Orcs Must Die 3 is a 1 year stadia exclusive

As I said, I found videos, but they were not beating it for the first time, but going back after you get advanced stuff that you will not have access to the first time you face that level.

I don’t have the game yet, but I feel your frustration about that @DeepT . I was recently on an OMD 1 and 2 kick (I still haven’t finished the campaigns) and a whole mess of the videos out there are people showing off their über-setup to murder ridiculous numbers of orcs in record time, but they all have traps that we lowly peons don’t have access to.

The importance of barricades and pathing control go without saying on a map like that, right? And also the value of using yourself as a distraction. If you’re struggling with a level it never hurts to break out the blade staff and just tie them up in melee in the middle of a bunch of traps.

Absolutely true. Only thing is, barricades can be darned expensive early on. You have to memorize where the current wave of baddies is coming from and be a ninja in the short rest between waves at the “selling this here to buy that over there” game. Something that becomes more difficult the older I get. :/

Eh, not on normal difficulty really. The vast majority of early maps you can just wall off one path to consolidate the entire flow of orcs on to the other, then create a nice killing zone on the only viable path and you’re good. I’ve yet to run across a map where barricade juggling is really necessary, and of course later on they’ll get less useful as sappers and gnolls enter the picture.

While waiting for it to go on sale, I have been playing Sanctum 2. It’s an old game though, but if you can get the whole bundle for 5 dollars, it’s a nice enough addition to the genre.

I adore Sanctum and Sanctum 2. Some of my all-time favorite co-op tower defense games, right up there with OMD2 (I haven’t played enough of 3 yet to evaluate, though signs are good).

I’m thinking of a map from (I think) OMD2’s campaign where there are two big entry doors leading to wide breezeways with no ceiling, divided by a big pool of acid, overlooked by a wide raised central platform accessible via teleporters. The orcs that get past that go along parallel corridors with a ceiling over them and a raised stair-accessible area between them which finally meet up at the rift. You definitely have to do some barricade/trap swapping in the early waves there, or be a headshot master, I suppose.

I remember that map and I remember it being a pain in the ass. This may be one of those cases where it’s just plain easier in co-op, I didn’t play OMD2 much in single player.

It IS a royal PITA in single player if you want to five skull it, particularly. Even if you just want to keep any orcs out.

Gotta 5 skull everything, of course. :)

Yeah, I don’t remember how we ultimately solved that one, but I clearly recall the level because we spent a LOT of time on it. I don’t remember barricade swapping but it’s certainly possible we were doing it and it just wasn’t me that ended up in charge of it. I know upgraded push traps were our bread and butter on that one, though.

One of the things I love about the OMD games is how useful the non-direct-damage stuff often is. There are plenty of cases where you’re way better off with something that pushes, pulls, or distracts a monster instead of just going direct damage all the time.

On the business side of things, does anyone know if the exclusivity deal was bad/good for them?

I mean, no one outside of Google and Robot Entertainment’s management knows the figures that were paid, but these types of deals pay usually nicely enough for the developers - especially since Google likely was desperate for exclusives. And since it was exclusive to, well,… Stadia, it’s safe to assume that a large enough group of fans was just waiting for the exclusivity to drop and pick up OMD3 on Steam and the like. I bet a good number of people didn’t even know the game existed until the Stadia exclusivity went away. So, it’ll be solid sales on top of the exclusivity fee they received.

From the leaked info at what Epic paid the devs for their Epic Store freebies, it seemed the exclusivity period netted way less actual sales than what they got paid upfront to act as a temporary freebie.

Sorry this comment refers to devs in general not Robot.

Yeah, it was effectively a payment from Google to delay releasing for a year. That should more or less be free money.

Hey, question for anyone who’s bought and played this about your experiences with it. The recommended CPU is an Core i5 9000 series, but my own is an i7 6700, so I wonder if it’s worth it to buy this at $14.99 (current price at Indiegala). My graphics card is more than adequate (a 3060 Ti).

I think I played it for like 10 minutes and decided that I’m better off with my fond memories of OMD2.

Which isn’t to say this is bad, necessarily, but it gave me a strong whiff of OMD2.5 and that’s not something I currently need in my life. I played OMD2 into the ground.

Thanks for the reply. I really love OMD2 as well, but sometimes with that one I feel like it’s really meant to be played co-op. Is that also the case with what you saw of OMD3?

Very, very much so.

Hmm, guess I’ll hold off then.