters, the most common of which are orcs, but there are also ogres, kobolds, and gnolls among them. The orcs make up the majority of the monsters. Several unique qualities distinguish these. For instance, ogres have a higher damage threshold, kobolds have a faster movement speed, and gnolls can leap over barriers and pursue the player directly. The player has access to a wide variety of traps, all of which can be set up anywhere on the map, including the ground, the walls, and the ceilings. The most popular types are floor spikes, wall arrows, and spring traps that send the monsters flying. The most common types are floor spikes, wall arrows, and spring traps. If the player decides the traps aren’t enough, they can engage in the fight themselves. At the beginning of the game, he has access to a crossbow and a sword, but as the game progresses, other forms of magic, including fire, ice, lightning, and wind, become available.
