Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a third-person action shooter with tower defense elements that you can play with your friends. Read our review of its early-access build to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Review Overview

What is Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap?

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a co-op multiplayer third-person action shooter that combines fast-paced combat with strategic tower defense mechanics. Players must fend off relentless hordes of orcs using an arsenal of deadly traps, barricades, and teamwork alongside their fellow war mages. Set after the events of Orcs Must Die! 3, the game sees the orcs divided into four factions, each determined to continue their assault on human cities. It’s up to your band of uniquely skilled war mages to protect humanity and push back the invading forces.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap features:
　⚫︎　Six unique playable war mages
　⚫︎　30+ unique traps to unlock
　⚫︎　Massive skill tree with purchasable unlocks
　⚫︎　Overhauled classic progression system with roguelite features

Digital Storefronts
Steam				Epic Games				Xbox
Price			$29.99

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Bigger Maps, Better Progression Huge Fan of the New War Mages	Odd Balancing Changes for Barricades Abysmal Single-Player Experience

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Overall Score - 66/100

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap feels like the result of expanding in every direction except forward. While it throws plenty of new elements into the mix, none of them stand out as true innovations over Orcs Must Die! 3. That said, it does have its strengths: a few great ideas, an enjoyable soundtrack, wide-open maps, a skill tree, and even and genuinely engaging gameplay. Just don’t even think about playing solo—you’ll end up suffering twice as much for the effort.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Story - 6/10

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap’s story isn’t anything special, but at least it’s consistent with the lore of the rest of the franchise. It has callbacks to characters from previous games, genuinely funny jokes, and not many contrivances to make things harder to understand. Unfortunately, it’s just more of the same in terms of story, and, to absolutely nobody’s surprise, it’s just orcs attacking us…again.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Gameplay - 7/10

The gameplay in Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a mixed bag of brilliant and baffling decisions. On the bright side, the roguelite mechanics and refined progression systems stand out as highlights. On the flip side, the handling of barricades feels entirely at odds with the larger map designs, creating a frustrating inconsistency. If you can overlook the missteps and focus on the strengths, there’s plenty of fun to be had—just don’t dwell too much on how sluggish progress can feel if you’re just playing this game by yourself.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Visuals - 7/10

The visuals in Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap are solid, teetering on excellent. They capture the franchise’s identity perfectly, echoing much of what Orcs Must Die! 3 offered, only on a grander scale with a touch more whimsy. However, the game doesn’t earn any extra points for innovation. Beyond the improved visual fidelity, it feels virtually identical to every other 3D entry in the series.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Audio - 7/10

There’s no denying the quality of this game’s music—every little riff, even while selecting traps, had me hooked. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for its voice acting. While competent, it falls short in delivering the personality that fans might expect. It lacks the charm and energy needed to elevate the faintly comedic, not-so-serious story of kings, castles, and orcs that the franchise is known for.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Value for Money - 6/10

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap might have justified its $30 price tag if it weren’t almost exclusively designed as a co-op multiplayer experience. Realistically, this means you’ll need one or two other players to also invest the same $30 to get a mid-to-high-quality experience that other games deliver for less. It’s not that the game is entirely unworthy of its asking price—it has its moments—but players could easily find better value elsewhere. Ironically, its multiplayer focus ends up dividing rather than enhancing its appeal.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Review: Bigger, Bolder, But Not Better

Tower defense has always held a special place in my heart. My fixation with the genre started back in the Flash gaming era, with Kingdom Rush finding its footing and gems like Steam Punk Tower redefining what a tower defense game could be. I can’t quite pinpoint when I drifted away from it, swapping the thrill of building perfect defensive setups for the fast-paced chaos of hero shooters and similar games. But when I stumbled across the Orcs Must Die! franchise, it rekindled that old love for tower defense.

I wasn’t part of the Orcs Must Die! craze when it first took off. My journey began with Orcs Must Die! 3, a game that perfectly blended the strategic core of tower defense with the adrenaline of a third-person, multiplayer co-op shooter. It became a fixation for a good while, capturing the essence of what made tower defense so addictive in the first place.

That said, Orcs Must Die! 3 felt like a complete package—a game that didn’t need a follow-up. It had the finality and polish of something that stood tall on its own. So, you can imagine my surprise when Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap was announced. I’ll admit, I was skeptical from the start. A mix of doubt and loyalty to the previous game left me hesitant to embrace the idea of a sequel.

Now that I’ve played Deathtrap, I feel that doubt was justified. This isn’t the exciting throwback I hoped for. It’s bigger, flashier, and full of changes, but somehow, it still feels worse. Let’s break down everything Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap offers—how it managed to change so much and grow bolder in scope, yet failed to improve in meaningful ways.

A New Roguelite Gameplay Loop Does Wonders for Orcs Must Die!

We begin my deconstruction of Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap by acknowledging the few changes it made that genuinely pushed the franchise’s formula forward. While every previous entry followed a traditional campaign structure—where each chapter was a standalone stage to build and defend—Deathtrap takes a more freeform approach.

Instead of progressing through a linear story, the campaign is now structured as randomly generated, roguelike runs, where failure isn’t just a possibility; it’s an expectation. Restarting is mandatory if you want to unlock anything meaningful, with meta-game progression pretty much defining your only progress through the game and doing away with the tension of a curated selection of stages entirely.

Despite how it might sound, I’m actually a fan of this change. Let’s be honest—meaningful, engaging stories have never been the Orcs Must Die! franchise’s strong suit. The comedic tone of its narratives made them too lighthearted to carry any real dramatic weight. Shedding such a vestigial feature in favor of a structure better suited to a roguelike format was an easy decision and one that worked in the game’s favor. For someone like me, who has come to appreciate roguelike randomness more than the static, episodic approach of Orcs Must Die! 3, this shift was a welcome change.

However, as you’ll soon see, a different gameplay loop alone isn’t enough to save this game from mediocrity. While the randomness adds flavor, it’s the gameplay itself that sets the tone for the rest of the experience—and unfortunately, that’s where things start to unravel. Let’s dive into how the gameplay functions and how it impacts every other aspect of the game.

Bigger Maps, Better Progression

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a third-person action shooter with tower-defense elements, where the objective is as straightforward as the orcs you’re pulverizing. Your mission? Defend the rift from waves of relentless invaders using a mix of traps and your trusty war mage weapons. With resources (a.k.a. money), you strategically build traps to hold the line against endless green-skinned foes—orc brutes, sneaky goblins, and towering trolls—who will stop at nothing to barrel through your defenses. If too many breach the rift, it’s game over. Simple, right?

That description fits just about every Orcs Must Die! title, so let’s dive into what sets Deathtrap apart—starting with the roguelite progression system I mentioned earlier. But that’s not all. The maps in Deathtrap are the largest the series has ever seen, featuring expansive layouts with multiple attack routes and endless trap-placement opportunities. While this ambitious map design opens up new tactical possibilities, it also brings its own challenges—but more on that later.

Between waves, players can choose from a variety of passive bonuses that completely reshape their defensive strategies. These perks, known as “Threads,” can range from practical—like discounts on specific trap types or bonus damage under certain conditions—to utterly wild, such as spending all your resources on a single, overpowered trap. This system is what gives Deathtrap a level of replayability that outshines many similar titles.

Threads don’t persist beyond a full run, but they do carry over between stages until the player’s inevitable defeat. However, it’s not all in the player’s favor—each new stage introduces negative Threads that throw a wrench into the mix. These debuffs can make the game significantly tougher, whether by doubling the health of certain enemies or ensuring specific, more dangerous foes show up in every wave.

Once the player returns to the game’s main hub, either by failing a run or by choosing not to continue it deliberately, they can cash in their collected Orc Skulls, this game’s chosen meta-progression currency, and upgrade themselves or their traps in various ways. Golden Orc Skulls, which are earned by completing stages in a run, also unlock new traps entirely, which can then be upgraded with normal Orc Skulls later, should players choose to do so.

Huge Fan of the New War Mages

Another standout feature in Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is its expanded roster of War Mages—playable heroes that bring an unprecedented level of variety to the series. Six might not sound like a huge number, but considering the previous game capped out at two fairly similar War Mages, this lineup feels massive. More importantly, each hero in Deathtrap is distinct, both in design and playstyle.

Where the last game featured “generic guy with a bow” and “generic lady with a blunderbuss,” Deathtrap shakes things up with characters like Vaan, a crossbow-wielding specialist who turns the rift itself into a weapon, and Wren, a spell-slinging mage focused on resetting traps and surgically picking off enemies from a distance. And that’s just the beginning—four other heroes bring their own unique twists to the battlefield, ensuring no two playstyles feel the same.

It’s a buffet of fresh ideas that fit seamlessly into the Orcs Must Die! formula, making the game feel like a true evolution of its predecessor. These War Mages aren’t just slightly tweaked versions of one another; they each come equipped with ultimate abilities, personalized traps, secondary attacks, utility skills, and passives. It’s almost as if they were pulled straight from a hero shooter—except this isn’t one. It’s Orcs Must Die! at its most refined, at least in this aspect.

Odd Balancing Changes for Barricades

Sadly, this is where the accolades for Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap come to an abrupt halt. Not only does the game stumble from here, but it takes a sheer drop that threatens to undo much of the goodwill earned by its best features. The biggest and most glaring issue lies in something that could’ve been a strength if handled properly: the map sizes. While initially impressive, these sprawling arenas ultimately miss the mark, straying far from the essence of what makes Orcs Must Die! so satisfying. And no feature highlights this misstep better than the way Deathtrap handles barricades.

In previous entries, barricades were an integral part of the gameplay. Players could purchase them as traps—infinitely, as long as they had the money—allowing for complete freedom in shaping and fortifying their ideal killbox. With enough resources and a steady supply of orc fodder, you could craft intricate mazes of death that perfectly embodied the series’ core identity.

But in Deathtrap, barricades are no longer a purchasable item. Instead, they’re a limited resource provided for free, with no way to increase their supply outside of specific Threads. On paper, this doesn’t seem like a terrible change, but when paired with the newly massive maps, it’s a disaster. These expansive levels, riddled with attack angles and sprawling paths, demand far more barricades than the 10 or so you’re given. What you’re left with are players who are scrambling, unable to properly funnel enemies into tightly packed killzones. What was once a game about meticulously crafted deathtraps now feels scattered and unfocused—a Deathtrap in name only.

Abysmal Single-Player Experience

This brings me to another glaring issue with Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap: its abysmal single-player experience. Everything I’ve mentioned so far—sprawling maps, limited barricades, and scattered defenses—are still problematic in multiplayer, but having more hands on deck helps mitigate them. With a team, there’s far less pressure to block off paths and funnel enemies into a single killzone since multiple players can cover different attack angles.

This design decision makes it painfully clear that Deathtrap is built with multiplayer in mind. If you’re playing solo and your limited barricades can’t effectively block off one of the many attack paths, you’ll quickly find yourself overwhelmed by more orcs than you can realistically manage. While you could argue this is a “skill issue,” it feels less like a personal shortcoming and more like the game itself heavily favors multiplayer over single-player. When a game leans so strongly into one mode of play, it’s no longer a matter of skill—it’s a matter of design imbalance.

To make matters worse, a bad solo run has compounding consequences. The game’s meta-progression system slows to a crawl if you fail to perform well, creating a frustratingly sluggish positive feedback loop. Single players will inevitably progress more slowly than those who regularly team up in multiplayer, which only exacerbates the already uneven experience.

Thankfully, Deathtrap does include a matchmaking system, so you and your friends don’t all have to shell out $30 at once to enjoy the game together. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that this imbalance is unique to Deathtrap. Previous entries in the series were notoriously well-balanced for both single and multiplayer, making this a disappointing step backward for the franchise.

A Net Zero Game in Terms of Innovation

And so, with a step forward in its variety, progression, and map size, and a step backward in its single-player experience and disconnection from the core identity of the Orcs Must Die! formula, we’re left exactly where we began with Deathtrap. It’s bigger, bolder in its ambitions, but ultimately no better than its predecessors. Its fresh ideas are weighed down by everything else dragging it down.

It’s a bit of a letdown, especially given how much I adore the genre and how excited I was to dive back into it. But I suppose, in the end, no step at all might be worse than a step in the wrong direction.

Is Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Worth It?

Not If You Plan to Play Alone

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap comes with the typical AA premium price tag of $30, a standard expectation for a game of this caliber across most genres. While this price might be acceptable for a single-player game—shortcomings and all—it feels far less justified for a multiplayer-focused experience.

With such an abysmal single-player offering, there’s little reason to pick up this game unless you’re planning to play with friends and coordinate your strategies. The inclusion of built-in matchmaking softens the blow, which is part of why the game still earns a decent score, but unless you’ve got someone else willing to drop $30 and share your enthusiasm for tower defense games, it’s probably best to give this one a pass.

Digital Storefronts
Steam				Epic Games				Xbox
Price			$29.99

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap FAQ

How Do I Earn Golden Orc Skulls in Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap?

Players earn Golden Orc Skulls whenever they complete a stage, with each stage completion amounting to one Golden Orc Skull each.

How Do I Charge My Ultimate Ability in Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap?

Outside of certain Thread bonuses, players can earn charge for their ultimate ability by performing combos on orks. A combo occurs whenever three or more sources of damage or crowd control affect an ork shortly before they are killed. This can be achieved by keeping traps of different types in close proximity to one another.

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Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Product Information

Title	ORCS MUST DIE! DEATHTRAP
Release Date	January 28, 2025
Developer	Robot Entertainment
Publisher	Robot Entertainment
Supported Platforms	PC (Steam, Epic Games) Xbox One Xbox Series X|S
Genre	Action, RPG, Shooting, Strategy, Roguelite
Number of Players	1-4 (Online Co-op Multiplayer)
Rating	ESRB Teen IARC 12+
Official Website	Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap Official Website

Aaron Bruce Albert..

A massive fan of roguelikes, turn-based RPGs, and open world adventure games. His gold standard games include The Binding of Isaac, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker.